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A Week in the Bush Vol. 116

on Aug 18, 2016

The struggle you’re in today is developing the strength you need for tomorrow.

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With the rain we had just more than a week ago, the open areas and some sandy crests are looking great. Shoots of green grass are now more than 5cm tall, making sure all the grazers in the area are more than happy.

With the good grass around, massive herds of buffalo have been hanging around and this is good news for our lions and they have definitely been taking advantage of this as we’ve been seeing them on a buffalo kill every week.

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This is really good for the lions because of all the cubs around at the moment. We have had two sightings of Floppy Ear’s cubs and one sighting of the 3:2 female’s cubs and it seems like she might have more than two cubs but we will confirm this in the coming weeks as we avoid the den site for about two months.

Floppy Ear’s cubs were introduced to a few of the females and the two older cubs after they tried to take down a buffalo bull only 40 meters away from Floppy Ear’s den site. The cubs are looking great and it should not be too long before she takes them to a kill site.

With the Southern Pride spending so much time in the northern part of the reserve, close to the cubs, the Charleston female and her two cubs, along with the Hilda’s Rock male, have been hanging around the southern area where she’s been taking down buffalo along the riverbed. They are looking good and it’s been a pleasure having the female, who raised the Charleston males, around and seeing how she is raising these two fearless male cubs.

We were also fortunate to see a big male cheetah this week and he was looking great as he had a full belly and could sleep the whole day without any disturbance of other predators.

Since the last fight between Maxabeni and Mahlathini, Maxabeni has been moving through his territory a lot faster and more often. He is definitely feeling more pressure now and the next fight might be soon as the Flat Rock male has also been hanging around the area. Let’s just hope none of these males walk into Little Bush female’s cub.

Things seem to be going well for the Toulon Pack of wild dogs as they’ve been hunting in our northern section a lot and have had a few successful hunts. We were lucky to see all ten cubs on Tuesday and the adults brought back a fresh duiker kill.

And not just looking at all the high profile animals, we’ve been really lucky with some general game and even had some good sightings of honey badgers. A special sighting was also a nyala bull with female coloration.

Let’s see what is in store for us in the coming week, but I am sure it’s going to be exciting!

  • Blog by Franscois Rosslee (Bush Lodge Ranger)
  • Images by Franscois Rosslee, Mike Palmer and Terry Ennever
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