It’s that time again where I get to share with you some of the amazing highlights from yet another eventful week here at Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve. I hope you enjoy.

One of the best highlights of the week for me was also the most simple and involved a camera, a torch and a few great friends. When people visit our reserve, one of the things that really blows them away is the incredible southern night sky that we experience and we are always thrilled to share our knowledge of the stars with our guests. This week I was able to get out there and photograph them as well, which in itself was a lot of fun. It’s quite incredible how much more light the camera is able to gather to really showcase the thousands upon thousands of stars we are so lucky to see on a daily basis.

As far as the animal activity went this week, we saw the Sand River males pay us a brief visit and it must be said that they don’t look particularly great at all. They seemed quite malnourished and lethargic, clearly not being very successful in their own hunting or perhaps just preoccupied. They were found at the remains of a kill that the Southern Pride had made the previous day and the males ate as much of the leftovers as they could before moving off again, presumably to patrol their boundaries once more. They seem to be scrapping a lot by the looks of them and one wonders just how long its going to be before they lose their prime position.

The Southern Pride in contrast is doing fantastically well at the moment now that they have distanced themselves from the Sand River males. They have been killing regularly, from medium sized antelopes to buffalos most recently. All this means is that their condition and cohesion within the group is gaining strength by the day. They have settled quite nicely in our southern reaches of the reserve and we’ve been able to spend time with them on a regular basis again. It is great to have the pride back home and looking contented. I just hope it stays this way and that soon, we get some proper pride males moving into the area.

On the leopard front, it has been quite busy with Xovonekela being found very close to Bush Lodge early in the week. This is the boundary between his and Maxabeni’s territories and he was obviously doing the rounds very early in the morning however, on this occasion he was actually chased up a smallish tree to escape the wrath of the Toulon Pack of wild dogs that had been moving about the area. He only narrowly escaped.

Maxabeni was seen not long after that and was going about marking his extensive territory too. He also seems to be in great condition at the moment with no signs of him being in any further altercations with any other males in the area. This is obviously good news, but it won’t be long in my opinion, before he’s going to have to start really pushing along his southern boundaries again as there are several interested parties that have been investigating this part of the reserve so for his sake and the sake of his remaining cubs, he had better stay vigilant.

Nottins hasn’t been extremely active over the last few weeks, but she was found recently with an impala kill and spent several days relaxing and feeding on the animal undisturbed. It was great to see her still doing well and I think she looks amazing at the moment. I do wonder though, if she will come into oestrus again and produce a litter one last time. She is nearing seventeen years of age now and one has to wonder if she’ll have the energy to do it all again. For the time being, there has been little sign of her seeking out Maxabeni for any reason, let alone for mating.

White Dam was also seen this week, if only very briefly, but she too seems to be doing quite well. The cubs are both still alive and she has been providing very well for them. She is more of a typical leopard and is not one to enjoy the spotlight too much, so we seldom see her even though we know she’s around.

Warthog Wallow has been spending a lot of time around Bush Lodge again and we have seen her hunting at least four days this week, mostly without any success. She is persistent; I’ll give her that though.

There have been many exceptional sightings this week and even though we tend to get more involved with the social lives of the predators, our guests have enjoyed the diversity of species on offer. The large buffalo herds are still moving about the reserve and are always great to see as well as the many bachelor groups of elephants. There is just so much to see and experience and these but some of the highlights.

It’s all been happening here at Sabi Sabi this week and even though the reserve has been full of life, we still take the time to enjoy the smaller things and there’s not much better than settling down and watching an African sunset. We have been really blessed with some spectacular displays of nature this week and as the dry season progresses, its only going to get better. I hope you’ve enjoyed the recap this week. Until next time...