Not something you see together often. We followed a Black Rhino this morning from a safe distance when all of a sudden he turned and charged. Lucky for me he was more interested in the Ostrich than my vehicle.
The ostrich wasn’t too fazed and the Rhino took off.
Today it was all about the Felines.
This morning I decided to start off by looking for the four male Cheetahs as they evaded us for the past few days. After not to long we got them not far from the lodge. Always very rewarding if a possibility turns into a reality.
Not long after we left the Cheetahs the Jamala pride was called in and it was around the corner from us. The two adult females joined up with their six cub in the usual social manner. While dodging all the holes around us we followed them to the base of the hill where they disappeared.
While luck was on our side I decided to go and look for the Wild Dogs, but I soon realized they were long gone. The only tracks around were quite old.
But then, on the way back to the lodge for breakfast our favorite Leopardess was found. Being miles away I just hoped for the best but as we came close she was still on the move in the open. We followed her for some time until she jumped into a shady tree for a snooze.
It was a riot!!!
We found the Jamala Pride this morning not long after they killed a Warthog. But the Naledi Male was just as close. As the pig is too small for all to be enjoyed, he took the kill away from the rest and enjoyed every last bit of it, alone. The females and youngsters now have to wait for the scraps or find something new to eat.
Hi Guys,
The new young male leopard that has been pleasuring us with his presence is making it a regular thing, and he is becoming really relaxed around the vehicles. This is awesome news for us, and we hope he is going to stick around for a while !!
Other than this, we spent a large part of the morning looking for the wild dogs, but they seemed to evade us after tracking them for some 15 km this morning. Sightings of oryx, red hartebeest, tons of zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, impala and kudus among the elephants and rhinos, meant that we had a pretty successful morning !!
Until tomorrow,
Regards,
Gavin
Hi Guys,
Just thought I would share something different, although we did have a splendid afternoon spending some time with our 4 cheetah brothers, as they almost took down a full grown oryx, and some lazy lions among the hoards of general game in between.
This image was taken at the waterhole at Vleisfontein, which is the park administration buildings which also used to be the old mission building in the early 1900’s.
Bring on a new week, with lots of new guests, so book now if you too want to be apart of the “TUNINGI MAGIC “!!
The young male leopard that was stalking Cornelius the day before yesterday, seems to be staying in the area, as we located him again yesterday afternoon.
He is incredibly relaxed, and we are not sure of where he comes from, or who his mother is, as I don’t have any photographic evidence of him in our game drive areas. So, this is great news for us, and we will certainly be following him around in his day to day activities, and hopefully he joins up with his mother so that we can put to rest our inquisitiveness .
Hallo once again!
We finally had some rain to give everything new life!!
Although it was not nearly as much as we have hoped for, we could see a noticeable difference within a week after it rained with the trees especially starting to push new leaves. Now we are just desperately waiting for more.
All the animals are enjoying the arrival of summer and new life coming with it.
As always we were totally spoilt with the quality of sightings we had. Here are just a few of the most memorable sightings for October.
It helps a lot to be in the right place at the right time.
Well, just that happened to me this month, twice!
Jip, I saw two Wild Dog kills. We saw the dogs briefly early the afternoon but with little action. So I decided to go stop for drinks to let it cool down. We stopped not too far from Tholo dam and waited for the dogs to get a bit more active.
As we finished our drinks the dogs were at the dam. They were all over the place having fun in the last rays of the sun and then just disappeared. We drove all over the place looking for them but with no luck. And then, as the saying goes, the harder you try, the luckier you get!
As we drove closer to the dam again we saw that they had chased a Blue Wildebeest into the water. There was no hope for the poor guy. It took a while before the adults finally killed it, right in front of our eyes!
The other kill was on the fence in the south of Madikwe. Early the one morning we found them running around without purpose. The 6 pups were far from the adults playing with whatever they could find.We heard the sound of hooves on the rocks and all hell broke loose. It was an Impala they targeted.
They chased it to right behind my vehicle and this time the fence they use so often did its job.
I quickly turned around and within 10 seconds the Impala was dead and they all tucked in. An absolute privilege it has been to witness nature in full force!!!To find the Cheetahs is also always a thrill. These four boys move all over Madikwe and at times finding them is a big challenge. Lucky for us they did spend some quality time in the South this month, so we got to see them fairly often.
With it still being fairly dry and dusty out here,the late afternoons provide some amazing colorful skies.
To end the day with a Gin and Tonic in the bush and watching the sun go down…nothing can beat that.
Make that booking now to come and share in our wonderful daily adventures!
Until next month
Kindest regards
Cornelius and the T-team
Hi everybody,
Our new website is up and running, and is looking really good !!
Please feel free to browse it, and the most important thing to note will be that our daily face book updates will be run through this website in the “ABOUT US” drop down menu, and then you scroll to “BLOG”, but we will still put the link on the facebook and twitter feeds.
Tomorrow the Monthly wildlife report/newsletter will be going out, so be sure to go and have a look at what happened in October.
Regards,
Gavin
Hello again everyone !!
Well this month has been a month of rising temperatures, and the promise of rain in the air.
Yes, it is still incredibly dry at the moment, but the game sightings are still cooking, and as ever, Tuningi is churning out the incredible sights and sounds that mother Madikwe has to offer.
We will start off this month with an update on what this reserve is famous for…. The Painted Wolves, AKA African Wild Dogs.
The small pack which we get to see the most of because of their proximity to the camp are doing extremely well, and all the pups seem to be overcoming the day to perils, and have started following the adults on their daily hunting excursions as opposed to being den bound up in the mountains somewhere. One morning we were lucky enough to be involved in their successful hunting down of a steen buck, but it was all over in a matter of seconds as they ripped and pulled the steenbuck apart all wanting a piece of the small antelope.
The larger pack residing in the north of the reserve is also doing very well, and are also hunting up a storm and killing some of the larger herbivores such as kudu and wildebeest. The pups are also doing well, but alas 2 of them were killed by lions at the den site one morning. This is something which happens every year as the den site can emit some odours which attract the larger predators. 60 % of pups in the wild will not make it to their first birthday due to various factors including the predation from the larger predators.
The lions…
Well, with conditions being desperately dry at the moment, the herbivores are not in the best shape they can be, and are weaker than usual, thus the lions are having a field day out when it comes to their success rate. The Bulaya pride to the south west of the lodge are doing very well, and the 2 youngest cubs are now 4 months old, and the other 3 are now entering sub-adulthood, as the young male in the group is starting to show signs of his maturity in the hairs of his mane becoming visible. The Bulaya females are doing exceptionally well considering it is their first litter of cubs.
The other pride to the south east of the lodge are acting slightly strangely as they are pushing deeper and deeper into the Bulaya pride’s territory, and this could be due to the pressure being asserted from the new boys on the block… the Kwandwe males which are claiming the vacant territory east of the lodge. This behavior is causing the Jamala and Mica females to seek refuge in the heart of the current reigning males, the Naledi’s territory.
So a huge territorial fight was always going to be eminent, and came a few weeks ago when the Naledi’s intercepted the new comers, giving them a hiding ten to one resulting in one of the Kwandwe males being badly injured on his hind leg. This sent them running further east to lick their wounds leaving us to have a new found respect for the old Naledi boys.
The waterhole at the lodge is an incredibly busy place at the moment with some incredible sightings of large herds of elephants joining the guests as they have lunch, as they have some fun in the mud to cool their hot bodies. Buffalos are also a regular feature at dinner time as they too come down almost every night to drink and mud bathe. Don’t forget our resident tame bokkies….. “Kollie” the bushbuck and “Klippie” the klipspringer that are always entertaining our guests on the pathways to the rooms.
The cheetah brothers 4, are loving life in Madikwe at the moment, and are looking impressive. They are killing on a twice weekly basis, and are wowing our guests with their majestic presence, however they are still travelling through the length and breadth of the reserve in search of a sign of a female, which the park is in the process of obtaining before the end of the year.
The other single male has been very scarce, and was not often seen this month, but when we do find him, he seems to be doing very well without his brother who was killed a few months ago by an unknown source.
Well, that is all for this month, and we look forward on reporting on some amazing sightings next month once again !!
Regards,
Gavin.
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For enquiries please contact :
reservations@tuningi.co.za
Greeting from a very windy Madikwe. Yes the August winds are howling and that can only mean one thing – Spring is right around the corner.
I have to admit that I am really ready for warmer days. Winter does have its perks and even though it has not been a very cold winter for us, I for one, am looking forward to summer.
One of the best perks of winter of course is great game viewing and August did not disappoint. We were spoiled to witness some truly amazing sightings this August.
One sighting that I can remember very vividly, is when we went looking for the small pack of Wild Dogs down in the South of the park.
We suspected that the dogs might be close to the Dwarsberg mountain range that forms the southern boundary of the park. We headed down to that area to see if we could pick up some tracks. After a bit of scratching around Gavin managed to pick-up on some fresh dog tracks and the chase was on.
I was on a road just north of Gavin checking whether the Wild Dog might have crossed over already. Lady luck was on our side. Not far from the road we spotted a Black Rhino, a great big bull and were we in for a treat, because this boy decided to come over and have a good look as to what is trespassing in his territory. My usual Black Rhino introduction to guests is, “It might charge but just sit still…” It was pretty amazing how quiet a group of people became as this black rhino is edged closer and closer. He eventually figured out we are of no great danger to him and turned tail and jogged of into the bushes accompanied by a nervous “Phew” from the seats behind me.
So by now Gavin had managed to relocate the wild dogs and I hurried up to meet up with him as he was following the dogs off-road. As we joined Gavin and it was evident that the dogs were out hunting and we knew we’re in for a treat. We followed the dogs for a while longer and then chaos erupted… THEY WERE OFF….GO GO GO called over the radio and we “put foot” as we say in South Africa trying to keep up with the dogs as they are chasing Impala all over the show.
But alas we are to slow and the dogs eluded us. Just then “IN FRONT OF ME THERE, HE’S ON, HE’S ON!!!!!” I shouted into the radio as an Impala with a Wild dog in hot pursuit raced past in front of me and we were off again, but to no avail, as no dog and no dead Impala were found. Then just as I am about to give up, a fellow ranger finds 4 wild dogs jogging down south and I decide to join him and see where the wild dogs will lead us. As I’m about to join him a call over the radio comes in – “Hurry up, they’re about to make a kill!”
I arrived on the scene to find the wild dogs busy killing a Gemsbok (Oryx) calf while the mom is still bravely trying to fend off the dogs with her long sharp horns. Not a scene reserved for everyone, but out here it is nature in its most brutal raw form and itis truly amazing to see. After a few short minutes the Gemsbok calf is dead and already partly devoured when 6 Spotted Hyenas arrived on the scene. They probably heard the kill being made or the smell of blood alerted them to the possibility of a free meal.
What a sighting to see the Hyenas chase the Wild dogs and then the dogs retaliated and sent a Hyena or two running as they bit at their hind quarters. We sat amazed at the scene playing of before us and only left when the sun had dipped below the horizon to go and have a sundowner and reflect on the scene we had just witnessed.
Apart from that great sighting we also managed to get a glimpses of the pups belonging to the small pack of dogs in the south. The confirmed number of pups is 6 and the confirmed number of pups in the big pack in the north is 8. It is truly heart-warming to know that this highly endangered predator is doing so well in Madikwe.
Our 4 Cheetah brothers are doing amazingly well, considering their prey of choice at the moment is Wildebeest and they are almost taking one down every second day. They of course consider themselves the wanderers of the park and constantly astonish us with the distances they move through the park. They can easily tranlocate from the east of the park to the west in a brisk 2 day march.
We caught up with them one morning after some serious tracking and spent a bit of time with them. They were marking some territory as well as sunning themselves on the chilly morning.
Our 2 new Kwandwe male lions also could not believe their luck as they stumbled onto a dead giraffe carcass, and spent almost a week feeding off it. Apart from the smell, it provided us with some great sightings. The jackals was especially exciting to watch, as they sometimes could just not control their hunger anymore and would then sneak up close to where a lion was feeding to try and steal a piece of meat.
These two young males is the Chimbro brothers and we found them enjoying the view from Tlou dam wall, maybe thinking one day we will be the rulers of this piece of Africa.
Well that is it from Tuningi for the month of August, now we can start looking forward to the rain and the migratory birds to bring some colour back into Madikwe.
Hope you all have a great September.
Regards Christo and the T-Team
PS. Please remember to go and like our new business page on Facebook for the most recent bush news and photos.
For enquiries please contact :
reservations@tuningi.co.za
The cold chilly mornings have added a new dimension to the safaris, but we are well prepared for the onslaught by equipping our guests with hot water bottles and warm fluffy blankets.
Let’s get into the wildlife sightings straight away…
One particular sighting that stands out for this month was when we witnessed our 4 cheetah brothers killing a wildebeest, but what made it special was the fact that a spotted hyena pitched up and actually fed with them on the same carcass, and this is how the full story went…
A special sighting in this caliber only comes around once or twice a year if you are lucky…..
This was one of those sightings, and this is how it all went down…
The 4 cheetah brothers were located in the morning, and we expected them to be there when we got back in the afternoon, but on arrival found nothing… After a quick tracking session, I determined that the tracks were heading west away from the original location, and it was not long before we located them with some serious intent on hunting something down. Their mood was clear…. they were hungry and determined to catch something to eat. Well, after following them for about 30 mins with not an animal in sight for them to hunt, I left the sighting to go looking for a black rhino that lives in that area. We did not find the black rhino we were looking for, so I decided to go back to the hunting cheetahs. The sun was just setting, and then a call on the radio came… ” You can join us here “. It was not 30 seconds after the call came through on the radio, when all hell broke loose !! Zebra and wildebeest were running in every direction, kicking up a dust storm that blanketed the commotion of the crime scene. The cheetah had just pulled down a young wildebeest, and we unfortunately did not see the actual take down, but arrived there minutes after, to discover that the cheetahs were catching their breath and still strangling the last life out of the wildebeest.
After the dust had settled, they began to feed, and one of the cheetah opened up the carcass from the shoulder area, and it was not 2 minutes later that 1, 2, 3, 4, but 5 jackals appeared out of the woodwork all hoping for a scrap to eat when the cheetahs would be done feeding. But, that was not the only scavenger that heard all of this raucous, and as if he had been given the memo, a spotted hyena came in to join the melee of fresh smells of the kill. The hyena started approaching the 4 cheetah brothers and their kill. One of the cheetah confronted the hyena, which by the way is something that cheetahs also avoid, as they are low on the predator hierarchy.
The hyena paid no attention to the cheetah’s attempt at chasing him away, and just made his way straight into the kill, and started feeding, which for me was incredible, as 4 cheetah would be able to chase off the lone hyena, but they allowed him in to continue feeding with the odd hissing and spitting attempt to discourage the scavenger.
I have never seen this behaviour before, however I have seen a leopard feeding off of a carcass with a hyena before, but this astonished me, and I can only assume that the hyena must have been a very low ranking male within his clan dynamics, and was used to showing generous amounts of sharing, while the cheetah, being the lowest ranking in the predator hierarchy did not want to loose their hard earned meal, and they knew that fighting this hyena would have been for naught, so they opted for a communal feed instead.
It just goes to show, that everyday out here in the bush a new rule book is written, and you can always expect the unexpected !!
Another amazing and special moment was when a white rhino and her brand new calf came down to the waterhole for a drink. When I say brand new… maybe a couple of hours old. He was so tiny with oversized feet and was stumbling around his mothers’ feet trying to reach her teats for a sip of the life giving milk she had been preparing for him over the last 15 months while she was pregnant.
Something like this does not come every day, and it is great to see that mother nature is fighting the scourge of rhino poaching going on in our country at the moment !!
The lion prides are also doing extremely well, and the Mica and Jamala females are been kept very busy in their endeavours to catch food for them as they are growing very quickly.
The Bulaya females are also doing very well, and the new editions which are around 2 months old now, are bringing us some cute sightings as they get bullied by their older siblings.
The Naledi Males which are the fathers of the all these cubs are also moving around a lot, as they are doing some serious territory patrols going as far as the north west corner of the park to search for the Kgala male who may be a threat to their offspring, and have on various occasions this month returned to the territory with new battle scars.
The Wild dogs are still being very elusive, and we are struggling to get some good quality sightings from them, as they have still not shown their new puppies yet, but I can report that they are starting to travel with the adults on hunting expeditions, and I am sure they will be seen shortly, and we can not wait to get some good images of the new pups.
The large pack in the north of the park have had a confirmed 9 puppies added to their total and have been reported to be doing nicely, and killing on a daily basis to feed all of 26 dogs.
The other highlights for this month includes the greatest challenge for us as guides….. finding Tsala, our resident female leopard.
I am pleased to say our tracking efforts have not gone for naught, as we are finding her on a regular basis, and she has even spoilt us with some great sightings, and there is speculation that she is pregnant, so we will be monitoring her movements with great anticipation.
Well, that is all for the highlights of this month, and I wish you all a great August, and we look forward to the spring time coming soon…
Regards
Gavin and the fabulous T-team.
Just a little last minute thought…
The conservation of our natural heritage lies solely in the hands of us humans, and it is so sad that we are experiencing the drastic and unforgivable acts of people slaughtering our African wildlife for the misperceived ideas of animal body parts to be used to cure diseases or enhance human performance.
I am talking about the gross killing of our rhinos for their horns.
Their have been over 450 rhinos poached this year (at time of publishing this article) and it does not seem as if it will stop shortly, as the demand for rhino horn in the Asian communities is still strong. So what is being done about this atrocity? Well, us as nature conservationists are doing all we can to protect these magnificent animals from becoming extinct in the wild by supporting conservation efforts such as this one we were a part of a couple weeks ago.
Thanks to my frequent returning guests, the Agrizzi family, sponsorship for the capture and microchip implants as well as DNA sampling was carried out on 3 rhinos on this day, as well as the capture of lions with the goal of giving them identifying brands for future monitoring purposes, and this is just a few images showing what we did on this day.
If you are also interested in being a part of this, you can get involved by contacting me directly, or the lodge on +27 (0) 82 894 0960, and we can arrange this once in a lifetime opportunity for you before the rhino becomes extinct !
The following photos show how it all goes down.
We promise you that this will be a life changing experience for every single human being involved!
Till next month!
Please remember that we are a ‘child friendly’ Lodge, with lots to do for the whole family!
Hope to see you soon!
P.S. Remember to befriend us on FACEBOOK for daily updates of sightings and special rates!
For enquiries please contact :
reservations@tuningi.co.za
Greetings from a chilly Madikwe!
Once again we had a fantastic month. Just as one begins to think that you have seen it all, Nature throws something amazing your way once again.
For instance; A while ago, the one Bulaya female lioness with her 2 brand new cubs were found close to Inkwe pan not far from the lodge. They were stashed under a very thick bush for a few weeks and then, one morning, one of the most memorable game drives of the month just happened without any effort at all.
This is how the morning unfolded…
We decided to go and look for these cubs and spend some time with them. On the way there I heard that someone else found them which resulted in all the other vehicles rushing in that direction, so I decided to let them be and to rather take it slow and easy making my way there.
We first watched the beautiful sunrise over Madikwe and then making our leisurely way to the lions, 2 Honey Badgers were spotted playing next to the road. I went crazy!
Not something we see often. They are the tanks of the bush, small but fearsome, they will force lions in another direction! After that excitement it was my turn to view the cubs.
When we arrived the other female with her 3 older cubs were there as well. The older cubs made the new mother a bit uncomfortable, as they wanted to play with the little balls of fur. The mother never rested. If it wasn`t the bigger ones playing too aggressively, the tiny cubs wanted to investigate our vehicles which made mommy very nervous.
Lucky for us the rush was over and we could really spend some quality time with then! What a morning!
This was also the month in which I saw my first chasing lion kill, EVER!!.
3 female lions were walking on the main road and soon after we got to them we noticed the one had disappeared, and then we heard it… She went to fetch some wildebeest and chased them towards us and the other females.
Everything just worked as planned. The young wildebeest ran into the ambush. A very clean, quick kill.
2 of the females disappeared while the other one had a feast. A few minutes later they came back with their 6 cubs, after which a feeding frenzy started. We were very lucky to see it all, from the start to the end.
Another surprise was a pangolin! We went far north east in search of a leopard one day.
The search was soon abandoned when we heard about the pangolin. Luckily we were close enough to go and view this amazing animal.
Up to a few months ago I was certain that they did not actually exist. And now I am lucky enough to say that this was my second sighting in one year.
Another bit of good news is that the female Brown Hyena in the Amphitheatre has 2 new very curious cubs. The Amphitheatre is one of the most amazing rock formations in the Enselsbergs I have ever seen.
We are very lucky to be able to spend time with them. With the youngster from last year also staying in the den, there is almost always some action.
The 4 cheetah males, who have now settled into Madikwe fully, are on the move all the time, making it very difficult to keep track of them. But if we`re lucky enough to get them it is always a highlight.
On one day they will be in the middle of the park and the next day they will be seen far down south, always keeping us on our toes. They do know how to strike the perfect pose every time!
Then last but CERTAINLY not the least!
Our favorite guests, the Agrizzi family, came to visit once again and was so kind to sponsor the helicopter as well as the vet for a full morning of conservation work in the park. We all got involved and had to work as the ground team, notching three rhinos, putting micro chips into their horns as well as branding some young lions and giving the lion girls some contraceptives.
No words can describe the feeling! To know that you have had a hand in saving these beautiful animals for our future!
Well, I hope I have managed to make you jealous and that you are going to rush to book your return visit immediately!
We can’t wait to share our experiences with you again!
Warmest Bush regards
Cornelius and the fabulous T-team
P.S. Remember to befriend us on FACEBOOK for daily updates of sightings and special rates!
For enquiries please contact :
reservations@tuningi.co.za
