15 January - Lion Around

Photo of the Day

 Morning Drive


(Herold.)


Lion (2 x Mahlathini males and 1 Timbavati female with buffalo kill) /  Motswari - Wedge River Road

Afternoon Drive

Herold's shot of Makepisi

 The trackers and myself followed the lion tracks right back towards concrete crossing where we suddenly heard the low growl of a lion warning. Not even 10 meters in front of us the Jacaranda pride stood up startled, stared intently at us and moved off. I think they got just as much of a fright as we did. It was certainly a satisfying dose of adrenaline for the afternoon and once back on the vehicle, we were able to have a wonderful sighting of them lying around in an open grass patch. As the sun went down, the pride became more active and prepped themselves for their evening hunt.

We headed back to camp, finding a Lesser Bushbaby jumping from tree to tree on the way. As we arrived back at camp, just to top off a wonderful drive, Diff spotted a tiny chameleon off on its nighttime endeavors.

I am also posting a couple of other pics of Makepisi from previous sightings; he really is one magnificent cat!

Buffalo (breeding herd) / Argyle - Peru Entrance Road

Lion (Mahlathini male with buffalo kill) / Motswari - Wedge River Rd
Lion (Jacaranda Pride; 2 females and 3 cubs) / Argyle – Peru Entrance Road

Leopard (Makepisi) / Mbali – Java Mbali Road

Daily Synopsis

Hello everyone, It is Andrea here, the ‘blossoming apprentice’….thanks Grant! So I am just helping out for the next two days until Chad gets back. I don’t get to go on all the drives so I am posting a couple of images from the drives I do go on in the next few days, as well as sharing a couple of photographs that I have taken over the last 3 months. As you know from following the blog, Motswari is an incredibly special place and I cannot even begin to describe how amazing it has been working up here for the last while, so hopefully my photos will do all the explaining.

Herold’s cat finding mission continued this morning and as Herold and Diff followed the tracks, the lioness came charging out at them! I wish I had been there. They found the three lions on a buffalo kill not far from camp.

I joined in the afternoon and we started by heading straight to the buffalo kill. The lion had dragged the kill deep into thick bush and all we could get was a brief visual of one of the males. We then headed towards Argyle where we found a small breeding herd of buffalo. One of the males looked very nervous and started sniffing and running, Herold thought it was a little strange so we followed him and came across fresh lion tracks. I joined Diff and the rest of the trackers to follow up on the tracks while Herold took the guests for a sighting of Makepisi, the young male leopard. Just as well I left my camera in the car and Herold got a great shot!