Leopard diaries

02 March to 9 March 2009

 

 

Once again Simbambili received a lot of rain this week, we were fortunate enough to see the Manyeleti River flowing again in front of the lodge. We watched it start from a trickle and within 15 minutes it had become a very fast flowing river. All this rain has made getting around the reserve much more of a challenge for all of us.

 

Even though it has been a challenge getting around, the animals have not had any problems with the weather as we have had some magnificent sightings over the past week. The general game viewing has picked up tremendously with sightings of more than 12 giraffe and 40 zebra recorded all together in one location.

 

The elephants have made it a little more difficult for us. With all the water around they are able to move greater distances as there is water everywhere. We have had a few sighting of the herds but this week the old mature bulls have formed the bulk of our sightings. We have had two very big bulls that have taken up residence around the camp and were even brazen enough to give the staff a heart attack up at the staff village when they decided to enjoy the marulas around everybody's rooms.

 

Rhinos and buffalo's have been plentiful with some great sightings, the herd of buffalo of about 350 has been moving in and out of our area again, this herd has a large number of calves and hopefully they will all survive and the herd will swell in numbers. This herd was also seen with 5 rhinos among them who also thought they were buffalos as they hung around with the herd for quite some time providing us with some great sightings. The old bull buffalos around the lodge prove to be a common sighting for all our guests as they lie around in the pan in front of the lodge all day.

 

On the leopard front we have had some interesting changes, these changes started to develop in the last leopard diaries when we found Nyeleti mating with Tyson. Everybody thought this was Salayexe at first but on a closer inspection we identified the female as Nyeleti. This was odd due to the fact that Nyeleti still has her cub which is not yet independent and is seen on a regular basis with her cub. Although on a drive this week we picked up the call of a female leopard in one of the riverbeds, on following up we found Nyeleti and her cub together, the calling was the cub calling for its mother. While we were following these two cats down the road we started to see some extraordinary changes between mother and daughter. Nyeleti was growling and snarling at the cub constantly. This is one of the sure signs of a mother trying to tell her cub it is time to go. This was proved later on when we found Nyeleti on a kill a day later with the cub but she was not allowing the cub to feed with her at all. So the time is nearing for the little cub to move away and start her own solitary life. Hopefully in a few months time Nyeleti might have new offspring. This week the White Cloth female and her cub were seen in the east of our traverse area and they both gave the rangers and guests a great sighting. The cub is estimated to be between 3 and 5 months old and we look forward to more sightings with these two.

 

Mafunyane and Tyson the two territorial males were both seen as well as the female Thandi, so leopards again stole the show at Simbambili. Other notable sightings included the two hyena pups, which come out of the den everyday playing around the puddles and vehicles and giving our guests opportunities to get some great photos and some life long memories.

With all that news from this week we look forward to what might be install for us in the week ahead.

 

 

Regards Simbambili Team

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