12th & 13th June – Sunny Skies Return!

At last the sunny South African skies returned, and it was good to feel its warmth beating down on us again.

Friday morning started out really misty, but as the mist started to rise, it revealed a herd of about 150 buffalo sleeping on the open clearing opposite the camp. After watching them we carried on in the mist, but it was a bit quiet. While watching a herd of impala I heard another herd frantically alarm calling in the distance, most certainly for a leopard, but had no luck finding anything. The wild dogs appeared to have moved off the property to the north, and there was no sign of the Sohebele pride, but the one thing I still needed to see was rhino, and fortunately the Nhlangula male rhino was found near Nkombi pan. I headed down south and watched him grazing about for a while and in doing so completed the Big 5 for my guests. Herald drove around the eastern side and saw a few elephant bulls then responded to the rhino sighting, as did Elliot. Elliot spotted an unknown young male leopard whilst watching the rhino, so followed him for a while as the leopard stalked a hyena. Eventually the leopard moved off, a bit nervous, but it still provided a good sighting. Back at camp there were again some elephants drinking at the waterhole in front of the camp.

Herald was alone in the afternoon, but had a good drive. He watched another large herd of about 200 buffalo moving towards java dam for a drink. He also saw Mbali female leopard wandering about and surveying the area from a termite mound. Herald then saw his second young male leopard of the day, but this one was rather nervous, and even made a half-hearted attempt at charging the vehicle before running off.

Saturday morning was the last drive for Herald, and he found yet another young male leopard, his third different male leopard in three drives! This male was a bit more relaxed, and had just killed an impala, steam was still rising off its freshly opened gut! The male fed on the impala for a while as Herald and his guests watched. A hyena was drawn to the smell of fresh meat, but was chased off. Herald continued the drive seeing some zebra and other general game, and upon returning to camp saw a hyena running away with the leopards kill in its powerful jaws, and the leopard running after it! Johannes found a very well-fed Sohebele pride up north near our camp (at Argyle dam) late this morning, and earlier he had located Mbali female moving about on a hunt.

This will be the last update for a while as the lodge is closed for the next ten days. I will post some new stories towards the end of the month.

So until then, keep well!

Regards
Chad Cocking

Motswari Guide

10th & 11th June – Weather Not Dampening Sightings – Leopards, Lions, Wild Dogs!

Despite the rather miserable and gloomy weather that has been around over the last few days, game viewing has been pretty good! The windy conditions have ceased, but the dull, gray clouds still blanket the skies, and Thursday saw us receive around 5mm over the course of the day as a fine drizzle spat intermittently throughout the day. However, as Thursday drew to a close, the clouds vanished almost instantaneously and the spectacular stars glittered above our heads for a change!

Wednesday morning was a good one for Herald, he saw a herd of buffalo, a good number of elephant, and the young Machaton male lion (although by all accounts he was rather inactive and just slept!). The highlight of the morning though was getting to see Nthombi female leopard down on Vielmeter. She was her usual active self and while Herald was watching, she stalked and managed to catch a francolin (a small ground-dwelling bird) before settling down to eat it. Her hunger was clearly not satisfied as she had no sooner finished that snack and she was off stalking a warthog!

I was driving again on Wednesday afternoon, and had an enjoyable drive. The general game was not too bad considering the weather, and we had a giraffe and her calf on the airstrip, the usual impala, a nice herd of waterbuck, a raft of hippo’s at Mbali dam, a young hyena came walking down the road towards us, although it was a bit sad to see she was injured on her back-right foot. I went to see if there was any activity at the giraffe carcass on Mbali, as the hyena headed off in that direction, but there were only a few vultures sitting in the trees.

I arrived at the sighting of the young Machaton male just as the light was starting to fade. A small herd of buffalo had wandered closer and were resting no more than 70m from the lion, who was now watching the intently. As the light faded and the herd of buffalo started moving, the young lion decided to follow them, and started stalking closer, pausing whenever a buffalo would look in his direction. Just before it got too dark to watch, the Machaton male ran in towards the buffalo that didn’t react as he expected! Instead of fleeing, they stood their ground, and then started chasing him! The lion ran off with a few buffalo in hot pursuit, but once the danger had been chased off, they returned to the herd, and we left them in peace.

After drinks, we headed back to camp and saw two hippos out of the water and grazing. We had no luck picking up any sign of Mbali or Kuhanya around their favourite haunts, but did come across a herd of elephants on the road. While watching them I heard movement 2m to my right, and looked down to see a young elephant calf waking from its sleep! It obviously wasn’t expecting to see a vehicle, and as its mother had wandered a few meters away, it got a fright, and let off a scream which brought the herd rushing to its aid! I pulled back a bit as the mother arrived to comfort the baby and the herd returned to feeding. As they were still on the road I had to do a U-turn and find another way home, and it was a good choice! We saw another few elephant bulls, and then heard that the staff had seen a leopard killing a mongoose right in the staff village! I was about to tell my tracker about it when we went around the corner and found another leopard in the road! It was Argyle Jnr’s young female cub, who I have named Shongile, meaning ‘beautiful’. I am not sure if it was her or one of her siblings that was in the staff village, but we managed to follow her for a few minutes before she moved into some thick bush on the banks of the Sohebele riverbed. She seemed quite relaxed, and crossed the road in front of us, and even when we tried to go off-road after her, she didn’t run away! The elephants again paid us a visit during the night as they entered the camp area to feed.

A bit of rain fell in the early morning of Thursday morning, but not enough to stop the game drives. The morning started out pretty quiet, not a great deal was going on in the eastern section that I was checking, but then I got a call from a staff member at one of the private camps close to where I was, saying that there were lions following a herd of buffalo close to the camp. I headed straight over there and found the buffalo, but not the lions that had been surrounding them. We did find some tracks of the lions, but had no luck in finding them. As to which pride it was remains a mystery. There are reports of a large pride that do frequent the area off our property to the south of this camp, but we will have to wait a bit longer to see them, and confirm whether the reports of there being white lions among them are true!

I left the area very frustrated, but was excited to hear that a pack of wild dogs had been picked up back in the north. The wild dogs were hunting and on the move and soon lost. I thus decided to go and see the Sohebele pride instead as it was a guaranteed sighting. I arrived to find all seven of the pride looking in good condition, but the females were some distance away from where the new cubs are hidden. They seemed to be in a hunting mood, although their bellies were still looking good (of course that is a relative term for these lions!) after their zebra kill a few days back, possibly supplemented by an impala or two. While watching them the rain started coming down a bit heavier and the lions all lay down and fell asleep.

In the mean time Herald had found the wild dogs that had killed a young male impala and were busy finishing it off. They soon settled down for the day and I made my way over to see them, coming across a small group of elephant on route. While I only counted 12 wild dogs, Herald says he had seen 15. It was the same pack that denned in the area last year, and the alpha female is again showing signs of advanced pregnancy. Although they left the area in February with 17 members, I think the pack did a pretty good job of raising the pups from last year’s litters. I left them resting and headed back to camp.

The afternoon drive was a pretty good one. Besides giraffe, kudu, waterbuck, impala and a bull elephant, we also managed to see a nice breeding herd of elephants feeding in the Mopane trees near the Nhlarulumi riverbed. After leaving them, and slowly making my way to the wild dogs, which I was hoping would get active soon, I bumped into Mbali female leopard at Mvubu crossing. She headed towards Mbali dam, but soon turned around walked right past us as she moved into the river crossing, had a quick drink and then settled down. I left her after hearing the wild dogs were getting active, but I was too late, they had already caught and killed a grey duiker while Johannes was following them. By the time I arrived, it was all but gone and the younger dogs were playing with what remained of the duiker; the legs and skin. The adults had already set off again looking to make another kill. We followed behind and just as the light was fading they came across a herd of impala that they pursued in a half-hearted manner. It was too dark to view them so I left to go and join Herald a few hundred meters away where he had found Kuhanya female leopard! While watching her she started stalking something, and we soon saw that it was the wild dogs! She stopped stalking and sat watching them, but when one dog came running past she hid in the grass until it was gone! She did the same with the next wild dog, but the third dog spotted her and started growling which got the attention of the rest of the pack who gathered to our left, but Kuhanya was wise enough to realise the potential danger and moved off, and the wild dogs did the same.

Heading home we managed to see some elephant, as well as an African wild cat. The clouds eventually lifted, and the guests got to see the spectacularly starry African skies whilst enjoying our dinner! Maybe tomorrow we get to see the sun?

09th June – Windy Weather and Wild Dogs

The winds have been gusty all day long, and that did us no favours from a game viewing point of view as the animals sought shelter in the thick bush. My dreams of finding a cheetah in the quiet eastern sector proved just that; dreams! There were a number of impala, a herd of zebra and some kudu, but little else. I did manage to see a large herd of buffalo as they awoke form their nights slumber and started heading to the north in search of some water. A guide from a neighbouring lodge found the Sohebele female lion who is believed to have cubs, and she was making her way to the north western corner of the reserve, beyond which we believe she is hiding her cubs. While she was lost going into some thick bush, we later saw her tracks crossing off the property.

The quiet middle part of the drive ended when I headed back towards camp to follow up on Argyle Jnr leopard’s young female cub that Johannes had seen earlier on top of a termite mound. After seeing some zebra, we spotted the leopard still sitting on the mound. As she is not totally used to vehicles, I didn’t pull off road to get closer, but viewed her form about 20m from the road. After about five minutes she got up and wandered towards us and crossed the road about 7-8m ahead of us before disappearing in the bush. Heading back to camp we saw zebra, impala and a nice herd of giraffe on our airstrip.

Herald had a better morning, despite being unsuccessful in locating a rhino near Voël dam. He commented that he saw some nice general game, some elephant bulls and drove past a herd of elephants whilst on his way south to see two wild dogs! He arrived just in time, but unfortunately after a couple of minutes the two dogs bolted off after impala and were lost. Although this is typical, with a large pack of 10-15 dogs, one normally locates on one or two individuals and can continue with the sighting, but with only two dogs, this becomes extremely difficult! As a result, the dogs were not located again in the afternoon. Some good news though was that a large pack of wild dogs was also reported on the reserve to our north, so there is every chance they might come across to our property over the next few days.

The afternoon was also very quiet as the wind persisted through the day, with some splattering rain falling after breakfast. The giraffe wandered past camp during lunch. On drive, the leopard kill that was found by our guides doing bush work in the morning was gone, and there was no sign of the leopard. We also received a report of a rhino at Voël dam, but found nothing when we arrived. Herald and I left our trackers on the spoor and they soon found the Argyle male rhino sleeping in a Mopane thicket. He was very relaxed today, despite the wind, so provided a nice sighting for our guests. After that, I had very little luck, although I did tick off a jackal, a large bull elephant and a bushbaby. Herald had a bit more luck and saw genet, hyena, elephant, African wild cat and a hippo outside of the water.

We shall just have to see what the weather is like tomorrow, but hopefully it improves!

07th & 08th June – Mtenga-tenga Rhino Finds Love!

The last two days have been a bit chilly and windy here in the Timbavati, but the guests visiting Motswari have still been treated to some good game viewing. Sunday morning saw Johannes finding the large Argyle male leopard on Motswari wedge just North West of the camp; unfortunately he did move off the property to the west. Andrew was on his way to see this leopard when he bumped into a leopard of his own near our airstrip; Argyle Jnr’s 15-month old female cub. Although she is not as relaxed as our other leopards, she still provided a good sighting, and allowed the vehicle to follow her as she wandered about chasing birds! There was no luck in relocating that buffalo herd from last night, nor a rhino whose tracks were seen a few hundred meters from camp.

I went on drive in the afternoon, and the windy conditions weren’t overly conducive to good game viewing, but we still had a nice drive with some giraffe near camp, a nice herd of about 25-30 elephant feeding quite close to the vehicle. The youngsters were also entertaining playing with one another and attempting to be big and scary and chase the vehicle away! After that we saw some baboons, kudu and impala, as well as hippo at Vyboom dam. After drinks things were a bit quiet, although heading back o camp we came across three elephants drinking at Voël dam, another lone bull a bit further on, then some zebra on our airstrip and that herd of buffalo were once again just behind the camp at Trade Entrance dam. During dinner all the guests went to have a looka t three elephants drinking at the waterhole in front of the lodge.

Despite Monday being windy once again, our game viewing was pretty good. That buffalo herd did a good job avoiding us once more, but when two rhino’s were found down south, we decided to head over there. We did find two herds of zebra and kudu around, as well as some giraffe with a young calf. We heard that the rhinos were right on the boundary of our reserve, but took a chance anyway, and got lucky, as when we arrived, we found our relaxed male rhino, Mtenga-tenga, in the company of a lovely female! She was the most relaxed female I have seen in the Timbavati, and a rather large female at that! The two hung around for the duration of the sighting, the female just standing 10m away looking at us while Mtenga-tenga casually grazed a bit further away. It is good to see that this poor male has finally found a female, and it is no doubt the female that he was seen mating with a week-and-a-half ago. If all goes well, we might have a baby rhino running around in 16-months time!

We left the rhinos and headed a few kilometers north to see the Sohebele pride, all seven members that had been found near our Java camp. It was really great to hear that all of the pride were together in the heart of their old territory, but what was even better was that they had a kill – a young zebra! Although the meat was almost all gone, and all the lions were fat and sleepy when I arrived, it wasn’t long before they went to feed on the bones and scraps again. With full bellies, three of the pride, including the lactating female, managed to shove some more food into their guts!

In the afternoon, we found another nice herd of elephant with some young babies, but our main goal was to see a leopard, so when the southern stations fond Nthombi female leopard, we headed down south. The general game was pretty good; we saw a nice herd of giraffe with some zebra and impala, several herds of waterbuck, baboons, hippo and a lone male giraffe. We eventually arrived and joined Herald at the leopard sighting where Nthombi was perched in the fork of a marula tree. She remained there posing for the camera for about half an hour before we left and went to have a look at the Sohebele pride who were remarkably still feeding on what little was left of the zebra! It was really great to see and hear them growling and tussling over the few scraps before they all headed off to the trough below the Geiger’s cottage and we watched them having a drink from the opposite bank of the Machaton riverbed. We headed back home and managed to see a few more elephants on the way back, as well as two elephants drinking from the pool back at camp.

Another interesting bit of news was that Johannes found tracks for a lone male cheetah in the central parts of the reserve (drinking at Java dam), but unfortunately we had no luck in tracking him, but maybe we have some luck finding him over the next few days.

05th & 06th June – Big Cats – Lions, Leopards and Cheetah!

No, that is not a typo; our guides did get to see a cheetah on Saturday morning, the first sighting since August last year, but a bit more on that later!

Friday morning was a bit quiet, there was no activity around Mbali’s kill, and just the head and neck were left. Giyani did manage to see a few elephant and buffalo n drive. Friday afternoon was a bit better, once again elephant and buffalo were ticked off, and Andrew managed to locate the Argyle male leopard in some thick bush just to the west of Mbali’s impala kill. Giyani also got to see Nkateko female leopard down south wandering around near Machaton Cottage. On Friday night, while doing a drive on the neighbouring reserve, I did get to see the whole Sohebele pride together sleeping on the main Timbavati access road, and although the five sub-adults (and even the two adult females) were looking a bit thin, they appeared to be in a good enough condition, especially the skinny young male who I had presumed was dead before I went on leave. He is however looking quite good (at least compared to the last time I saw him over a month ago!), and he wasn’t limping when he was walking, so maybe he might just make it! Both female lions were showing signs of lactation, and I would assume both have had cubs, although only one of the females teats were showing clear signs of suckling.

Saturday morning produced a sighting that is never expected, and always creates a lot of excitement! The southern stations found a relaxed male cheetah in the south, and Andrew was lucky enough to be able to respond to this extremely rare animal. The male cheetah is presumed to have come in from the western Klaserie, but by all accounts was extremely relaxed with all the attention he was getting. Although cheetahs do occur in the area, the vegetation here in the Timbavati is not ideally suited to their needs, that being open grasslands to use their incredible speed to chase down small to medium sized antelope. Although cheetahs can hunt in the woodland areas quite effectively, the presence of lions, hyenas and even leopards sometimes puts enough pressure on them to drive them away. Sightings are thus rare and always treasured. The last sighting of a cheetah on a game drive was last August when we saw a mother and her fully grown son down south. Godfrey also told me that he had seen a very skittish female cheetah a few months back on Scholtz airstrip, one of the last places you would expect to find one due to the thick Mopane woodland in that part of the reserve!


Saturday morning also saw the three Mahlathini male lions being found on Karan’s airstrip, and they were followed for some time before settling to the west of Karan’s Big Dam. In the afternoon, I eventually managed to get out on a drive, and I found a herd of about 100-150 buffalo whilst en route to the lions. I managed to locate the three lions sleeping not far from where they had been left in the morning, and got to see first-hand the change in their behaviour! It was really pleasing to see what the other guides had been speaking about; these lions were eventually relaxing around the vehicles! It took a while, but they have realized that the land rovers do not harm them, and now that such a mind-shift has taken place, we can have some good sightings of them. Admittedly, they are still not as nonchalant with regard to the vehicles as our other lion prides, but they do not run away, and settle down almost immediately once a vehicle pulls into the sighting. We will still give them their deserved space, but I can only imagine that they will continue to get more and more relaxed around the vehicles.



The cheetah was unfortunately not relocated this afternoon, so I missed out again, but there is always a ‘next time’! The rest of the afternoon was a bit quiet, a some zebra, impala, waterbuck, kudu, hippo, civet, genet, bushbabies, a spotted eagle owl, and then a side-striped jackal on our airstrip. As I approached the camp, that herd of buffalo was arriving for a drink at Trade Entrance Dam. They cautiously approached the water, but soon ran off as a hyena came running in! Once they realized it was only a hyena, they returned to drink. At camp, the leap of leopards was seen again by the staff. Just after we departed for game drive, the alarm-calling vervet monkeys alerted the staff to the presence of a predator, and they soon spotted a leopard resting on a low branch just up the riverbed, 100m or so from the breakfast verandah. After sunset, the waiters saw a couple of leopards at the waterhole in front of the lodge – a great sign that this family is spending a good deal of time around the camp. There were also tracks for a rhino walking past the back of camp on Saturday night, and with the elephants again showing themselves during lunch and at night, we had a busy night around camp last night!

04th June – Mbali, Kuhanya and Argyle Male Leopards

I am still not on drive, it is relatively quiet at the camp, but the game seems to be pretty good. Over the last two days, there has been at least two buffalo herds on the property, and on Thursday afternoon there was a herd of about 100-150 on our airstrip, while in the morning, Giyani saw a bigger herd in the south.

Elephant sightings also appear to be quite good, with a good number of bull elephants and a couple of breeding herds about. There were five bull elephants hanging around the camp on Thursday evening. Unfortunately the rhinos have not been that co-operative, and although Johannes found two together this morning, they sounded to be rather nervous and eventually moved into some thick bush and were not relocated. The lions have not been overly active either, although they have been heard calling, the last sighting was of the three Mahlathini males on Wednesday morning, when they were followed from Argyle dam, past Sohebele dam, and were left going towards Karans camp trough. Giyani and Johannes commented on how relaxed they seemed, and that the lions walked within a couple of meter of the vehicle on numerous occasions during the sighting – and that is some really pleasing news!

The best sightings over the last couple of days have belonged to the leopards. On Wednesday morning, Giyani found a large female leopard that was semi-relaxed around the vehicle, and given some space, she was fine. I would assume that this was the Argyle Jnr female that had been around camp over the last few days. Wednesday morning also saw Mbali and Kuhanya being seen with a fresh impala kill that lasted them two days, although the most surprising thing was finding the large Argyle male leopard feeding on their kill on Thursday morning with the two female leopards (Kuhanya is his the daughter of Argyle male) not far off. While on bush work after breakfast, I did see Kuhanya near the impala kill, but no sign of the Argyle male. After doing our work and heading home, I did find Mbali sleeping in the middle of the road some distance from the kill, and that was a pleasant surprise which made my bush work more fun (actually had a good drive, saw kudu, waterbuck, impala, baboon, elephant, giraffe, vultures feeding on a dead giraffe, zebra and two different leopards!). There was another leopard drinking in front of the lodge on Wednesday evening just before the game drives returned to camp, and the same leopard was also seen walking past the staff village a bit later that night. The monkeys had been alarm calling near the camp in the morning, and we all suspected that there was a leopard that they could see, and this just proved it. I also managed to see one of Argyle Jnr’s young male cubs wandering around on Wednesday afternoon.

03rd June – Hello There!

It seems like ages since I last did this, and well, it has been! I have just returned to Motswari after three weeks away from the Timbavati; I spent my annual leave back home in Johannesburg, and was quite keen to return to the bush after a long break.

After a quick chat with some of the guides, it seems as though the game viewing has been pretty good, with a couple of highlights I would like to share with you all. The first sighting that I wish I had been around to see was that of the Argyle Jnr female leopard and her three cubs that spend have spent the last few days around the camp. It all started when Zandile (an Adult Educator who is here teaching the staff) was walking past the breakfast verandah one evening and saw something on the wall which at first glance she thought was one of the hyenas that frequent the camp, but it didn’t take her long to realise that this was no hyena, it was a leopard sitting on our breakfast verandah! She went and called Alphius in the boma and he came and confirmed this, then the guests put their dinner on hold and went and watched not one, but four leopards in front of the verandah! One was having a drink, one was below the pool, and then another was just below the breakfast verandah – what a treat to have these leopards in our camp! From all accounts they spent about half an hour in the riverbed below the main buildings of camp. There presence was not fleeting, and over the next three days, they were seen a coupe more times, some times coming to drink at sunset, other times walking around near the workshop, and as recently as yesterday morning, Giyani saw fresh tracks of this leap of leopards walking around our staff houses! It would be really great if this keeps up around the camp!

Besides these four leopards, Kuhanya and Mbali seem to be doing well, as do Rockfig and Nkateko, with reports of male leopard activity increasing too with the vacant territory of Mangadjane up for grabs. Godfrey saw the Argyle male leopard as far south as the northern side of Mbali property in our central area, an area that used to be patrolled by Mangadjane. Palence also found Java Dam female leopard no more than a few hundred meters south of where Godfrey was with Argyle male, and he was no doubt looking for her, perhaps she is coming into estrus. The best part of this drive was that these leopards were a mere bonus to what had been an amazing lion sighting. Godfrey had been following the five, yes, all FIVE Sohebele sub-adult lions! My fears that the missing young male was dead were once again unfounded, and from Godfrey’s account of the story, he is looking in good condition, and the five lions are doing well, and seemingly managing to hunt quite successfully – as Godfrey was to witness. Godfrey watched the five young lions approach a herd of impala in the descending darkness, and they split up and encircled the herd. Godfrey turned the lights off and just sat and waited in silence. Maybe 15-20 minutes passed without action, or indeed being able to see more than the odd pale shape moving through the darkness – then suddenly the sound of trampling hooves broke the silence as the impalas ran in all directions trying to get away from the one lion that had charged in, but little did they know that there were four other lions scattered around. An impala ran straight for the lion closest to Godfrey but managed to, at the last instant, jump and miss the lunging lion. As the sound of the hooves moved off, Godfrey thought it was over, but then he heard the unmistakable sound of death; one of the impalas had been caught. Godfrey followed the death call of the impala that sent all the other lions racing in that direction until they found one male busy killing the unfortunate antelope. The lions started feeding peacefully, but as they devoured their kill, and the meat became less and less, the fighting started, and things got interesting. The little female is too small to actively compete with her bigger cousins, so she just stood back as they fought and waited for the scraps to come flying off, grabbed them and ate in peace! When two elephant bulls came up to the kill and started trumpeting, Godfrey decided to leave, and it was minutes later that he found Argyle male leopard, and upon approaching the sighting, Palence found Java Dam female leopard!

Two days later the youngsters were found all the way down south at Entrance dam, and they had clearly been feeding well again. I also heard that the youngsters got split up shortly afterwards into three smaller groups, 3 + 1 + 1, after the Mahlathini males returned to the area. It also sounds as though the sub-adults managed to reunite with their two mothers who appear to have had their cubs already. I heard an unconfirmed report that one of the females has had two cubs on the neighbouring Klaserie reserve, but there have been no confirmed reports of this from our side – we will have to keep on checking around Voël dam to see if they pitch up there at any stage.

As far as the Mahlathini males are concerned, they still seem quite comfortable in the area, and were found on a buffalo kill near Karan’s Camp a few weeks back, and then over the last few days they have been feeding on a large giraffe that they managed to bring down near Illegal Crossing, in their favourite area on the banks of the Nhlarulumi riverbed.

Then the last bit of noteworthy news that I heard was that of two wild dogs that were seen on a number of occasions near our airstrip and around the camp. It is great to see these highly endangered animals again, especially in light of the fact that the big pack of 16 dogs that frequented the area over the summer have not been seen for some time. The two dogs are possibly two females that have broken away from their natal pack and are wandering around looking to meet up with a group of males to form a new pack. As only the one alpha female gets to mate in each pack, any other females that want to mate have to move away from their natal range and look to establish a new pack – the idea of females moving off instead of males is not very common in the animal world.

As for current sightings, Giyani found a large female leopard this morning not far from the camp, semi-relaxed and he could view her from maybe 15-20m away – I wonder if it is possibly not Argyle Jnr female? Mbali female leopard also killed an impala this morning, and when Giyani arrived, she had not even opened up the stomach. It sounds as though Kuhanya was also there, so I am sure that the two of them will be feeding on that for a couple of days. She killed it very close to Concrete Crossing on the banks of the Nhlarulumi, and with some luck she will take it up one of the big trees growing there rather than dragging it under thick cover. Johannes had also found a spot where the Sohebele females had killed and eaten an impala near Voël dam, but I am not sure if he had any luck tracking them.

And that is about it from me for the time being, I will keep you all updated with new sightings, and hopefully some more photos too – I just got myself a nice new 500mm lens which I am dying to try out, so hopefully the animals play along so I can do so soon!