General Game
Speaking about mating, April was also the month when we started observing the annual Impala rut. The Impala rams are overloaded with testosterone at the moment. All they do is run around snorting and roaring to alert all competitors to their dominance and presence. A male will challenge a competitor male for the rights to the herd of the females. When he has ousted the previous male the current dominant male will mate with as many females as possible, losing strength hour by hour because of the excersion from chasing the females around, herding them carefully and finally mating with them. Personal preservation at this point is almost non existent as the male is driven by hormones alone. He has a limited time to mate before needing to defend his reign as the mating ram. The average stay for a mating ram is eight days, but may be as little as one hour.

Other than Impalas, the Kudus are also busy mating. The social groups of females and calves are currently being accompanied by a single kudu bull each.

Because of the lack of concentration by the impala rams and kudu bulls at the moment, we are getting a higher percentage of these animals being killed by lions and leopards. This will last till the end of the rut which will be about the end of May.

Leopards
The biggest highlight this month on the Leopard Front was certainly the visit we had by Sindile Female. Sindile is one of the three youngsters born to Makwela about five years ago and who was darted in 2003 to remove a wire snare that was around here neck. This female moved east of our reserve to establish a territory .We haven’t seen her for about two years now and what is really promising is the fact that she was lactating .Upon investigation , and chatting to rangers in neighbouring lodges we have confirmed that she has got cubs hidden at a den site close to a neighbouring lodge. Very good news indeed for the local leopard population.

Another leopard that returned to our reserve this month was the one eyed leopard often seen in the South Eastern reaches of the reserve. She was seen on a handful of occasions walking along one of our boundary roads in the South- her return after an absence of three or four months was just as welcome.

A brand new leopard was seen in the Northern reaches of the reserve after he had been chased up a large sausage tree (Kigelia Africana) by the coalition of six male lions we have named Mapogo. The young nomadic male leopard seemed very relaxed in the presence of vehicles. We hope that he will become a regular feature, and a regularly viewed male leopard. With the Wallingford male ageing we are in need of some new blood in our part of the reserve .The more breeding males present ,the greater the genetic diversity of future cubs.

The other male leopards sighted this month were the Ottowa male and Wallingford male. No sightings were recorded of the Kinky tail male who was last seen about three months ago.

Another leopard not seen this month was the Thai Dam Female, her tracks are present tough but the areas she moves around in have been fairly inaccessible because of the amount of rain had over the summer. We are sure we will get to see her again as soon as the environment dries up a little more.

The Leopards that made up the rest of our sightings were Shangwa and her two cubs, they appear very healthy and the cubs growing stronger day by day. Makwela, who appears again to be pregnant, also seen were Mambiri female, Hippo Dam Female, Makubela Female and the small relaxed female we call The Dam Three Female.

So that all calculated we saw a total of twelve different leopards this month. Certainly no need to start contemplating any complaints.

Lions
The good news this month on the Lion front is that two Sand River Pride females are back in the reserve and mating with members of the new dominant males in the North, The Mapogo Coalition of six males.

Hopefully these two females can start a new life now with the protection of the Mapogo males. It will be a trying time for the two females but we all here are overjoyed with their presence and the possibility of continuing the legacy of the famed Sand River Pride.

The presence of the Mopogo males has led to the disappearance of the Ottawa pride of 2 females and 6 sub adults, as well as the Nlanguleni Male. They were seen right at the beginning of the month but have subsequently left the reserve to take up residence in areas further east of here. Only time will tell if and when we will get to see them again.

The full Ravenscourt Pride did spend time here with us this month. Here I am happy to report that all individuals are still present and very healthy. This pride consists of 1 male and 3 females and seven sub adult lions. Their presence here seems to coincide mostly with the presence of the buffalo breeding herd. They are by far our most healthy and best looking pride of lions.

The Ximkungwe Pride lost another female this month due to having a broken lower jaw. She was unable to eat and thus losing condition rapidly, thus resulting in her demise. This pride is still our most frequently seen pride and our most dominant lion pride.

The female with the 4 cubs is seen quite regularly now in close proximity to the lodge. She is focusing a lot of her hunting around the Leopard Hills and she was seen killing a young impala and bringing her cubs to the meal right in front of the lodge near the waterhole, where she could be viewed from the breakfast deck.

The rest of the youngsters are also around, so this pride now numbers 1 male and 4 females 12 sub adults and 4 cubs. It is seldom though that we see the pride together. This is because they split from time to time to ensure they all get enough food. 1 impala between 21 lions only last about 3 min. When they are together though, it is a real treat seeing 21 lions together.

Sightings totals for the Month:
Lion 50
Leopard 50
Elephant 74
Buffalo 25
Rhino 36
Cheetah 1
Note: The above sightings totals reflect the number of individual sightings of animals, not populations of animals in the area. E.g. If we see a herd of 12 buffalo this is noted as one sighting. These sightings are then tallied to get the figure reflected above.

Till next month

Warmest Bush Greetings
Rudi, Ryan and Marius

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