August Through the Tanda Tula Lens

Welcome back to your monthly update from the heart of the Greater Kruger’s Timbavati Nature Reserve – another month of activity and adventure has unfolded at Tanda Tula, and it is time to look back at what kept our guides and guests entertained.

With the good rains of the past summer not too distant a memory, the bush remained in great condition – while it would be a stretch to call the grass green, a close look at the vegetation reveals that there are still some juicy green blades of grass around, especially along the riverbeds where the grass cover remains thick and verdant. Most of the smaller natural pans have now dried out, but some of the larger ones still hold decent amounts of water. The dams around the reserve have good water levels for August, but as the days lengthened and daytime temperatures began to rise towards the end of the month, you could begin to see some of the water sources shrinking by the day. The Machaton and Nhlaralumi riverbeds still have water trickling through their courses at certain spots, and I know that is definitely not something I have ever written in a blog at this time of year – quite amazing! And quite needed, too. The ocean temperatures off the west coast of South America continue to rise, and the probability of a super El Niño is looking increasingly likely. Whilst this does not guarantee a decrease in rain, the last time sea temperatures reached such heights, we did experience extremely dry conditions in the Kruger. Luckily, with the effects of last summer’s rain still being felt, we are hopefully in a good position if we are entering a dry summer.

With the good ground water, some of our iconic trees began to flower – notably the knobthorns, long-tailed cassias and tree wisterias – adding a wonderful splash of colour to the drab winter coat of the bushveld.

We still experienced some misty mornings – a rarity in this area at this time of year. This is a testament to two things: firstly, that the mornings at the beginning of the month were a little fresh, and secondly, that there is still a good amount of moisture in the atmosphere. The result was some magical conditions that give the Timbavati a completely different feel!

The last comment about the good rains is that they left behind a large amount of grass, and going into the hot, dry spring, the risk of runaway wildfires increases drastically. As a result, the Timbavati has undertaken a number of controlled burns to reduce the fuel load, and to ensure that if any wildfires do enter the reserve, they can be more easily managed. Tanda Tula also burnt the blocks around our camp, ensuring that our wonderful home is safely guarded against the risk of damage from wildfires. Amazingly, within a week of burning our firebreak, there was already a flush of fresh green grass, which has delighted the zebras, impalas and wildebeest in the area!

July was a month filled with some tragic sightings (you can read about them in last month’s post), and we had hoped that August would be a better month, but nature was not done with the tragedies yet.

Another month. Another leopard lost. This one was tragic, and cruel, but perhaps will be felt less due to the fact that he was a male leopard that was inherently shy of the vehicles and thus did not provide very regular sightings. He didn’t have a name, but he did not deserve to go the way he did. The big tom was found with a kill up a tree one morning, but immediately left the tree as a vehicle approached; as a result, we decided to close access to the area until after dark. That evening he was more comfortable, and the guides left him resting up the marula tree, full-bellied. I was not on drive the next morning, but when I saw Scotch and asked how the drive was, his reply was “Big matata” (“big problems”). When following up that morning, the guides found the leopard resting on the ground, but he didn’t run away. Instead, they could see blood on his belly. Eventually, he got up and walked off, and the guides began to realise the seriousness of his situation – his entire abdomen had been ripped open. The culprits were not far from the area – the Sark Breakaway lionesses. One lioness came back to investigate the tree where the kill had been; Scotch followed her and saw a gruesome story in the tiny details. Claw marks. Blood trails. Entrails. The lionesses had ambushed the leopard on the ground and got stuck into him. He somehow managed to break free and run up the tree, but with his belly ripped open, his entrails spilled out. He must have been in a huge amount of pain, and jumped out of the tree to seek some reprieve, but in the process left a fair bit of himself in the tree. He was left in peace. But soon a female leopard approached him and tried to get him to mate as he lay dying. Mercifully, he passed that night and was scavenged upon by the Xivati male leopard, who hoisted his remains up a tree on our boundary. Later, though, he moved the carcass, and amazingly, the next day he was found still feasting on the three-day-old remains, whilst the odd sight of a freshly killed aardvark lay just next to him.

Until last month, I thought that I had become slightly desensitised to these tragedies, but these past two months have been on a whole other level, and with each one, I am finding myself getting more and more upset. Yes, it is nature, but that does not make these incidents any easier to swallow. All I can say is that I was relieved not to have seen any of this in person.

After many months of being seen with increasing regularity, and gaining her trust a little more each time, the young female leopard to the west of Tanda Tula has been given a name: Rivala. This is a reference to the soccer field where she is regularly seen (not playing soccer, in case you were wondering). She continued to be one of the more regularly seen females, and was seen courting the now-deceased male before he was killed.

She too had a close encounter with the Sark Breakaway Pride. Jack and Hemet tracked down the pride one morning, and Scotch drove into the bush to relocate them, finding them exactly where the trackers said they would be. What none of them noticed was the leopard sitting in a nearby tree – right at the very top! The tracks and claw marks around the tree showed that the lions had been doing their damnedest to get up that tree, but she had held her nerve – and her high ground – and they soon lost interest. With the lions dozing off, she descended the tree, but one lioness spotted her and promptly chased her up the next tree before returning to the pride to rest. We arrived to find Rivala as high as she could possibly go, and found it fascinating watching her slow descent; she would come down a few metres, then lie and rest and make sure the lions were not stirring. Eventually, she jumped down and walked off briskly towards the dense river line, and we let her be.

Later in the month, we enjoyed a couple of days of her with an impala kill up a knobthorn tree – luckily for her, this time the lions did not bother her!

It has been so long since I have seen Dzindza that I have forgotten what she looks like. If memory serves, I did hear one sighting of her being called in early in the month, but the last sighting I know of was when Rihati was mating with the now-deceased male leopard, and Dzindza was joining as a third wheel, much to Rihati’s dismay. Perhaps it was this fight, in addition to the fight with the Airstrip female last month, that has led her to find a space with less competition? At least I am hoping that this is the case, and that there is nothing more sinister afoot, and that the Sark Breakaway lionesses haven’t been up to no good again.

In the absence of her sister, we did see Rihati a few more times this month, from the mating to having a large impala kill in some windy weather. We also followed her around Nkhari one afternoon as she headed off to Nyala Pan for a drink. Scotch also found her at our solar farm outside camp one evening, and as she walked right past my vehicle, I was almost convinced it was Dzindza… but upon closer inspection, it was not.

Nyeleti was last seen at the end of June – fighting with her daughter, N’weti, at Machaton Dam, about 6km from where she had been spending time with her two cubs. After that, for the whole month of July, there was no sign of any of them. This validated my concerns that something had happened to them. Most of August had passed, and there was still no sign. I questioned the guides in the northern Timbavati to hear if there had been any signs I had missed; apparently, in the early part of the month she was seen in the very northern part of the reserve – also about 6km north of her usual haunts. If this was true, and it was her, it didn’t bode well for the survival of her cubs; leopard mothers usually don’t wander that far when they have youngsters anchoring them to an area. Then, late in the month, a radio update came through that Nyeleti had been found in her old haunts. I selfishly headed up to confirm this with my own eyes, but was not holding my breath, as I knew what a dense block she was moving in, and that the chances of keeping up with her were close to zero. This proved true, but Tristan did manage to get there and confirm it was her – she was alive!

A couple of days later, the name of the property manager from our northern properties popped up on my phone. He was super excited, and let me know that he had just seen Nyeleti… and both of her cubs! They were amazingly still alive! Nervous as anything, and shot off like bullets, but they were alive and they were all back where they belonged. The ‘cubs’ must be ten months old now, and I still haven’t laid eyes on them. Exactly where she has been raising them is a mystery, and such constant movement from Nyeleti is a little unconventional, but at least for now, the trio appears to be intact. I don’t think this means that she will suddenly start becoming a regular for us again, but at least we know there is some hope – and good news, because we need it! I could still get to see her next generation at some point in 2026!

If losing the entire litter of pups last month was not bad enough, August did not get any better for the pack. In fact, it got much, much worse.

Towards the end of July, our main pack of five wild dogs appeared to have lost an impala kill to two lions – in the aftermath, one of the wild dogs got separated from the rest. For a couple of days, both parties ran around calling for one another, but to no avail. At one point the pack was not too far from the lone dog, and I was hoping that they would reunite. I went on leave, and upon returning was informed that on one weird afternoon, the guides found a hyena killing and eating a pangolin, as well as a hyena eating a wild dog at Rockfig Dam – the last location the single wild dog had been seen days earlier. Maybe because of everything else they have done, I blame the Sark Breakaway lions for her demise. The pack was down to four.

If losing 20 percent of your pack (it sounds more dramatic than one of five) wasn’t bad enough, by the second half of the month the pack was down to three members. Another wild dog was missing. For days we saw tracks of a single dog running around, but never close to where the pack was. As August drew to a close, we were still only seeing three members. My heart breaks for this little pack.

At the same time as our three wild dogs were running around looking for their lost member, trying to find enough food and avoid all the lions, we had the very joyous appearance of a pack of wild dogs that numbered about nine adults and six pups! They ended up at the old hyena den in our central portions, and drew a huge amount of attention. I got there late in the morning, but the pack had settled in some thick stuff, so it wasn’t the best view. I had hoped that they would stay around and I would get a chance to see them the next day.

The lions had other ideas. At some point during the night their paths crossed. The wild dogs ran off. And in the morning, there were only three pups left. Damn these lions. The pack stayed away for the rest of the month, and with the lions going nowhere, time will tell if they come back anytime soon.

Not the news the other predators want to hear, but we will have some new cubs in the Sark Breakaway Pride soon – the third lioness is starting to show, and is producing milk, which means she will likely drop her new litter next month; hopefully with better results than the last litter.

The two other lionesses are doing a good job of providing for the seven growing cubs! The pride is branching out and venturing a little further afield than they have in the early stages of the cubs’ lives. The cubs are still not old enough to be moving with the pride, so they are still left in hiding spots across the reserve, but seem to have abandoned their previously used den sites.

A large breeding herd of buffalo spent a good part of early August within the pride’s territory, and on several occasions the pride made a mission of catching up with the herd, but upon finding them seemed very reluctant to have a go, merely watching from a distance and slowly trailing them.

Later in the month, the pride showed a more concerted effort on a larger herd, and were seen chasing it across our southern boundary – they returned a day later with massive bellies, indicating that they did have luck, and do actually still know how to hunt buffalos! Perhaps it was the fact that the herd was disappearing beyond their territorial limits that caused them to make a move?

I also came across the three lionesses stalking our resident buffalo bulls just outside camp on the freshly burnt area – excitement grew amongst the guests, but I sadly knew that, based on recent form, they didn’t have much of a chance. Sadly, my doubts were not proven wrong, and despite a good chase, the powerful buffalo bulls ran off to safety, leaving the pride dreaming of a meal.

Whilst the pride spent their time watching buffalos, the limping Nkombo male followed his nose to a mammoth meal – another young elephant that had died right next to Reflection Dam. He spent a couple of days enjoying the feast on his own before the rest of the pride eventually arrived to help him in his efforts. This led to another couple of days of well-fed, sleepy lions as they put up with the wretched smell before it got too much for them and they moved off.

The Nkombo males did not push deeper into Mayambula territory this month after their meeting in July, and although they did patrol in the east, it does not appear as though any paths were crossed.

We got to see the newest member of the Mayambula Pride – sadly, it is only in singular form. Despite there being reports of three cubs being born in May, only one cub was around when we started seeing the pride in early August. There was, however, a sighting of the mother carrying a cub some distance from where she had been seen only an hour or two earlier with the one cub, making us think that there could be more cubs. In fact, on another occasion, we followed her as she left the pride, walking around calling for her cubs, in spite of the fact that the one cub was resting with the rest of the pride. Such behaviour leads us to think there is another cub, but if that is the case, why is it not moving with its sibling?

The three older cubs are growing bigger each month, but strangely they are still very alert to the vehicles – this is what happens when they grow up away from vehicles. They don’t run away, but they pay far more attention to us than the other pride members do.

The Vuyela male seems to be spending good time with the pride and is remaining in good health. With ten females, four cubs and at least one other litter not far from being born, he has an important role to play in providing a safe area for the pride to live in. Time will tell how long he can hold off the pressure from the Nkombo males, or if his time as the last king of his kingdom is slowly coming to an end.

The River Pride were very scarce this month following the loss of their oldest lioness; tracks in the east suggest they are still around, but not spending as much time here as they have in the past.

The Sark Breakaway Nomads pitched up a couple of times, and it appears as though all 11 members might still be around, but like the River Pride, they remained relatively inactive in the area this month.

The Giraffe Pride continued to have a presence in the west, but with the pride numbering over 25 now, they remain in various fragments; the portion with the white lion cub was only partially active in the area, meaning that sightings of this unique lion were few and far between this month.

Interesting news from the north is that after their incestuous honeymoon in early May, the lioness of the Mawondane Pride has had a litter of cubs on the banks of the Nhlaralumi in the northern reaches of our concession. We have yet to see them, but it appears as though they are still very young, and it might be some weeks before we get our first opportunity to see them.

After almost nine years at Tanda Tula, I got to see a version of spots that I had not seen in the central Timbavati since my first month in the reserve, back in 2007! No, my cheetah luck is not that bad. Instead, I am talking about seeing my first serval since joining the Tanda Tula family!

A medium-sized cat, servals are specialist rodent hunters, using their enormous ears to hear them scurrying around in the grass, before leaping several metres to land atop the unsuspecting mouse. There are a few sightings of servals reported each year, but most are fleeting. I was thus very surprised to hear a couple of guides responding to a sighting of one this month, and that it wasn’t running away. When it did disappear, the bigger surprise was finding not one, but two servals. That then became three! A mother and her two subadults – all quite calm with the vehicles! I made it into the area and had a lovely sighting of them, and I was keen to carry on watching them, but Tristan ruined it for me. He was shining around looking for one that had moved off, when the eyes of a much larger cat caught his eye. It was Rihati. She was watching the servals. I felt cold. Surely this magic moment couldn’t end in tragedy? We both immediately switched off the lights, left the area, and headed a short distance back to camp. I just couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen, as the euphoric state I had been in moments earlier had been swiftly replaced by a feeling of doom. I hope this was just the pessimist inside of me. This is definitely not the first leopard the family would have seen; they have exceptional hearing, are agile, and can climb through bushes no leopard could move through easily. The chances are good they got away, but for the entire night, I had a feeling of unease. And based on this being my first sighting in almost a decade, I won’t count on seeing them again anytime soon to find out how they fared.

The same return guests who got to see the serval were also with me for my only cheetah sighting of the month; in fact, they saw a cheetah last time they were here too! Now that I think of it, they are an awfully lucky bunch – they also asked to see a honey badger this time, and we ended up seeing six! Three different pairs! This time, we saw the Ximuwu male as he traversed the open areas of the east, much to the interest of some zebras and giraffes.

When I was on leave in the first week of the month, there were a couple of days when a group of three cheetahs was seen in the western traversing areas: a female and two almost adult males, presumably a mother and her two nearly independent offspring.

At the end of the month, the two skittish males were seen on one of the open sodic sites in the east, but as per their MO, they spotted the vehicle and moved off, never quite settling again. That same day, our head of maintenance bumped into a relaxed cheetah as he was driving on our access road, but that was the last sign of that cat.

Our little hyena den on Nkhari remained active for the whole month, with four youngsters around. It is an interesting den site – not very large, and I have only ever seen the larger cubs resting on the outside, never going in. The two younger ones appear less frequently, and I have not seen a single adult active around the den. There are obviously visits from the mothers, otherwise the cubs would not be in such good shape – but they do not visit the den at the times I have become accustomed to at other den sites.

I take it for granted that I live and work in a landscape filled with giants – and they were out in force this month. It was an all-round good month for the larger mega-herbivores of the Timbavati.

We had a most pleasant month of buffalo viewing, with one herd of 250 to 300 buffalo spending about half the month visiting one waterhole – Marco’s Dam. They would drink, feed away from the dam, and return there the next feeding session. Despite the lions following them, they never disturbed the herd enough to cause them to panic.

It was always a treat to watch the herd heading towards the dam – running in as they got close, and then sitting and watching as the herd all squeezed in to drink.

With the onset of an early spring and the flowering of the knobthorn trees, we had a good number of giraffes across the reserve, especially around our eastern sections in the ‘acacia’ woodlands – this trend should continue into September as the flowering season intensifies.

The resident ostrich population continued to remain evident, with the striking males always a pleasing sight to come across. I only ever saw a single female ostrich in the area, which makes me think that the second female is sitting on some eggs somewhere; sadly, there has not been a clear enough pattern of movement to suggest where this might be.

Elephants were not as abundant as we normally see at this time of year, but this is still a result of the good food and water resources around the Greater Kruger. Whereas by now elephant activity at camp is usually at an all-time high, the herds only visit a few times a week – most get their water by digging for it along the course of the Nhlaralumi riverbed.

It was nice to continue seeing some good-sized elephant bulls in the eastern section; Apollo was sadly not one of them, at least not for my guests. He was around in early August, but disappeared after that last sighting.

A slight concern was finding an abandoned baby hippo at Machaton Dam; he was the youngster that has spent the last few months there with his mother, but something happened and he is on his own now. Based on the wounds on his side, a clan of hyenas had a go at him. Fortunately, the wounds were superficial, and he remained in good condition despite his situation. Perhaps the mother went to a bigger waterhole controlled by another dominant male hippo that did not want the youngster? If this was the case, I would have thought that the mother would have moved off with the baby. He is doing well for now, and we will keep our fingers crossed that he can reunite with his mother.

This other little one is having no such issues, and continues to grow bigger and stronger with each passing month, under the protection of her watchful mother.

And that, folks, is it for the month. A difficult one for loss, but this is nature and we have to accept the outcomes, even when they are emotionally draining.

We will be back next month with more updates, so be sure to check back then to see how our furry and feathered friends are doing!

Until next time!

Cheers,

Chad