It was hoped that 2021 can be a greater 12 months for all, however evidently the chaos of 2020 has adopted via into this 12 months. In some ways, it has been barely higher and we proceed to have a gradual circulate of native visitors, with some hints at issues bettering for our worldwide travellers. However time additionally simply appears to fly by in these loopy occasions, and it’s with some embarrassment that I realised that we missed the April and Could editions. For these die-hard supporters, we apologise, however hope to make up for it with a bumper problem in June.
Lions
A lot of you might have been following our social media on Fb, YouTube and Instagram, in addition to the updates from different lodges, and would have seen the unhappy and really surprising demise of the magnificent Ottawa male. He turned very assured and determined to problem the Birmingham males to his east, in an try to broaden his territory. Sadly, being on his personal, he was killed within the struggle, and we misplaced some of the unbelievable males we’ve got had for a while.
Leopards
We even have some children within the leopard inhabitants! Tlangisa (pictured proper) has a brand new litter and, though we’ve got not seen her and her cubs a lot previously few months, evidently she is doing exceptionally nicely. She is her regular calm self, and it displays in the best way that the 2 younger cubs are already extraordinarily relaxed across the automobiles.
Khokhovela (pictured beneath) has additionally been fairly scarce currently, however she was not too long ago seen mating with Ravenscourt, so hopefully there could quickly be some extra cubs operating round.
Ravenscourt has been sustaining his dominance nicely within the west and appears to have picked up a bit along with his patrols to the south, presumably in response to Thamba, who’s placing stress on him from the south. He nonetheless, nevertheless, spends most of his time alongside the river, the place the circumstances are most suited to him.
He has additionally been getting some stress from Euphorbia within the north, and we not too long ago had a sighting of the 2 of them mendacity about 30 metres aside, growling at one another. What was attention-grabbing was that it was on the southern facet of the river, i.e. extra in Ravenscourt’s territory than Euphorbia’s and that Euphorbia didn’t appear to be backing down, however was holding his personal.
As talked about earlier than, Thamba is rising in measurement and is increasing his territory. He’s positively changing into way more assured and has made the south his personal. It has been actually good having an everyday, relaxed and dominant male near Savanna, and we see and listen to him recurrently.
Nyelethi remains to be the dominant male to the east of Ravenscourt, and that boundary appears to have been settled a while in the past. He’s, nevertheless, getting on at 12 years outdated, and shall be coming increasingly more below stress from youthful leopards. At this level, it isn’t clear the place that stress goes to come back from, however for now he appears secure.
One risk is Hlambela, who’s the son of Boulders, and is now three years outdated. Nyelethi will most likely maintain on for an additional 12 months or two, which is able to imply that Hlambela shall be 4 or 5, which is concerning the time that he shall be on the lookout for a territory of his personal.
One other younger male within the space is Scotia and Nyelethi’s son (pictured within the beneath sequence). At simply over two, he nonetheless has the ‘teenage’ gene in him and we not too long ago had the privilege of watching him stalk and pounce at a rodent subsequent to the street. It’s all the time spectacular to see the persistence, opportunism and agility of those cats!
Cheetah and different Predators
A few of our different predators have additionally been busy of late. The male cheetah has been making his regular common rounds, coming via the clearings within the south like clockwork. It’s all the time superb how these cats are creatures of behavior and transfer predictably to their regular mounds and fallen bushes to scent-mark and use them as lookouts for prey.
Sometimes he’s profitable at recognizing and catching his prey! Lately, on a day drive, we discovered him on the sting of the clearing at Cheetah Flats with a big male impala kill. He will need to have made the kill late within the morning, as he had eaten a lot of the impala already once we discovered him within the afternoon. We seen him as he squeezed as a lot meals as potential into his abdomen, for he knew that come early night, the hyenas can be out. And certain sufficient, he was chased off the carcass by a single hyena who proceeded to gorge himself on the stays.
Hyena are sometimes painted because the villains of the bush, all the time stealing scraps and benefitting from the work completed by others. They’ve a sloping again, with their head held low, skulking about and all the time appear as if they’re as much as no good! It’s not typically that we see the extra sociable, playful facet of hyena, however some visitors had the chance not too long ago to look at a big group of eight or 9 hyena vocalising and operating in direction of a clearing. We initially thought that they had been responding to a potential kill, however as they reached the clearing, they began chasing one another very playfully and speeding right into a small pan for a swim. They’re one of many few predators within the savannah that love water, and it was superb to look at this extra ‘likeable’ facet of hyena.
Hippo’s
The opposite animals who get pleasure from water – and that is no shock – are the hippo. Because of nice rainfall throughout our final wet season, we nonetheless have loads of water out there to them. As we head into the center of our winter, we are also having common views of the massive pods popping out onto the sides of the dams and rivers to bake within the solar and have a superb sleep!
Uncommon Sightings
We now have additionally had quite a few uncommon sightings these previous few months as nicely. Dan and his visitors had been spoiled with an ideal view of a large-spotted feminine genet and her two kittens. These are often very shy and skittish, significantly so once they have younger. However on this event, they had been in a position to watch and {photograph} them for almost quarter-hour!
A big male ostrich has additionally been hanging out within the clearing simply north of Savanna. Though the numbers have improved over the previous few years, sightings of them are nonetheless few and much between and we had been handled to some nice viewing of him.
African Skies
Africa is famend for its skies, and extra particularly the sunrises and sunsets. That is much more true throughout winter, when mud, smoke and mist make the early mornings and late afternoons much more spectacular. We go away you with just a few of those breath-taking views, and hope that you’re all in a position to journey ahead of later, to get pleasure from them for yourselves in individual.
We hope that every one our mates and visitors have been retaining secure and wholesome, and that your vaccine rollouts are going nicely, which in flip could show you how to all return to us quickly to witness, in individual, nature at its greatest.
To compensate for all of the updates throughout our lockdown, please take a look at our YouTube Channel right here.
With heat needs
Neil, Natasha and The Savanna Staff
