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A WEEK IN THE BUSH VOL. 189

on Jan 10, 2018

Over this last week, temperatures during the day have been increasingly leading into exceptionally warm dry and baking afternoons with not much rain received. With that being said, sightings have been amazing as we kick the New Year off to a cracking start.

Firstly, an incredible sighting of these 3 impressive young male lions, known as the Tsalala males who posed beautifully for our guests as we followed them into the night.

The Southern Pride got wind of a herd of buffalo and started hunting, we lost them in the dark but it seems like they were successful as the remains of a buffalo were found the next day.

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At the same time, another smaller pride of four females known as the Kambula females and two young Avoca males were found on a fresh buffalo kill just East of Little Bush Camp.

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After having a lazy day nursing full bellies, the Avoca males and Kambula females started to feed on a Buffalo they had killed. A lot happened overnight with the Birmingham males having chased off the two younger males and females off their kill and finished the carcass within hours.

A day or so after the amazing movement of Lions on the reserve as we came across a big elephant bull that died after a fight with another bull elephant, with massive holes in his sides, and the Vultures started feeding on the carcass, unfortunate but it’s the circle of life. Here we have witnessed many species of Vulture and one in particular, the Cape Vulture. At the same time, two male Waterbuck carried out a territorial dispute battle and the defeated individual suffered fatal injuries, leaving more than a morsal for the Spotted Hyena in the area.

Ntsumi’s eyes tell a story of a female leopard that has just been harassed by a troop of Vervet Monkeys as she takes cover quite a distance away from them.

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A young male Leopard emerges from the darkness on a humid summers’ night to try secure himself a meal.

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The Msuthlu female moves throughout her territory in search of a nearby vantage point while carefully dodging past the many Lion sightings that have been recorded on the reserve in the last week.

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Maxabeni was found licking his wounds that he got trying to bring down a large Warthog, shortly after he began resting up on a large rock in a shaded riverbed.

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This scene is not easy to witness, a young Nyala killed by a female leopard known as the regularly seen Little Bush female. However, the circle of life continues and when the female leopard is pregnant, meal like this is vital. This female seems to be in the last stages of her gestation period as it seems like she is on a mission in finding a den site for her expected cubs that are due.

A pack of six Wild dogs chased a herd of Impala without much effort as they had already had eaten earlier in the day and had fully bellies.

A Spotted Hyena rests with fully bellies in a active waterhole to try cool during a hot summers day with temperatures rising up as the day continues.

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By this time in the summer season all of the Impala ewes should have dropped their lambs. Here we watch them grow very quickly as the New Year begins.

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A Buffalo cow smells the air as the wind was changing constantly as they were not too far away from the Southern Pride.

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A beautiful Bateleur Eagle looks briefly down on a vehicle that watches in amazement at this spectacular bird of prey perched up in a tree.

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There were two Long-tailed paradise whydahs having a bit of a show down trying to impress a female nearby.

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Pair of Southern Yellow-billed Hornbills was eating termites on a warm day under clear blue African skies.

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Lastly to end off an excellent first week of 2018 on the reserve, we witnessed a large bull Elephant with impressive tusks, cool itself down after an extremely hot day on the reserve where the temperature reached roughly 40 degrees Celsius. Great to see such a big tusker roaming the reserve again...

  • Blog by Kevan Dobbie (Bush Lodge Ranger)
  • Photographs by: Franscois Rosslee, Terry Ennever and Kevan Dobbie
  • Videos by: Chanyn-Lee Zeelie and Kevan Dobbie
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