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Courtney’s Highlights: June/July

on Aug 19, 2015

For most people, it’s a 9-5 life, Monday to Friday. Weekends are a time to wind down, crack open a bottle of wine and enjoy a bit of family time. For us rangers, it’s a six week period before there’s any prospect of a morning lie in or adding a cheeky bit of champers to the orange juice. It’s a long period but we are rewarded with 2 weeks of bliss and an extended period of time with our loved ones, but in particular, a time to reflect. Having done just that, in my June July cycle, I was very blessed with a plethora of contrasting sightings and experiences.

Winter is known as the better time of the year to see predators mating, anticipating the spring rains to bring a bounty of food to feed the cubs to follow. It is also known for sizable kills as prey become weakened by the diminishing food supplies, high parasitic loads and limited water supplies. The extent of browsing and grazing on the bush also make finding such sightings somewhat easier. In my first week back this was apparent; Little Bush had her eye on Maxabeni and persistently attempted to mate with him. His lack of interest in her was somewhat confusing and only confirmed by his greater interest in hunting which turned out to be successful after pinning down a large male bushbuck. Clearly, as any woman would be after putting so much effort into their relationship, she took to comfort food, and made the most of the free meal stashed up a nearby Marula tree. The circling hyenas below the tree did nothing to entice him into joining her either.

A few days later Maxabeni finally took the reigns; with women throwing themselves at him, he didn’t just mate with Little Bush but Warthog Wallow too! Voster, my tracker, after days of throwing comments at Maxabeni saying he was “not a real man”, turned around and said to me “this leopard is a Shangaan leopard” and would have given Maxabeni a hug if it didn’t cost him his life. Apparently this is not this first time this behaviour has been recorded but definitely a first for us here at Sabi Sabi!

My next sighting of Little Bush was about 2 weeks later and it was a bold reminder of how unpredictable and complex these animals are. From rolling over acting coy trying to mate with Maxabeni, Little Bush had done a 360 and was charging and actively ambushing vehicles. Concerned at Voster’s vulnerability on the tracker seat, we got him into the vehicle and kept our distance whilst trying to view her, before we saw her stalk the other game vehicle in the sighting and do a full blown charge! Clearly unhappy and not wanting to stress her out we decided to leave and prohibit other vehicles from entering the area, despite not having had a clear sighting of her ourselves. It was an intimidating sight witnessing her shear pace and aggression and a stark reminder that we are visitors in their space. Despite the leopards of the Sabi Sand being some of the most habituated leopards in the world, they are with no doubt still very wild.

06Courtney Dalziel LBC

Love was not just for the leopards though. The Fourways males have officially taken over and to prove it, they are wooing the all women! In my last cycle they had already won over two of the Southern Pride females and are now said to be on their third. After tracking down the first of the females after observing signs of her willingness to mate during the morning’s drive, we found the young female with one of the Fourways males. As she got up and moved toward the male, we tried to reposition ourselves before getting wedged on a tiny hardwood stump that was hidden in a tuft of grass. Now stuck and with no prospect of being able to get out to fix the problem, we had no choice but to wait. Luckily Sabi Sabi TV Prime Time was on and the two didn’t take to finding some privacy behind a nearby shrub. We watched the two mate approximately 80 meters from our vehicle in the open. The bout of activity was shortly followed by the male walking away from the female and into the shade between the bush and ourselves before flopping down to rest. Lions mate approximately every half an hour and as our situation hadn’t changed it meant that the second time around we had front view seats! I don’t think anyone could complain about getting stuck with that view! When the lions eventually moved off, we managed to free ourselves within a matter of minutes and were on our way again, with everyone still grinning from ear to ear.

It was the Fourways males who gave me my most prominent contrast of the cycle too. Everyone is always hugely impressed with the Big 5 and lions eating a waterbuck, is pretty darn impressive. One evening whilst watching just that, the eerie intimidating scene was perfectly displayed before us. Thick in some bush, one of the Fourways males was feasting on the kill – the most prominent memory from which was the crunching of bones and cartilage amongst dead silence, whilst the other moved around in the drainage line below us, out of sight, building anxiety every time he rustled a bush. After some time we left the lions and were shortly met by some traffic in the form of a Scrub Hare suckling its leveret in the middle of the road. A very unusual sighting, it transformed everyone’s stillness into cooing and cameras snapped away! It must surely be one of the only times in history that just as many photos were taken of “bunnies” as there were of lions and got everyone giggling!

10Courtney Dalziel Scrub Hare And Baby

The limelight was stolen by a little critter on a different occasion but this time by a rare and elusive individual to this area – the African Wild Cat. One of only two species of wild cat in South Africa, due cross breeding with domestic cats, the pure African Wild Cat population is diminishing. At first glance, both Voz and I were somewhat puzzled as to what it actually was – for Voster in all his 15 years at Sabi Sabi, this was his first sighting!

Not the only rare animals to frequent the property, a flock of Southern Ground Hornbills shocked everyone as they joined in to a vulture feeding frenzy over a buffalo carcass! Claiming ownership of the carcass with no objection from the vultures, it was a first for me to witness their scavenging behaviour and an incredible photographic opportunity. It was during this sighting that I feel I got my best photo of the cycle with a vulture taking flight with the hornbill in the background!

The undetected summit of my cycle however, was no doubt was held by my only cheetah sighting of the cycle – and what a sighting it was! After picking up steaming hot tracks of the cheetah we found it on an unknown mission at quite a pace. Battling to keep up with it, we caught glimpses of the tail here and there before it simply vanished! Having stopped the vehicle trying to establish a direction, a Grey duiker launched itself from hiding startling all of us but not as much as the cheetah who emerged in full pursuit after it! Within seconds it was boasting lightening speed before knocking the duiker down right in front of us – my very first cheetah kill! With good Karma seemingly pouring into our vehicle, that wasn’t to be the highlight of the sighting! The Lisbon female leopard had heard the coupe de gras of the duiker and came to see what was going on. With the revelation that it was a cheetah who had made the kill, her intentions changed to theft as she stalked closer and sent the cheetah fleeing for safety, claiming the kill! It was the sighting of a lifetime and I couldn’t help but think “Nat Geo, if only you could be so lucky!” The evolution of events, more photos and videos of the sighting can be found in my blog Hunter, Hunted.

Carole Millers once said “It is in the language of reflection that deepens our knowledge of who we are in relation to others in a community of learners”. Every day spent in the stillness of the bush, I learn how small we are in the greater scheme of things and yet how we have such a profound impact on our environment. It is through reflection that we have the opportunity to enable us to preserve what is left by using it as a learning tool but also to relive the moments that are once in a lifetime and lost to time. Through reflection we get to see things in hindsight and deconstruct them, which in my experience allows me to pay more attention to the finer details which as in the photograph of the vultures, can make something seemingly average, everything but that.

Away from all the hustle and bustle that still finds us even in 6500Ha of pristine bush, we can look back with clear thoughts, evaluate our very privileged sightings after two weeks of rest and anticipate what will meet us in the next cycle. With winter drawing to a close, competition will be fierce for both food and dominance. It’s a tense time of year, but for all the right reasons! I can’t wait to look back in another 6 weeks and unveil to you the epic experiences that now await me in another cycle at Sabi Sabi.

  • Blog by Courtney Dalziel (Bush Lodge Ranger)
  • Photos by Courtney Dalziel and Eve Wood-Hill
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