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This past week we have experienced extreme temperatures for September. These have often been well above 40 degrees Celsius and this was then followed by two days of slight drizzle that was so slight it could not even be measured in the rain gauge. It did however bring relief from the extreme heat of the previous hot days. Hopefully this is a sign of more rain to come during our summer months as we experienced a relatively dry summer last season.
We were very fortunate with lion sightings at the start of this week. On one game drive we spent the whole morning following the tracks of two male lions who kept eluding us. As we got closer to the hyena den site we decided to take a look at the two pups and were lucky enough to see them put on a marvelous show for us. Having given up on the lions we headed back to the lodge after the Hyena sighting. On our way back we bumped into 3 male lions just near the lodge. These three males are part of the notorious 6 male lions that form the Mapogo coalition. On our afternoon safari we saw the biggest male of the 6 mating with a female from the Styx pride, which meant that we had all 6 in the area although we didn't get to see them all at once.
We suspect that the young male leopard, Matimba took down an Impala only to have it stolen by Mvula, an older male who has recently been regularly seen in our area. He ate what he could and then moved off leaving Matimba enough for a day and a half of feeding. A young female leopard was also seen in a tree with a freshly killed Duiker. The following morning Safari pushed her off the kill and then spent a few days in the tree feeding off it. Two days before that, Safari had another small antelope kill up a tree. We suspect that she had a confrontation with a hyena and won as the kill was badly pulled apart which is not typical of a leopard kill.
On an afternoon drive we found the entire pod of Hippos out of the water at Big Dam taking the opportunity of absorbing the afternoon sun. That morning it had been too cold for them to venture out of the water. We've also been fortunate to have the resident hippo walking up and down the dry riverbed between waterholes in front of the lodge. Two elephant bulls have spent a few days at the entrance of the lodge taking full advantage of any greenery nearby. The Dagga boy buffalo have also been at the waterhole in front of the lodge every day along with big herds of Zebra, Impala, Kudu and Elephants. With regards the Simbambili Team |
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With spring approaching and temperatures already over 40 degrees at times, the bush is transforming rapidly and the game viewing at Simbambili is just getting better and better.
The Tsalala lion pride entertained us again with their amazing hunting skills. Three of the lionesses started stalking Impalas in an open area on the southern part of the property. Using their ability to adapt one of the lionesses broke away in clear view of the Impala and the other two stayed behind using the Land Rover as cover. The first female made her way around the herd of Impala and started chasing them towards the vehicle. The other two lionesses timed their attack to perfection and killed an Impala ram 15m in front of the vehicle. They started feeding almost immediately and it took them about 10 minutes to finish their kill.
The female leopard Nyeleti and her 6 month old male cub entertained us with regular sightings of which two sightings were on kills. The little one is really starting to develop his own character and so far all the signs are there that he will be a force to be reckoned with in the next few years.
Matimba a 2 year old male is also starting to take up a more permanent residence on the property and he entertained everyone with his Impala kill that he hoisted into a Marula tree. Unfortunately for him, Mafufunyane (his father) heard the noise from the kill and forced him off and left him the skin and bones.
We also witnessed very good interaction between Mafufunyane and a new male from the Manyeleti called Mfula. This big male has been seen twice now on the property and all indications are there that he would like to establish his own territory in the area.
With regards the Simbambili Team |
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We've been very fortunate this week to have seen both resident male leopards, Mafufanyane and Tyson. They seemed to be more interested in their territorial patrols than actually hunting! Matimba the young male leopard managed to avoid the two dominant males and it is pleasing to that his limp has improved a lot in the last month. We also managed to see the old female leopard Safari killing two steenbuck in one night and then had the privilege of spending the next three days watching her finish her meal in the vicinity of Simbambili Dam. A younger male leopard, Mvula, who has been spotted on occasion in the area before, was seen joining her but only temporarily. He also managed to kill an adult baboon but lost it to the hyenas. In addition the female leopard Salayexe was seen marking her territory on Piccanin Uthla.
Lions have been sighted regularly over the last week with guests being fortunate enough to have more than one sighting of them. We didn't see any of them making kills but had a sighting of them a on a kill of two Impala and also found the remains of another two. All the Mapogo males were in the area but separated so we did not see them form their notorious alliance.
We've also been extremely lucky to have seen cheetah move through the area. A female with her sub adult male cub killed a Nyala and managed to hold on to it for roughly 2 hours before a big male leopard came and took it from them. They were sighted this morning moving in a southerly direction.
Buffalo sightings have been excellent with the large breeding herd of Buffalo seen drinking at Simbambili Dam and also at Arathusa Safari Dam. Elephants have been more prolific than Impala it seems this week with some large breeding herds moving through the area and making their way to drink at the waterhole in front of the lodge on a regular basis. The elephant relocation team was also kind enough to allow us to be involved in the capturing and relocation of two young bulls. The elephants were darted and then loaded by a crane onto a massive truck. Our guests got to touch them once they had been darted which was a highlight of their stay.
Simbambili Team |
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The mornings have started to heat up over the past week. As a result of the increase in temperatures the hot water bottles haven't been such a necessity on the early morning safaris! The game viewing has been superb as usual although the lions have continued to be somewhat elusive. They have been moving through our traversing area briefly before moving off on to other properties. However, we had a great sighting of lions this week. Both the lions and the herd of buffalo were testing each other by using a road as a boundary. They would each come closer and closer and then retreat. It was fascinating to see them interact like this.
We have been seeing a lot of leopards lately. We started off with an amazing sighting of the territorial male leopard Mafufunyane up a Knobthorn with a young Impala. We believe the kill was more than likely made by the one-eyed female Leopard, Safari and then stolen by Mafufunyane. It wasn't long before the hyenas made an appearance. He managed a balancing act and managed to only lose the half eaten leg of the Impala to the greedy hyenas. After the incident, Mafufunyane moved off and was seen a few days later with Ntima, a young female leopard. They have regularly been seen mating over the past few days.
Matimba, Safari's sub-adult male cub managed to catch himself a duiker. It is more than likely one of his first kills that he has made on his own. The fairly inexperienced young male learnt the hard way and dragged the Duiker up a Tamboti tree which wasn't the best choice of tree. It is covered with strong, sharp twigs and he injured his front left paw in the process. The injury was not too serious but still seemed to bother him quite a bit.
This week we have also been blessed with sightings of large herds of buffalo and elephant that have been moving through the area.
Simbambili Team |
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One morning as always the safari started with some warthog sniffing around the waterhole as we were having our first cup of coffee and as we departed from the lodge we came across some very fresh leopard tracks with a difference, these tracks were accompanied by two sets of cub tracks !! We were excited and after some intensive tracking we found Nyaleti and her two cubs in the Manyeleti River. The cubs went in to hiding but Nyaleti came very close to the vehicle and started calling for the cubs as if wanting to show them off. One of the cubs came out after about 10min. A great sighting for ranger, tracker and guests.
We were treated to an even better sighting a day later when Nyaleti was found with her cubs on a bushbuck kill close to Big Dam. Mafufunyane has been seen marking his territory on a regular basis and we were even treated to a sighting of him killing a young warthog right in front of our vehicle.
The male leopard Tyson and the female, Salayexe were spotted early one morning on our southern boundary. When we got there they started mating which was great and made for a truly memorable sighting. After they had mated they moved further south and we were unable to follow. It was not until later in the week that we were able to track and relocate Salayexe moving west past Simbambili Lodge. During the week the female leopard Ntima and her cub were also seen in the south of our traversing area looking great as always.
Another great sighting during the last week was of a cheetah that had just killed an impala. We were watching some baboons basking in the morning sun when they all of a sudden went crazy and alarm calling. We followed their gaze and found the cheetah that had just made a kill. He started feeding straight afterwards.
We had 3 females and one male lion (Tsalala pride) in our area for a few days during the week and this pride made two kills before moving south again. The herd of approximately 300 buffalo is still in the area and providing regular viewing. The elephant sightings have also been exceptional since it is the middle of winter and water is scarce.
Simbambili Team |
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