01st June – Kuhanya’s Kill

Photo of the Day

Golden eyes of Kuhanya watching hyenas

Morning Drive

(Marka)

1 x leopard (Kuhanya female with impala kill) – Motswari, Airstrip

Afternoon Drive

(Chad, Marka and Herald)

1 x leopard (Kuhanya female with impala kill) – Motswari, Airstrip

2 x rhino

1 x breeding herd of elephants – Motswari, Sharalumi Crossing

1 x elephant bull – Motswari, Airstrip

Daily Synopsis

Looking at the list of morning’s sightings, it would seem as though Marka didn’t see a great deal.  Well, I guess he didn’t.  But that was only because he spent almost his entire morning drive watching one wonderful sighting!

While all the other stations rushed south to go and see the Machaton lionesses that had reunited with their cubs on Cheetah Plains, Marka had the north to himself, and it didn’t take him long to find something good.  On the airstrip, they found where a leopard had caught an impala and dragged it into the nearby bushes.  It took them some a bit longer to find the leopard responsible, and it was none other than the queen of the north, Kuhanya.

She eventually moved to the kill and resumed feeding on the very large impala ram that she had succeeded in bringing down, but sadly it was too large for her to hoist into a tree, so she fed on the ground.

A more fotunate impala ram on the airstrip

It didn’t take long for the inevitable to happen, and she moved off from the kill, clearly sensing the approach of the three hyenas that then came running in and began feeding on the kill.

Marka radioed me and I popped out to come and have a look, but only saw a few spots of Kuhanya disappearing and the hyenas enjoying all of her hard work.

Hyenas and a Tawn Eagle enjoying Kuhanya's kill

After watching this, Marka had a cup of coffee and returned to camp.

In the afternoon, Grant joined the drives, and again the activity in the north was low, as a crash of 5 rhinos was reported further south, so after relocating Kuhanya, who had managed to salvage some of her kill from the hyenas and taken it up a marula, Marka headed to see them, but only got to see two of the relaxed rhinos.

Grant stayed in the north and spent his afternoon split between watching Kuhanya lying in the grass until the hyenas returned and chased her up into the tree and a herd of elephants at the other end of the airstrip!  She spent the rest of the afternoon there growling at the hyenas below and feeding from time to time.

Kuhanya and her kill

The elephants were a nice breeding herd and the odd lone bull elephant trailing the herd.

Elephant bull silhouette

I think Grant barely drove more than 1km from camp, which is always pleasant! 

I’m sure Grant will be able taking over the blog for the next few days, so enjoy it J

Cheers

Chad