The festive season bought a flurry of activity to the Klaserie, despite the looming drought and lack of steady rainfall. The past few years the Klaserie has enjoyed consistent rainfall during the Summer season, but the change in climate is evident in the behaviour from plains game to the big game at the top of the food chain. We could, with relative ease, predict behaviour from our wildlife. But, with water being scarce and food shortages, our wildlife is creating a new set of rules.
Let’s just say, these have been interesting times. Despite the unpredictable natural elements, we’ve had a few captivating wildlife moments which have certainly stolen the show during the course of the week. nThambo enjoyed incredible hippo and elephant sightings. These giant, water loving herbivores have been hogging the waterholes and soaking up the water where they can.
The Hercules Pride of lions have stepped up their game and are a formidable force on the Africa on Foot traverse – a few weeks ago they attacked one of the Ross Pride breakaway females! But, she seems to have dusted herself off and continued with her usual behaviour – they were spotted last night while out on game drive. The Ross girls have been fairly consistent with their appearances. However, they’re lacking in lustre and appear to have adopted a more-than-neccessary lazy lion lifestyle. Will these lions come into contact again and compete for food sources?
We’ve also had the presence of unknown lions testing the waters on the Trilogy turf, and they nearly came head-to-head with the Hercules Pride ! There is quite a melting pot of confusion with the Klaserie lions re-establishing their boundaries and travelling to find potential prey.
This has left the door wide open for the leopards, who have been sighted on a regular basis. Clearly they know there is plenty of game close to readily available water sources. The leopards keep coming back for more ! Sightings of leopards at Africa on Foot have been incredible. We now have regular leopard sightings of Cleo, Zero and the Marula female. As a matter of fact, the young Zero was seen in the same spot and same tree where he appeared two weeks ago.
More on the leopard front from the Sabi Sand. Umkumbe appears to be showing off with their abundant leopard sightings. Firm favourite, Mxabene, decided to hang around outside the lodge shortly after Wednesday night’s game drive came to an end. Because of the dry land, huge breeding herds of elephant have been arriving in their droves to the Sand River, which is located in front of the lodge. Mxabene and Kigelia seem to be the two leopards who’ve dominated sightings. In other non-cat news, large dagha boys (buffalo bulls) have been spotted wallowing in the mud and enjoy the respite from the heat.
In true form, this week the cats are stealing the show. Hope you enjoy our pictures and have a fantastic weekend ahead !
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