This week really has been all about the cats and we had plenty of sightings of them all!

The Styx Pride and their 11 cubs have been seen regularly around Bush Lodge this week.

In one sighting, they were all surrounding a small termite mound. The lionesses were trying to dig into it, possibly looking for a warthog they had seen. We continued to stay with them for some time when suddenly a warthog emerged from the hole and the three lionesses swiftly moved into action, catching the warthog successfully. What a sighting!

The following day, we were following tracks of the Styx Pride for quite some time and eventually found them walking through a riverbed towards a water source.

A few days later they were seen again. The cubs were beautifully positioned on some rocks while the mothers slept through the heat of the day. Later in the day they had moved quite some distance where we had seen them previously. The females were resting while the cubs were playing and trying to suckle from one of the lionesses who was trying her best to get away from their sharp little teeth.

After spending most of one of our mornings following the tracks of male lions, we eventually found the four N’waswishaka male lions in an open area. They had finished their morning patrol and the day was warming up, so they decided to find a place to rest in the shade. They were found again the following morning near a watering hole enjoying the cool blustery day.

Our last lion sighting of the week was of a pride moving through an area thick with trees possibly looking for an opportunity to hunt.

Our last sighting of N’weti last week was of him on two kills, so we followed up again to see how much had been eaten. He was lying down sleeping in a small drainage line when we noticed a female leopard, Mashaba female, emerging from the thickets. She seemed to try and engage in the act of mating, but he snarled and climbed the tree where the last bits of his kills remained.

A day later and they were seen again, sleeping during the heat of the day. After a while, they took turns finishing off the remains of a kill that was stashed up in a nearby tree.

We found Ntsumi and her cub with a male impala kill. The two were resting in the shade at first, but soon a hyena made an appearance and attempted to steal their kill away. The female leopard snarled and the hyena tried to snap back at her, but soon the two seemed to have made peace and they both began to “share” the kill. The following morning the kill had been hoisted into a tree and the female and her cub were joined by N’weti male leopard. What a treat to see these elusive animals together!

After hearing some vervet monkeys alarm calling from Selati Camp, we found the Dayone/Dewane male leopard walking along the road. He then rested on a termite mound scanning for potential prey.

We found the Kigelia female leopard close to Selati Camp one day. She looked as though she was hunting then stopped briefly to drink from a small pool of water that had collected from previous rain.

Ending sightings of leopards for the week was another sighting of Kigelia and her cub. We found her hunting in the early hours of the morning and after a failed attempt at trying to catch a duiker, she moved towards a dry riverbed and began calling for her cub. We waited for a while and soon the cub emerged giving us a spectacular view of the two of them!

We found this mother cheetah and her two cubs resting alongside a large termite mound as the morning started to heat up. This offered shade for the little ones and a great vantage point for mom.

Until next time...