September 2009
We open this month’s Message Stick with a lovely piece written by a young girl, Emily Hodge, of Port Macquarie after her first trip to Africa with us. She and her mother Kim are travelling again in November and she will have the opportunity to reacquaint herself with her favourite Elephant – Jabulani - as she is doing a short period of work experience at the Endangered Species Centre in Hoedspruit in South Africa. Here is her story:
“Everything was peaceful. All I could hear was my own breath and the shuffle under me. The world around me was quiet and aware. I could see many eyes looking at me, mouths moving in front of me, but I couldn’t hear the words. I couldn’t see everything I wanted to, but that was one great thing, there would always be more for me to come back to. Everything was amazing. I had slobber on the side of my face and on my left hand and wrist. From a cheeky boys mouth. I was in Africa, in a dream, riding an elephant! It was one of the greatest days of my life. And I would remember it forever. I was queen of the world! My dream had come true. One that I had been wishing about for a long time. I was in love with a whole country, South Africa. The amazing wildlife, the kind people, the clothes, their lives and the animals, animals and animals. I was astounded that people were so clueless about this world. That people would prefer to be in overpopulated cities looking at cartoon characters rather than here amongst all this beauty. I loved it and just wanted to stay, but alas I couldn’t. I was about to leave, and about a year too soon. All I wanted in those few minutes was to stay there in my own world, and keep moving. I was in a world without worries and I didn’t have a care in the world. I knew I could come back, it was just a matter of time. Time that I hoped very hard would come.”
Our thanks to Emily and we are sure that you will have another wonderful experience in Africa soon.
News from Savanna Private Game Reserve
(With thanks and acknowledgement to Paddy Hagelthorn and the staff of Savanna fo the text)
The Ottowa pride has moved into our area on what looks like a permanent basis. For the whole month, they have not been east on any occasion and have spent the whole time establishing themselves in the ex-Sand River Pride area. This has been exceptionally good for the Western sectors’ viewing, as we thought that with the demise of the Sand River pride we would have a shortage of lions in our area for many months to come.
The Ximungwe pride continues to dominate the Southern part of our traversing area and it looks as if at least 4 out of the 5 females are pregnant and hopefully within the next two months we will see them giving birth on Savanna’s property. The release of the imported wildebeest has also helped to keep them in the area and they have been busy regulating the wildebeest populations. There have been at least 4 wildebeest kills on our property this month. We have also been privileged to have the Sparta pride come over from the east on several occasions. Quite why these lions are moving into our area on a regular basis is unknown, as their core area used to be a long way east of our boundaries. The Ottawa, Ximungwe and Sparta prides did have one confrontation in the middle of our traversing area, where serious territorial boundaries seem to be established.
We have also been fortunate to have most of the male coalition, the Mapogo, on our property during the month. Two of the males seem to have had altercations with other lions and have been limping quite badly for a few weeks now. However, this has not stopped them from dominating kills that the female prides have made and they are all in exceptionally good condition.
I did mention in the last newsletter that it was thought Makwela had been killed outside the Sabi Sand. It has been confirmed that this has in fact happened. While we haven’t seen the body, it is almost certain that Makwela is no longer with us. Hlabakunzi, her daughter, has definitely taken over the northern part of her territory while Metsi, which is Mambiri’s cub, has taken over the South Eastern part of her territory and both are being seen in this area on a regular basis. We are still having an influx of young males into Savanna’s property and this does not bode well for Mambiri and Makubela who both still have cubs. These young males vying for territory will kill cubs if they come across them. We have had reports that this has happened to one of Makubela’s cubs just outside our area. We are very pleased to say that so far Mambiri is doing exceptional well with the rearing of her single cub and we are seeing them both on a regular basis.
Shangwa still has her cub, but there is a new young male that has moved into her territorial area and there have been a few close shaves. This male who we believe is a four-year old male has been following Shangwa and has narrowly missed this cub on a few occasions. This male, which is called the Ravenscourt male, is exceptionally relaxed with the cars and it would be wonderful for us if, at some stage, he could become one of our territorial males. At the beginning of the month, the Ottowa pride almost caught Shangwa and her cub in the thicket close to the river. It was incredible to see how brave Shangwa was and she actually had physical contact with one of the lions that was about to catch her cub. This distracted the lion and the cub was able to get into the tree where the lions could not pursue it.
The two baby hippo that we have mentioned and shown photos of in previous newsletters are providing us with fantastic viewing yet again, as at this time of the year, after the morning chill and once the sun is up, the hippos come out onto the bank to sunbathe. This particular group of hippos has become exceptionally relaxed with the vehicles coming backwards and forwards. They ignore us viewing them now and we are able to get very close whilst they blob out on the banks of the dam.
serval killing a puff adder. This was unusual, firstly because it was in the middle of the afternoon and secondly, because this particular animal was exceptionally relaxed with the vehicles. Normally you only see serval as they scurry off into thick bush. This female seemed to be more concerned with securing her meal than being viewed by us in the Land Rover. She killed the puff adder by hitting it with her paw over a period of 20 minutes. After finally stunning the snake sufficiently enough, she bit it on the head and proceeded to eat it. Unfortunately, the grass was too long for us to get pictures of her with the snake, but we were able to get photographs of her on her own.
At the beginning of the month, some of the rangers saw the Ximungwe pride catch and manhandle a honey badger. This ferocious little creature managed to hold its own against five lionesses and did this by sheer aggression and also by emitting a terrible spray from anal glands, just as a skunk would, which persuaded the lionesses to move on reluctantly. The honey badger did, however, get mauled quite badly and we were concerned that it might not survive its wounds. However, a couple of weeks after the incident, we again found the honey badger and, apart from a limp, it didn’t seem too much the worse for wear.
The male cheetah has made several visits this month and he too climbed on the bandwagon and killed a young wildebeest. It is a pity we don’t have any females around, but there is a request that has gone in for us to re-introduce some cheetah into the Sabi Sand. Whilst these cheetah will probably not stay in the Sabi Sand indefinitely, it would be good to boost our cheetah population in the whole area. Cheetah numbers in this area seem to have diminished dramatically over the past few years and I believe this is due to feline Aids that has been evident in this area. This is not an uncommon disease for cats around the world.
Thank you to all those who sent in photos for our guest “Photo of the Month” spot in the newsletter. It was very difficult to choose the best one this month. Please don’t get disheartened if your photograph wasn’t chosen, but we only have space for one photo a month. The photo we chose this month was from John Mitchell Adams and was entitled, “The winking owl.”
News from Camp Jabulani.
(With acknowledgement and thanks to all the wonderful people at camp Jabulani)
Born to mother Lundi and father Joe on 25 June 2009 at 02h23 am, MAMBO made his grand entrance. Aptly named by the Camp Jabulani grooms, "MAMBO" means "KING".
A strapping young fellow - Mambo stands 92cm tall and weighed in at 110kgs. He is the fourth baby to join the Camp Jabulani herd since the luxury safari camp opened.
News From Great Plains Conservation.
(With acknowledgement and thanks to Hilton Walker and Dana Allen of PhotoSafari (Pty) Ltd).
While leading a recent digital photographic wildlife workshop into Botswana, Dana Allen and his guests stayed for three nights at Selinda Camp, a beautiful lodge located at the top of the Selinda Spillway in the 320 000 acre Selinda Reserve in northern Botswana. This is his story on what is possible one of the best game drives ever...
Enjoy
Hilton Walker
“On the morning of May 27th 2009 we were out before dawn as usual in the Selinda Reserve and early in the morning came upon a lioness that was stalking waterbuck. Our guide Motsamai, or "Mots" as he is known to guests and staff, informed us that this young female had been mating during the last week and was now separated from the main pride of lions within the area. We spent the morning with her, watching several fumbled attempts to hunt the waterbuck and a close call for a warthog that narrowly escaped her desperate efforts.
The afternoon drive started on a high note as we witnessed a giant eagle owl stealing a guinea fowl from a tawny eagle that had just made the kill.
We encountered the lioness again, half-heartedly stalking a herd of mixed wildlife only to retire to the shade of a nearby sausage tree for some rest.
In an instant the scene changed dramatically as a heard of impala came flying through the bush directly at us. Giraffe, kudu, zebra and impala all scattered quickly and quietly in such a manner that we instantly knew that only one creature instils such complete and utter fear into its prey: Lethalerwa, the Tswana name for the endangered African Wild Dog!
Galvanized into action, we drove in the direction that the startled herds were coming from. As we broke the cover of the brush and came into an open grassy plain we saw one wild dog crossing the Selinda Spillway and race around the corner out of sight. We sped off in pursuit, crossing the spillway at the nearest shallow point and following the path of the Wild Dog. As we rounded the corner we saw the pack, six altogether, wildly feeding on a young kudu that they had brought down just moments before near the edge of the water. We watched and listened as the scene unfolded before us.
The excited feeding frenzy of the Wild Dog is a spectacle difficult to describe but full of calling and quick and ravenous devouring of the prey.
After about twenty minutes an adult spotted hyena arrived at the kill. As soon as the wild dogs saw him, they growled fiercely and chased him to the perimeter of the clearing where he remained for the rest of the day.
By this time a troop of baboons at the edge of the forest were sounding loud alarm calls and climbing into the tops of nearby trees. The dogs went back to the kill, and now having devoured much of the kudu started playing with each other and giving displays of dominance and submission.
As we watched and photographed this activity a flash of tawny fur just visible through the bushes caught our eyes from across the water. It was the lioness from earlier in the day! She had no doubt heard the commotion of the kill and the calls of the baboons and realized that here was her next meal. As she saw the dogs with the remains of the kill there was no hesitation. She leapt into the water at full speed, bounding through the deep water and across the spillway.
The wild dogs knew what was coming and instantly scattered before she even reached the other side. Now the lioness searched for the remains of the kill and used her keen sense of smell to locate various leftover pieces of the carcass and started to feed.
Our group was in shock and delight at the amazing sight that we had just witnessed and as the sun was setting, we were all happily recounting the charge of the lioness, the hungry hyena and the spectacle of the dogs. We moved off the kill site, about 100 meters to the west where we started to photograph the wild dogs as they headed off into the glorious African sunset causing small wisps of dust to rise into the air.
At that moment Steve, a Selinda Camp guide on another vehicle, quietly radioed across “Leopard.” Off to our left and across the water was a large male leopard that frequented the area. We could not believe our good fortune! We made our way over to the leopard (a magnificent specimen) and followed him as he made his way along the water and toward the kill. As he saw the lioness, he kept to the cover of the bushes. He gazed longingly at the remains of the kudu but realized that there was no way around the lioness.
As our guides reached for their spotlights to illuminate the scene, another pair of eyes was spotted in the now dark water of the spillway. A large crocodile, perhaps between 2 and 3 meters long was making its way to the kill! We watched in disbelief as the crocodile slowly pulled itself out of the water and up to the place where the kudu had been devoured, smelling some of the blood stained grass and eating some of the remaining intestines.
Several hyenas came near the crocodile, but after a short while determining that nothing much else was left, the crocodile headed back into the water and departed the scene with a brisk splash disappearing back into the darkness of the water.
Our hearts were pounding, jaws open in disbelief; our minds were going over this unbelievable spectacle of wildlife that had presented itself in the past hour. We realized that we had witness what few had seen before, a kill sighting with all of Africa’s Super Predators being present. As we drove back into Selinda Camp we all knew that this day would never be forgotten. Our fantastic tale would quickly spread. The story of the charging lioness, the wild dog pack with the kudu, the leopard and the incessantly calling hyenas, and not to forget the lone crocodile… their stories would all be remembered and surely would come to be known as the Selinda Spectacular!”
Editors note:
With stories like this how can you not want to travel and have these experiences. Contact us and we can get you on a Safari to Selinda.
I think that is about enough excitement for one month. We have had a number of people return for their trip over the last couple of weeks and all have had a super time. Some comments:
Wilderness was fantastic and our guide, Angelo Forbes CANNOT be too highly recommended. I think he was the most professional person in tourism that Russell and I have ever dealt with, all of us really missed Angelo during the rest of our holiday. Please, if you have other clients requesting tours from/around Capetown/garden Route try and request Angelo. My highlight of the trip was Grootberg lodge - what a fantastic place! what fantastic staff! The scenery was majestic, the Rhino trekking great fun as well as the horse riding , and the food and service magnificent . A real credit to the local Conservancy!!
We actually got to see the black Rhino up quite close and on foot which, like canoeing on the Zambesi amongst the hippos, constitutes an extreme sport as far as I am concerned.
Amanda.
We arrived home late yesterday after spending 10 days in South Africa with my family.
The trip was just awesome, we were absolutely blown away, what a great experience and thank you so much for all your efforts and also to your staff. Vintage Africa were great as were Grumeti. It was an adventure of a lifetime and one that we hope to experience again in the future. The wildlife played its part and its was mating season, so that was fun and also there were lots of babies around as well, so we saw all kinds of baby animals which was an added bonus. The accommodation was excellent and we were also the weather played its part. Zanzibar was also great, I am so pleased that we did the Island, again the hotel was fabulous.
Pauline
Happy Safaris!
John
61 2 4984 9747
jma@destinationsafrica.com.au
www.destinationsafrica.com.au