In winter the weather seems to affect our early drives with the mornings being bitterly cold when we set out sometimes as low as 2 degrees Celsius, this does slow down animal activity a bit but as the winter sun rises it brings life back into both our own joints and the animals and the skies are clear and the action begins!
Yet again (for the 4th time in 2009) we saw wild dogs in our area. They were found on Jacobin Axis moving south across Nkorho. The pack was hunting but did not manage to kill that morning. Shortly thereafter we found one of the female leopards in our traversing, Ntima strolling around with the dominant male leopard Mafufunyane. We were delighted to have both of them back in the western part of the greater Kruger Park. We spent more than an hour with the pair before Mafufunyane spotted a herd of impala. Both leopards started stalking and chased the impala in a southerly direction. The male leopard moved into a thicket and we could not follow them further. Our current dominant male leopard Tyson was sighted in the Manyeleti River on an impala kill, he is one of the leopards that prefers the thickets over open areas and had hidden the carcass in the thick bush under a common Spikethorn. We struggled to get a good view and were only able to see him clearly on the next morning drive. Unfortunately it was not a big impala and he finished the carcass within a day and moved on.
Salayexe and her two young cubs have not been seen this week as they are still around Koala Bear view point in the Manyeleti which is fairly inaccessible. We hope to see them again soon.
Until next time Thanks by Simbambili team
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29 June to 5 July 2009 We have had some fantastic predator viewing over the last week, with one particular evening drive having us spoilt for choice with a total of 6 different leopard sightings!! The spotting of game is definitely made a little easier by the sparser vegetation that is so typical of our dry winters here in the lowveld.
 Salayexe has been an absolute superstar of our drives this week. She is proving to be an exceptional mother and her two cubs have provided us with some truly memorable sightings as they explore their new world under the guidance of mum. We found the trio early one afternoon as they got active for an evening move, the cubs running and chasing not only each other but getting mum to join in their game of "cat and mouse". Alistair and Mumps found the leopards on an impala kill on a morning drive and watched as Salayexe, dealt with the attentions of two spotted hyena who posed a threat to the two cubs. The leopardess charged straight at the intruders with fangs and claws bared. The hyenas made a quick departure. All of this was watched by the cubs from a lofty perch up in the boughs of a large Tamboti tree. Tyson turned up one afternoon and sauntered down the riverbed during lunch. All of the guests watched in astonishment as he simply ignored them and marched by. We found him a little while later as he attempted to hunt a large herd of impala. He appeared to have been in a scrap with another leopard and was sporting a few cuts and bruises. This could be due to an altercation with a large male leopard on his western territorial boundary.
Mafufunyane and Ntima, were found together and have been reportedly mating for the past three days. Although this is always a fantastic sighting and one not commonly seen, it is tinged with sadness as this proves that Ntima has indeed lost all three of her cubs. We had feared the worst as we had not had any reports of the cubs for a period of two weeks. Let us hope that this mating will result in a new set of cubs.
Lion We have had numerous sightings of two Mapogo Males, who have been in the company of two different female groups. Earlier on in the week, they were found companying the two Styx Lionesses and their two young cubs. There appears to have been a skirmish between the Styx and Tsalala lionesses. Both sets of lionesses were found the following day on opposite ends of the property. The Styx lionesses, appeared to have come off worse in the encounter with both lionesses limping and one sporting a large bite wound on her rump. One of the Mapogo males was located by Matt and Doctor on a morning drive as he faced off with an injured giraffe bull. The game of patience being waged as the two animals attempted to get a better footing in the struggle. The entire encounter took over three hours. The giraffe almost succumbing a few times as the lion pressed home attack after attack. In the end however the lion seemed to give up and left the scene of the confrontation with the giraffe staring at him from above.
Buffalo & Rhino There have been very good sightings of both species during the week. The resident buffalo bulls are still utilising the camp waterhole daily. A large herd of approximately 300 buffalo was seen in the eastern part of the property utilising one of the larger dams as their regular watering hole. Rhino have been seen in small groupings of between three and five, either grazing out in the open areas or drinking in the early evening at any of the waterholes through the property. Elephant There has been a true abundance of elephant viewing over the last week with a number of different breeding herds utilising the traversing area. Herd size averaged between fifteen and fifty. There are very few experiences that can compare with viewing these gentle giants at close quarters and we have been treated to some great sightings of the herds as they drink and feed, the social intricacies of these herds is fascinating. Well, that's all from us this week and as usual we are off to a great start again this week with the news that the Mapogo males have managed to kill a young buffalo. This should provide us with some great lion viewing over the next couple of days. We will fill you in on the details next week! Kind Regards The Simbambili Guiding Team
15 Juneto 21 June 2009
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The dry and dusty winter bush has once again provided some fantastic sightings over the past week. Night drives have become quite productive, allowing us glimpses of animals that are usually hidden by the lush summer growth. Genets, civet, honey-badger and owls have all been seen during the week.
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Tyson and Mafufunyane have been seen this week, both in a very similar area. Mafufunyane was seen around Ellie Alley as he attempted to hunt warthog. He spooked a sounder of pigs as they were exiting their burrow and gave chase narrowly missing one of the older piglets. He then spent the remainder of the morning following the scent trails left by the warthogs coming close on a few occasions to the adult boar without success. We left him as he settled down for a snooze in the shade of some large Guarri bushes.
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Safari, was seen moving around her old haunts and had a meeting with Ntima on their territorial boundary. We then spent the remainder of the morning watching her patiently stalk a duiker.
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Salayexe provided a number of sightings, we followed not only her tracks, but those of her two cubs, into the area around Mamba Road where she stashed the cubs in a large termite mound and moved out to hunt again and after a full afternoon of tracking we found her hunting a steenbuck ram, which was unsuccessful. The following morning we returned to the area to see if we could find her again. We were in for a surprise when instead of finding her we found her two cubs sunning themselves on a large termite mound. What a special sighting to see these two bundles of spots sitting waiting patiently for mum to return.
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Al and Mumps had a wonderful sighting of the cubs suckling from mum late one afternoon before Salayexe moved away from them too have a drink at a nearby waterhole. It appears that both cubs are doing very well and have started to noticeably relax around the vehicles.
Lions have proved to be elusive, although we have had a visit from the Mapogo Males, the two males who have recently taken over the south eastern part of our concession where found resting near Serengeti Pan. They spent the remainder of the afternoon and the next morning in the same area. The Styx Pride, after their run in with the hyena clan and the Tsalala Pride, last week were seen in a territorial skirmish with another pride of lions, moving out of our traversing area and are yet to return.
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Elephant have been seen in large numbers with two herds in excess of 50 animals being seen regularly, Rhino are still about and the crash of 6 being seen almost daily. The two territorial bulls Londoz and Short Horns are also seen regularly patrolling their territories, scent marking as they go. Buffalo bulls are still seen everyday resting around the waterhole in front of camp. The camp waterhole is an unbelievable spectacle at the moment with herds of giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, impala and elephant drinking throughout the day.
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The elephant herds that pass through vary in size from 10 to 50 and the noise and excitement that is created when these big grey giants move in to drink is great. On a quiet afternoon I sat and watched the procession of approximately 6 different herds of elephant move in to slake their thirsts. The young calves provided some of the most enjoyable entertainment as they tried to master drinking with their trunks and managing to cover themselves and every other elephant in the vicinity with liberal amounts of water or mud!!
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Till next week....
Regards,
The Simbambili Guiding Team
8 June to 13 June 2009
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As the bush begins to get browner and browner and the waterholes begin to dry up, the morning drives get colder and colder and the guests all grab the hot water bottles provided so as to warm up! Winter is now in full force here at Simbambili and the days are getting ever shorter which of course makes the rangers work even harder in the daylight hours to deliver the usual exceptional game viewing we are accustomed to at Simbambili.
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This week the game viewing has been exceptional, especially on Friday morning 12 June, we all set out to follow up on the Styx Pride of lions that we had found the night before. Within the first hour of the drive we had picked this pride up only after we first had come across the female leopard Shadow and a new male from the Manyeleti both feeding on an impala that Shadow had killed. This extremely large male had decided to move in and ruin her party. After that the call came over the radio that the Styx Pride were now moving towards the hyena den that we have close by, so we rushed straight there. One of the lionesses began to stalk close to the den where outside the den the adult hyenas were all lying down enjoying the warm morning sun and a little cub was doing the same. Within seconds the first lioness charged and surprised the whole hyena clan, the adults fled in all directions but the poor cub was so surprised by all of this that he turned and ran right into a branch behind him. The lionesses were on him within seconds, leaving the cub motionless.
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The pride then began to investigate the den, what they did not know was that the clan had come back with more reinforcements this was now ‘Eternal Enemies' the hyenas regrouped and forced the lions back all the time yelping and howling, the lioness then had to move her cubs to a safer place so one of the lionesses moved back and took the cubs to safety while the others stood their ground and fought the hyenas. The noise was unbelievable and deafening, we all sat in amazement as we watched this once in a life time sighting unfold. This was not over! The Tsalala Pride that has their core territory to the south of where this was all unfolding obliviously heard this happening and rushed straight in to investigate. They were also not alone but in the company of a Mapogo male and he was roaring in defiance.  When the Styx Pride heard this they fled for their lives as if the Tsalala pride had of caught the Styx within their territory they would have had the upper hand being with the Mapogo and would have almost certainly killed the cubs present at the sighting. What an incredible morning!
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This was not the end of the excitement; for on our way back to camp we heard the noise of wild dogs. We rushed into the area where this was coming from, and we found 3 dogs running down the road towards us, we followed them for about 20min before they crossed our boundary and moved into the Manyeleti.
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This was morning that everybody involved or anybody who knows the African bush will never take for granted and never ever forget. Â Â Â Â
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The Simbambili Team
1June to 8 June 2009
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Crisp mornings and cold evenings is what has greeted us on drive this week. The morning game drives are made a lot more comfortable with the presence of the hot water bottles and a lot of warm blankets. However it is not even always necessary to venture out on safari as the lodge waterhole has proved to be the place to be with hundreds of elephants moving into drink on a daily basis. Buffalo, kudu, impala and zebra are also seen all day around the waterhole, making breakfast, lunch and even dinner extremely exciting for the guests.
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Lion sightings have been great again this week at Simbambili, with more sightings of the Tsalala Pride with their cubs as well as with the 2 Mapogo males from the South, The Styx pride has also been on the property this week but the sad news is that one of the cubs seems to be missing, as we are only seeing 4 females with 5 cubs instead of 6 cubs. Other additional members of the Styx pride have also been seen in our area with two females that haven't been seen for along time in these parts, that also brought with them 2 new cubs that are still very young.
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The leopard sightings as always have been exceptional, we were fortunate enough to have Salayexe bring her cubs to their first kill; she managed to kill an impala and brought them to it for all of us to see. What an great sighting this was as the cubs are becoming a lot more relaxed with vehicles and allowing us more time with them and ample photo opportunities for all our guests. The old female, Safari is highly mobile in the area and the distance she is covering is getting a lot bigger than she normally would do, this could be due to the pressure she might feeling from other territorial female leopards like Nyleti and Salayexe.The queen is definitely nearing the end of her dominance but still refuses to give up. Mpilo was also seen this week after a few days of not seeing and she is getting bigger and bigger as we speak. Her mother was also seen once this week. Tyson and Mafunyane were also seen this week, Mafunyane almost every day, he is giving us exceptional sightings as always.
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The pack of 3 wild dogs moved into our traversing area this week, and seems to be hanging around a lot more than the pack of 12 of dogs that we normally see. We can only hope that this pack of 3 has a more successful time this year, than it did last year, as there were 10 pups and 4 adults last year and all 10 pups died as well as one adult. Hopefully this year they will have more pups and raise them successfully and make this pack a force to be reckoned with in the near future.
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As for hyena's we have found a new den with 2 tiny baby pups as well as 2 sub adults and quite a lot of adults. This will provide us with guaranteed sightings of these amazing animals.
We have had numerous sightings of two Mapogo Males, who have been in the company of two different female groups. Earlier on in the week, they were found companying the two Styx Lionesses and their two young cubs. There appears to have been a skirmish between the Styx and Tsalala lionesses. Both sets of lionesses were found the following day on opposite ends of the property. The Styx lionesses, appeared to have come off worse in the encounter with both lionesses limping and one sporting a large bite wound on her rump. One of the Mapogo males was located by Matt and Doctor on a morning drive as he faced off with an injured giraffe bull. The game of patience being waged as the two animals attempted to get a better footing in the struggle. The entire encounter took over three hours. The giraffe almost succumbing a few times as the lion pressed home attack after attack. In the end however the lion seemed to give up and left the scene of the confrontation with the giraffe staring at him from above.
