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a week in the bush: vol 27

on Nov 10, 2014

Welcome to another volume of week in the bush. This week I have decided to do the week in the bush in black and white due to the overcast conditions. These overcast conditions have provided amazing chances for us to capture the bush and the cloud cover has added huge amounts of texture and contrast to the photographs. “When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls!” ― Ted Grant. The overcast conditions have once again provided incredible game viewing for us here at Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve.

Elephants always provide huge amounts of entertainment for both our guests and us as guides as they are always busy and completely fueled with emotions. These two photographs highlight two different expressions that we often see here in the bush and really show how we spend hours and hours watching elephants on a daily basis. An elephant cow shows how bravely she stands, head lifted high and body really stiffened to enlarge herself and intimidate potential predators, protecting her herd and their calves.

The Sand River males have been seen relaxing around our reserve and showing very little interest in patrolling and asserting their dominance over Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve unlike they did last month. Are they becoming content and too relaxed about their territory and the safety of their newborn cubs? Only time will tell as we have seen an additional 5 male lions this week on the property; Solo, the Charleston males and the Fourways males.

The young Fourways males are pushing further and further west, exploring an area never visited before. Although they are nomadic and have been kicked out of their natal pride they showed some signs of coming of age by scent marking cautiously along the roads.

4ways Steve

With a long absence from Sabi Sabi we were graced by the presence of the two Charleston males without their aunt. Do these two males want to move around to scout for territory or is there aunt looking for new males to mate with? Only time will tell. Very interestingly we found these two males almost exactly where the Fourways males had been left a couple of nights earlier.

Charleston Rich No Signature

Solo was found continually watching the sky and watching vultures drop down to the ground like paratroopers. He got up and immediately started following the vultures at a high pace, this allowed him to find the remains of a young kudu that had been killed by a male cheetah who more than likely was intimidated by the vultures and made a hasty retreat.

Skankankbamba2.Terry

With the onset of summer, it has created these green mosaics amongst the tree lines as the deciduous trees have started to flush their leaves. This creates a massive bounty for animals like giraffe and has allowed us to see a greater number of them this week. One of giraffe’s favorite food source, the Acacia, has been shown to communicate with its neighbours by releasing pheromones in the wind to alert the neighbors about a potential ‘predator.’ As a result the plants then drastically increase their tannin levels making the plant extremely unpalatable. Amazingly giraffe, when feeding, will almost always move feeding into the wind a way to counter the plant communication pathways.

Giraffe Steve

Maxabeni was seen at the start of this week looking for his next meal as he was climbing termite mounds, using them as a vantage point and to see if any warthogs may have been sleeping in their burrows. His wounds have all healed and he is looking better than ever, a complete dominate force here at Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve.

Maxabeni Stare Steve

The complete selflessness of a caring mother was highlighted when we had found Nottins female leopard. She was looking very hungry and had successfully killed a warthog piglet, instead of feeding herself; she ate the back legs and carried the piglet back to her den. Here we watched her call the cub out from hiding and present the kill to the cub. He was amazed at his new play tool and even growled and hissed at his mother when she came too close to his prize.

Nottins And Kill Steve

Little Bush and her cub are being seen a lot more regularly providing great sightings. The cub is at the age where she is exploring more around her mothers territory, although at 10 months old she still is not moving too far away from her den. We are hoping that with the relaxed state of the usually elusive Little Bush female will continue to proved exceptional sightings.

The Toulon pack of wild dogs was seen earlier this week. With wild dogs being the most successful predators in Africa and having a kill rate of 80% it is extremely exciting to watch them hunt as they race through the reserve looking for the heavily pregnant female impala ewes. Here at Sabi Sabi, they often use the old historic Selati railway line to scout for their next meal.

WIld Dogs Mike L

A male cheetah has been seen regularly moving through the reserve and asserting his dominance here on the open plains as well through the mixed woodlands. His confidence keeps on growing as twice this week he has been seen confronting hyena and chasing them off his scent.

Cheetah Stare Steve1
  • BY: STEVE VOLKWYN (BUSH LODGE RANGER)
  • IMAGES BY: STEVE VOLKWYN, RICHARD DE GOUVEIA, MIKE LAUBSCHER, TERRY ENNEVER & LANCE VAN DE VYVER
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