It’s been another action-packed week in the bush at Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve and I’m excited to have the privilege of sharing it with all of you at home this week, so without further delay, let’s get to it.

We’ve been quite lucky this week with regards to elephants, having seen all shapes and sizes, in herds and some going solo. The bush is still fairly green from the rain a few weeks ago so food is still generally plentiful at the moment however, most of the temporary pans that were filled are now either mud baths or completely dry. This means that the elephants are back to their habits of staying near permanent water sources. A couple of moments that stood out for me this week were this massive elephant bull under a partly cloudy sky and the large herds, teaming with youngsters.

For most antelope at the moment, it is peak breeding season and we’ve been able to see some very interesting interactions between the likes of rival males from several different species. A moment that I enjoyed a lot was this lateral display of two kudu males as they attempted to dominate one another, but only one can be the victor.

The Charleston’s have been incredibly active this last week, having been found traversing the entire area up and down several times. They are extremely comfortable in their new role at the moment and I think they are now making a point of patrolling the area a lot more, possibly looking to expand the hunting range for their growing Pride.

The Little Bush female took advantage this week of the impala rut and managed to bring down a very large impala ram. The impala males are generally too preoccupied with themselves at this time of the year that they are easily picked off by predators. The carcass served her and her cub well for a couple of days before it was stolen, most likely by hyenas, and we got to see some spectacular behavior from them both. Her youngster is really now quite relaxed with our presence, even though mom can be a bit shy at times. Good news...

The Southern Pride has been fairly busy as well this week, covering a lot of ground in search of suitable prey. They stash the cubs away every few days so that they can hunt together more effectively, but to my knowledge they haven’t really had too many successes. The cubs are looking great though in any case, and they certainly have been offering our guests some great viewing lately.

The White Dam female has been somewhat quiet in the last week, but she reared her head the other day and gave us some time with her whilst she hunted. It still amazes me at how we are able to spend time with these magnificent creatures at such close range and have them completely relaxed with our presence. It is a fantastic experience!

The beautiful Hlarulini female has been seen several times as well this week and she seems to really be establishing herself quite nicely in the neighbourhood, but still she hasn’t been able to entice Maxabeni to mate with her. She’s still incredible to watch though, often getting up onto any real vantage point as she pursues her quarry.

We had a surprise visit from the three Talamati males this week. They are looking stronger every time we see them, but I’m still amazed how they’ve managed to dodge the Charleston’s up to now. I think if they continue in this vein and they continue to feed the way they have, the Charleston males could have a serious problem in the next year or so, but for now it’s a non-issue.

I hope you’ve all enjoyed the recap of this week’s highlights and I look forward to bringing you some more news next week for our 100^th volume of the weekly blog. Until then, have a great week everyone.