Leopard diaries

16 February to 22 February 2009

 

Summer is truly at its peak here at Simbambili, we have recorded an average daytime temperature through the week of 36 degrees Celsius, with some very hot afternoons. The bush is unbelievably lush and with the prospect of further rainfall next week, the natural pans and waterholes will be filled well into the dry season.

 

Our guests have  been treated to some spectacular game viewing this week with numerous leopard sightings, three of the Mapogo male lions moving into our traverse area and large herds of elephant present on the property.

The Mapogo male lions moved onto the property on Tuesday morning and were found resting in a Silver Terminalia thicket. Later that evening we watched as they moved further west, scent marking along the road. They continued on their territorial patrol and moved out of the area in the early hours of the morning.

 

The leopardess Ntima, was found early one morning after an early rain shower moving along Seepline road, patrolling and scent marking her territorial boundaries. What excited the guides however is that she appeared to be lactating and on closer inspection there were definite signs that she is suckling 2 cubs! These cubs could only have been born a few days earlier as she was seen last week still carrying cubs. The guides cannot wait to see these new arrivals to the already flourishing leopard population here at Simbambili. 

 

Elephants have been seen in large numbers with a number of different herds being present. We were treated to a fantastic sighting of a very young elephant calf as it moved with its mother and her herd through the Manyeleti River. We estimated the calf to be approximately 2 weeks old!

The sighting of the week however was something rather special! We woke to a mist shrouded reserve and departed on game drive and before long had managed to find some fresh male leopard tracks. We continued on the tracks and they moved into an Safari Open Area, as we approached the area, a call came over radio, saying that the alarm calls of impala and vervet monkeys could be heard nearby. As we approached another guide who had heard the alarm calls, called to let us know he had found Mafufunyane, the large leopard tom. We watched as he scent marked on some nearby trees. It was then that a second leopard was spotted in the same area. This leopardess turned out to be Safari, the old female leopard. We followed her through the bush and as we watched her move through a large Bushwillow thicket we spotted a third leopard!! This turned out to be Tyson, another large territorial male leopard. 2 male leopards and a leopardess in the same sighting, trying to find one leopard is challenge enough, here we had found three of these exquisite cats within metres of each other!!

 

We deduced that Safari was coming into oestrus after losing a litter of cubs recently and had attracted the attention of both resident male leopards who appear to have been involved in a fight. Tyson was sporting a wound on the back of his neck. We stayed with the leopards for most of the morning, Tyson moved away heading back to his territory in the western part of the reserve. Safari climbed up into the branches of a large Marula tree and spent the rest of the morning hissing and growling at Mafufunyane who lay patiently underneath the tree before he too moved away after having all of his advances met with aggression from Safari.

 

Regards

 

 

The Simbambili Team

 

8 February to 15 February 2009

 

 

Simbambili once again proved itself this week with some fine game viewing, even though the weather continued to be wet and windy, the game viewing showed up, especially our lions, they were definitely the super cats of the week. They were seen every day this week!

 

The highlight of the week has been the continued presence of the 3 members of the Mapogo coalition. Last week we were fortunate enough to have them kill, and this week we have been lucky enough to have these 3 sleepy beasts sleeping around on our traversing, we can't complain lions are lions sleeping or not!

 

Another interesting lion sighting was the Robson's/Ottawa pride which has not been seen for ages by our rangers and trackers. On finding tracks moving down Robson's boundary we followed up and to our surprise we found two large females with 5 cubs and of course the oldest of the Mapogo coalition. This male seems to be spending a large amount of time with this pride, as we saw him with the pride for most of the week, and he never seemed to be worried  about communicating with the other 3 from the coalition.

 

One of the rangers even saw the Mapogo and the pride bring down a young wildebeest on the airstrip; this allowed our guests to watch this sighting from beginning to the end. Wow what a sight! 

 

On the leopard front, these spotted cats seem to have taken a back seat with all the lion activity around the area. Mafufunyane has still been moving in and out the area on a daily basis.

Kurhula the female leopard was sighted at Simbambili Dam. Ntima was also seen this week and she seems to be heavily pregnant. Hopefully within a few weeks Simbambili will be blessed with new baby leapards.Make sure you keep reading the diaries to get follow up news. Shadow also gave us a guest appearance.

 

The elephant herds have been gorging themselves on all the abundance of green vegetation about. Herds of between 20-40 have been moving around our traversing area, as well as 5 or 6 males in must trying to follow these herds. The buffalo and rhino have been plentiful and so to have been the general game.

 

Regards

 

The Simbambili Team

01 February to 08 February 2009

 

We have received a substantial amount of rain over the last week, which has allowed not only the Manyeleti River in front of camp to flow, but just about every tributary to carry water  for the first time this year. In one very heavy downpour we received approximately 85mm of rainfall and this lifted the level of the Manyeleti River by almost six feet in a matter of hours!

 

The weather has not however, affected the game viewing and in a number of cases even led to some exceptional sightings. The chaos caused by the heavy rain , thunder and lightning which accompanies most African thunderstorms, meant that prey species have difficulty in detecting the presence of any predator and we found both lion and leopard on kills following the heavy downpours we received on Tuesday  and Wednesday.

Tyson, a large male leopard was found literally on our doorstep, about 100 metres up our driveway. He had killed a large male impala and we had a great sighting of him feeding on the carcass of the freshly killed antelope. The antelope was discreetly hidden in a thicket of Round-leafed Teak and he remained in the area of the kill for the entire day. The carcass however had started to smell and as he had not hoisted his kill into a tree the remainder of the kill was lost to the resident hyena clan.

 

3 Males from the Mapogo male lion coalition were seen in the area surrounding E.P. airstrip, at first we only saw two of the males feeding on a wildebeest carcass. The following morning after further investigation a third member of the 6 male coalition, was found feeding on a freshly killed zebra about 50 metres from the wildebeest kill. The wildebeest and zebra appeared to have been killed on the same evening as they sheltered from the heavy rain. The three males stayed in the area for the following 2 days finishing both kills before moving off in an easterly direction, roaring and scent marking as they moved. The Styx pride was also seen in the east of our traversing, a great sighting of the entire pride including their 9 cubs.

Nyeleti leopardess and her year old cub were spotted on Saseke road, after we were alerted to their presence by the alarm calls of an impala herd. Both leopard are in good health and moved through the bush providing us with a fantastic sighting.

 

A number of elephant breeding herds have moved through the area and we have also had a number of sightings of a large bull in musth, seen shadowing the herds as they move through the reserve. A number of small groups of buffalo bulls have been utilising the many wallows and pans to cool off in the late morning and afternoon.

 

We are looking forward to a new week of adventures.

 

 

Kind Regards

 

 

The Simbambili Team

20 January to 28 January 2009.

 

We continue to be blessed with the most fantastic sightings which this week included some hyena cubs at their den and about 800 meters from these inquisitive little creatures we found a dead jackal being feasted on by some raptors. We found several lion tracks near the jackal which might indicate that the lions were responsible for killing the smaller predator.

During the week we enjoyed exceptional sightings of elephant as we found several herds of Elephant meandering around our property and a number o which came into or around the lodge.

The Nkuhuma pride of Lions was spotted during the week (a total of 11 individuals) but by the end of the week they had crossed into the Manyeleti Game Reserve where they are usually seen.

 

The last few days also brought plenty of leopard sightings.  The female leopard Nyeleti and her remaining cub were seen resting in a tree close to Serengeti. As the other cub was killed 3 months ago by a male leopard this youngster will now grow up as an only "child" and only has its mother to play with. Moving east from Serengeti we found a beautiful herd of zebra with them milling around and the young stallions fighting one another.

 

Next on our list was Ntima, a female leopard who was lazily lying around watching a vervet monkey. The monkey clearly felt threatened and his alarm calls could be heard miles away.

 

Mvula the young male Leopard has been sighted at Simbambili Dam feeding on an impala kill which he dragged up into a tree. While eating he noticed another impala and came right down to hunt yet again. Within seconds the poor impala came crashing down as Mvula made another kill. Usually leopards will rest briefly after making a kill but Mvula ripped open its stomach and started devouring the contents immediately.

The following day we returned but there was no trace of either impala or the male leopard...

 

 

 

The Simbambili Team