Leopard diaries

As we approach mid summer in the Sabi Sands we have been blessed with abundant rain and the normal hot weather. Humidity levels have soared in the area and the vegetation is very thick and green. The impala have started to drop their young and the bush is teaming with babies.

Sightings have been phenomenal this week and we were yet again given the opportunity to witness mating leopards. Tyson and Salayexe put up an Oscar worthy performance in the Manyeleti riverbed with Tyson trying to hide from the female under a fallen tree. Salayexe, the 3 year old female tried to initiate mating but on this hot day Tyson ( 9 years old) would have none of it. She persisted and Tyson fell under the age old female spell and mating began.

At a waterhole in the South of our traversing area we witnessed a friendly confrontation between a 3 month old baby elephant and a lone hippo bull. The little elephant was caught unawares during his mud bath when the hippo resurfaced for some fresh air. Failing to make any impression on the bull with his mock attacks the young elephant was eventually forced to call in reinforcement from his mother.

General game in the area has been good with another female hyena seen with her two 4 week old cubs. As the cubs are still wary of the vehicles we could not view them for very long but will keep you updated in the next months. 

Regards The Simbambili Team

This past week has been one with a lot of excitement at Simbambili couple of days of quiet game viewing early in the week was followed by one particularly eventful morning. Those of you who have been following our leopard diaries over the past few months will be familiar with Nyeleti, the female leopard and her two 7month old cubs.

We were viewing Nyeleti early one morning before leaving her and as we pulled out of the sighting we found an unknown male leopard at Serengeti pan. Something caught his attention and to my horror it was one of Nyeleti's cubs. Since this was an unknown leopard and these were not his cubs we were concerned as male leopards do kill cubs if they are not theirs because they can then mate with the female to spread their own genes. Unfortunately that is exactly what happened. The male killed the little cub in front of us!! It was a once in a lifetime sighting that I do not want to see again.

On a lighter note, the rest of the week was excellent. We were treated to some great (or not so great) hunting skills by both the female leopard Salayexe and the young male Mvula. Mvula came very close to a Steenbuck early one morning but he was spotted by the Steenbuck before he could move any closer for the kill.

Salayexe, the young female was very brave one day when she tried her luck with a fully grown male waterbuck. It ended up in a cat and mouse game with first the leopard chasing the waterbuck and then the other way around.

Tyson, the adult male whose territory overlaps into Simbambili was found early one morning at the waterhole right in front of the lodge. He was busy scent marking before moving down the Manyeleti River.

We were also lucky enough to have two different cheetah sightings during the week. and three of the Mapogo male lions were also in our area. Big herds of buffalo are returning after the good rains we have enjoyed recently and we even spotted the first newborn impala and wildebeest of the season.

Regards The Simbambili Team

More rain during the week has transformed the bush into a lush green environment with lots of insects, reptiles and even a newborn wildebeest calf being seen .Despite some of the roads being closed due to the rain and inaccessibility, this did not hamper good sightings and we were once again spoiled with exceptional leopard sightings this week.

The female leopard, Nyalethi and her two cubs have been seen regularly in the recently burnt area around Serengeti Pan. The cubs are now close to 8months old and they are getting almost as big as their mother

Shadow, the young female sub-adult made a duiker kill on Central but is unfortunately not yet completely relaxed with vehicles.

Mvula, the young male leopard took his chance one morning in the rain and killed a big female kudu. We found him on the kudu kill only after we spotted some white backed and hooded vultures perched in the trees. He fed on the kudu kill for the best part of two days giving us great viewing. However on the morning of the third day on our return to the site we found that hyenas had stolen the kill and Mvula had unfortunately moved on.

Safari, the old female leopard was seen on Sunday morning with a cut on her left shoulder which she had sustained in a fight with the territorial male Tyson. However she was walking without any difficulty and the injury is not too serious as it doesn't seem to hamper her movement.

Regards The Simbambili Team

The big news from Simbambili this week is that we finally had some rain. We had 30mm on Tuesday, 20mm on Friday and another 18mm on Saturday night! It has been only five days since the first rains and you can already see the changes in the bush especially in the areas we did block burns where all the new grass and shoots are coming through and will draw all the grazers which will in turn bring even more predators to Simbambili.

We were treated to a very rare sighting of two leopards mating during the week. Who else but the territorial male, Mafufunyane, the dominant male leopard in our area and Ntima, an adult female who mated for three days before they parted. It is indeed a very rare sighting and we were very fortunate.

Mvula, the young male that has taken up residence in the northern part of Simbambili was found on an impala kill early in the week. He took the impala up a Marula tree to escape the unwanted attention of a hyena that hadn't wasted any time and was lurking around biding its time and waiting for any scraps or possibly even the impala to fall from the tree.

The other adult male leopard whose territory overlaps Simbambili Game Lodge property, Tyson, was also seen during the week. He was chasing Shadow, the young female around for a whole morning. The reason for that is he does not want the young female to chase potential mating partners out of his territory seeing that she is still too young to mate.

The Nkahuma lion pride caught a buffalo close to the KNP boundary and they fed off the buffalo for three days which made for interesting viewing.

Next week this time the leopard diaries might look very different with the bush changing after the rains with new fresh growth and new born animals to follow.

Regards The Simbambili Team