Welcome to the one hundredth edition of our weekly blog! We hope that you have enjoyed following us as well as all the animals, week in and week out, for the last 100 weeks. The last seven days have been fantastic as always and we’re excited to share with you a recap of all the highlights so sit back, relax and enjoy the read.

The weekly highlights started with us finding the Hlarulini female again, this time putting on an amazing show as she ascended several different trees to get a better vantage on a herd of impala she was stalking. Incredibly focused, she made her moves between a bachelor herd of buffalo and after a few failed attempts, took the time to rest. She’s been seen several times around Bush Lodge looking for any unsuspecting animals frequenting the lodge grounds, such as bushbuck. We also observed her stalking a steenbok during the course of the week, but after being spotted, she decided to rest up a Marula Tree instead offering us some fantastic views. The young female seems to have settled in very nicely on our reserve and with the absence of Warthog Wallow for some time now, we expect her to successfully take over the territory, but she needs to secure herself a place here by enticing Maxabeni to mate her. We are most certainly holding thumbs. Our last sighting of her this week had us follow her from Bush Lodge to an old duiker carcass hoisted in a tree. The carcass didn’t look to be hers, judging by her behavior and general body language, but leopards are the ultimate opportunists and so she ascended the tree to feed on the free meal.

The hippopotamus activity on the reserve has been off the charts for the last several weeks and this still looks to be on the increase. This is due to the less than substantial rainfall we’ve experienced, causing the major rivers to narrow and forcing more and more hippos from the Sabie River and into our reserve to occupy the many dams available. This inevitably would lead to conflict and on one occasion, a large male hippo joined a smaller male who was occupying one of the dams. The younger male tried his best to defend his “territory", but it was clear that he was no match for the larger bull and was bullied out of the water.

Giraffe have been a little bit scarce lately, for reasons unbeknownst to us as the browse is still very good, but on one occasion we managed to come across an old bull on his way down for a drink. It proved to be a quite popular spot when when we had an old "dagga boy" stroll down and join the giraffe. Needless to say, it was a great experience for the guests.

Herds of elephants have been moving through fairly regularly and it’s always a pleasure finding them and spending time with them as they go about their daily routines. It’s always interesting to sit with them for prolonged periods as you get to really observe the behavior and antics of the youngsters within the group.

A massive herd of about a thousand buffalo has been doing the rounds through the reserve making use of the resources available here. The areas in which they’ve come from are most likely running out of substantial graze to support such a large mass of animals and thus they are venturing to our reserve in order to meet their daily intake requirements. Great news for us really as the lions will be very busy as long as the herd sticks around

Speaking of lions, the three Talamati males showed up late one morning and we watched them attempt to hunt a buffalo bull at one of the reserve’s many dams, but it was not meant to be as the buffalo spotted them at the last second and made a dash to safety. The three boys then decided to halt the pursuit and spend the day lounging near the dam.

The Southern Pride has also been very active this week and we have had the opportunity to watch them hunting several times, all unsuccessful in our presence, but after we’ve left they’ve been doing very well and have managed to capture at least two buffalos with the help of the Charleston males as well. In one instance we found the Pride very well fed, drinking water and bonding early in the morning after coming off a kill that they must’ve made during the night. The following day the Charleston males were found on another buffalo kill, so we caught up with them in the late afternoon and to our surprise the females had now joined them along with the cubs. We observed some great interaction between members of the Pride as well as some fireworks between the Charleston males, but thankfully they didn’t get too rough. The cubs are very comfortable around the males and they all seem to be bonding really nicely. Hopefully this will continue on in the same way. The males are still fighting over the females for mating opportunities and even though some are showing definite signs of preference towards the smaller brother, big brother is not tolerating it, often lashing out in what can only be jealousy.

There were many different leopard sightings this week, which spoilt us for choice on any given day. The Lisbon female and her son were found in the southern reaches of the reserve earlier in the week with both looking in great condition. Unfortunately, the young male is no closer to settling down around the vehicles though.

There was some excitement this week as we have been seeing a new female leopard in the south of the reserve, more or les around our private airstrip. She’s a young female between two and three years old with a fairly relaxed nature, but nobody has yet been able to help us with an identification. Quite possibly she’s come in from the Kruger National Park or perhaps from one of our neighbouring reserves.

The White Dam female and her youngster were found to have hoisted an African Civet up a tree this week, an unusual kill, but not the first we’ve seen. Leopards are opportunistic and as such, make use of at least 92 different species as prey.

After a long time of not seeing the massive Mandleve male leopard, we managed to find him unintentionally after being lead to a hoisted impala by a Tawny Eagle and a hyena. He is looking great at the moment and getting to be as big as his father, the previously dominant Sandriver male.

Lastly, we had the Little Bush female and her cub seen several times, although quite briefly, and most recently on a cane rat kill of which the cub had the lion’s share. We spent a great deal of time with them throughout the afternoon as they relaxed along the banks of the Msuthlu Riverbed. It amazes me how relaxed Little Bush has become over the last few years, especially when having cubs with her. The cub too is extremely comfortable around the vehicles and this is always a great thing as we will surely be spending a lot of time with her over the next year.

I know it was quite a lot of information to digest, but we had just an exceptional week here on the reserve and still we have only shared our favorite highlights. There have been many other great sightings had and memories shared with our guests during this time and I’m sure there will be many more being made next week. I hope you have all enjoyed the recap and we certainly look forward to bringing you all some more highlights next week. Until then, have a great week everyone.