20th July: Herald The Great.

Pic of the Day.

Morning Drive.

( Herald.)

Lion ( Maghlatini Male & White Female) / DeLuca – Mpela Mpela Pan.

Buffalo ( Dagha Boy) / Motswari – Wisani Crossing.

Afternoon Drive.

( Herald, Grant & Godfrey.)

Lion ( Maghlatini Male & White Female) / DeLuca – Mpela Mpela Pan.

Leopard ( Kuhanya) / Motswari – Bushbuck Chalet.

Leopard ( Rockfig Jnr) / Kings – Hyena Rd.

Buffalo ( Breeding Herd) / Scholtz – Scholtz Access.

Elephant ( 4 x Kambaku's) / DeLuca – Drongo Drive.

Elephant ( Kambaku) / DeLuca – Mpela Mpela Crossing.

Elephant ( Kambaku) / Motswari – Motswari Dam.

Daily Synopsis.

Once again not being on drive this morning I missed out. Herald and Difference upped the anti and went out and found mating Lions not far from camp. Difference had heard roaring shortly before drive and following up they found tracks which they proceeded to successfully track and find the honeymoon couple. I guess Herald can top the day he had yesterday, he never stops to amaze us!

Joining for drive this afternoon Jacky and I look forward to getting on the road and experiencing it all for ourselves.

Getting out late for afternoon drive we did not have much time in hand before sunset so we headed directly towards where they had the mating Lions from the morning, as we feared they may get mobile after dark and being close to our traversing boundary they would cross out into an area we could not access. With much interest in the sighting we had to standby for a short while but it was only when Godfrey entered into the sighting that the Lions once again began mating. We joined shortly after and the female had moved off out of sight leaving us with only a view of the very impressive Maghlatini Male. He appears to have mature a great deal since we last saw him, plus/ minus five months ago. Patiently waiting with him we knew it would not be long before the female reappeared. We were not to be disappointed and she hastily approached him from a drainage line and walked up to him and presented herself to him, totally ignoring our presence. He proceeded to mount her and the mating lasted all of twenty seconds. As impressive as this sighting was it was more the familiarity of the female that struck me. On approach she looked identical to one of the White Pride females and when she was alongside the car I could nearly bet my life on it that it was her. Doubt crept into my mind though because the last report I heard was that the White Pride had been seen very far to the North West of us and heading further to the West. They did however report that there were only four members and not five, thinking it was the two adult females and two white sub adults and that the young male was missing. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it was in fact one female and the sub adult male, who now looks very much like an adult female, and the two white sub adult females that were seen. I think that when the White Pride left our traversing area to the East a week ago and then turned North, the pride ran into the Maghlatini's and with the one female in oestrus she remained behind with them to mate while the others continued on their way. The mother of the tawny male cub would be coming back into oestrus now having brought her cub up to sub adulthood.

At the moment this is my hypothesis and I'll be trying to confirm the females identity with Liana. Should we be right, it opens up a whole lot of questions. Watch this space.

All the above pic's of the Lions, incl Pic of the Day, are compliments of Pete our Apprentice, Thanks Pete!

After the excitement of watchingg mating Lions we had only enough time to squeeze in a visit with Kuhanya, who was still comfortably relaxing behind the lodge with her Duiker kill. Arriving at the scene we found that the Duiker was very close to being finished and we were sure by morning it would be gone. Kuhanya was not present though, well that was how it appeared until we checked around a little, where we then found her resting in amongst a Mopane thicket. She proceeded to wake from her nap and got mobile to a nearby pan where she quenched her thirst before heading back to finish off her Duiker dinner. Starting to feel hunger pains ourselves we also headed in, having driven less than ten kilometres for Elephant, Lion and Leopard.

A quick note and no surprise! Herald was after Buffalo this afternoon, he headed to the South East and worked his magic on our Southern traversing boundary and found himself a huge breeding herd of Buffalo, that magically appeared and crossed into our area as he arrived in the area. I don't know how he does it!