February Through The Tanda Tula Lense

After January’s record rain, we were all gearing up for another wet month, but February stayed alarmingly dry!

Following the 1000mm that had fallen over the previous months, I can’t believe that I am typing that the surrounds of the Tanda Tula actually started turning brown! We recorded only two rain fall events totally 26mm during the month, and the grasses in many areas actually started to seed and dry up, lending a typical autumnal look to the bush!

LIONS

Our White Surprise

Following the first sighting of the white cub born to the Giraffe Pride in the western part of our concession, we headed west a few more times than usual in the hope of catching up with this special cat. We were well rewarded on several occasions at the original den site before the mother moved them cubs slightly deeper into our concession and they spent a week at a wonderful den site offering all of our guests front row seats to enjoy the antics of one of the rarest sights in the bush!

Even rarer was when the mother led the cubs to a nearby kill she had made in a solo effort the night before. We could hardly believe our ears when it was called in that she had taken the cubs back to an aardvark kill! It was bittersweet to witness, as I personally haven’t seen an aardvark for over five years, but not many people can claim to have seen a white lion and an aardvark together (even if it was only half an aardvark). What was more enjoyable was seeing the cubs out of the den for the first time, and watching them confidently walk around before seeming to encourage mom to take them back to the den by leading the way home. Pure magic!

Great news is that this month another lioness from the Giraffe pride was also found with four brand new cubs! We look forward to the joy they will bring to both guides and guests on safari as they (hopefully) grow to maturity.

The Wait Begins

We mentioned in the last blog that all three Sark Breakaway lionesses were pregnant and close to dropping, and we weren’t wrong. From the 14th to the 22nd of February, all three lionesses had their cubs on the thick banks of the Zebenine riverbed in the western part of their territory. This centred the pride’s activities around this part of the Timbavati for the majority of the month, and while we knew where they were based, we had to be respectful of their space around the den as we now patiently wait to see the cubs for the first time…and to see if they have any surprises of their own for us!

While we wait for the cubs to show, we hope that the Nkombo males will keep their territory safe and free of potential intruders. They have been very focused on the area around the den, but do need to make sure they don’t forget to patrol further afield to ensure no unwelcome males start getting settled. For now though, aside from the last remaining Vuyela male in the far east, and the roars of the Birmingham Breakaway males in the west, there are no unknown roars emanating from the central Timbavati.

Hard Times Continue

The remaining portion of the Sark Breakaways continue to have a difficult time as they look for their place in the Timbavati landscape. We only encountered one lioness and the youngest sub-adult female together close to Tanda Tula one morning, and they were looking a little worse for wear. The adult female had fresh wounds from a fight, and both looked in desperate need of a good meal. Reports from the Klaserie suggest that the young pride males (both the older boys and the four younger ones) are spending time together and making ends meet hunting buffalo, but the prides’ best chance of surviving these troubled times would be to reunite and face these tough times together.

Dark Skies Are Clearing

We continue to have the River Pride visiting us on a somewhat regular basis, even if they don’t stay too long. What is great to see is how well this pride has pulled through their dark times and are looking more and more like a functional pride (albeit without a pride male). They are often seen looking fat bellied, and each time appear to be gaining condition and confidence. The future remains uncertain for them, but with each month that passes, they move towards a stage where the young females will be accepted by whichever males take over their territory in time.

Back to their Old Ways?

February also saw the Mayambula Pride (at least six of the adult females) moving around in their old haunts again. These lionesses always look in great condition, and always excite us when they are around. Tracks indicate that at least one lioness has some small cubs, but when we were finding the pride, we never saw any lionesses lactating, suggesting that the three missing lionesses could still be alive and well, and busy raising the next generation beyond our borders. We look forward to watching this space to see if the pride returns to their old ways and settle back down to the east of Tanda Tula

LEOPARDS

Following the amazing rains of January, the bush remained very dense, full of tall grasses offering loads of places for our most concealed cats to hide themselves; luckily, the leopards were not big fans of the long grass either and were found resting up in shady marula trees on a regular basis.

Surviving the Floods

For the second year in a row, floods hit shortly after Nyeleti gave birth to a litter of cubs. I was most surprised that last year’s cub survived the floods (it was kept in flood debris in the middle of the river!), and was hoping the same would be the case after January’s floods – but I wasn’t too convinced, as if Nyeleti had been caught on the wrong side of the river, there was little chance she would have been able to get back to the cubs. As it turns out, I need not have feared, as while the cubs have not been seen, there are tracks suggesting that two little leopards are running around in our northern sections. It is far north of where we have historically seen Nyeleti, and as a result she is not the easiest to go and search for, but one afternoon, desperate for a leopard, I headed up north hoping for the best. The whiff of a carcass led to Jack spotting a drag mark, and a couple of minutes later we had located on Nyeleti resting under a marula tree with an impala kill. Sadly the cubs were not present, but it won’t be long before she starts bringing them to the kills

A Pleasant Surprise!

Heading west to the go see the white lion cub one morning, I spotted something trotting up the road towards us; I asked Jack if it was a jackal or a wild dog, but he also couldn’t be certain until the animal backed right. It was a leopard carrying something in its mouth. I was about to tell my guests that it had a guineafowl kill when Jack uttered that she was carrying a cub! It was Nkaya Dam female, and a little while after first finding her den, we now got the briefest of glimpses of her moving the cubs to a new den. We followed as best we could until she dropped the cub in some rocks and disappeared to go fetch another. Later in the month we got a glimpse of two of the cubs in some jumbled thickets on a rocky section of the Zebenine (a fertile riverbed at the moment with all the cubs hiding along it!). No photos, but a magic moment to witness.

N’weti Pregnant?

N’weti spent a few days feeding on an impala kill in the north-west, and following her mating with Nkhari male in November, she did look to be a pregnant to me – although I have been wrong with these things before! The first day of the kill she was being rather uncooperative – taking her kill out of the tree as I approached, and then disappearing into a grassy thicket to rest.

Luckily, that afternoon she hoisted the carcass again, and spent a couple more days being a complete star – she really is one of our most striking leopards!

The Rest

As for the other resident leopards of Tanda Tula, most of them were seen this month. The still-unnamed young female to the west of camp continued to be seen, as did Dzindza and Rihati. Dzindza roamed far and wide which made keeping tabs on her a challenge, but when she was found, she was always a treat to spend time with.

Marula Junior continues to be a sporadic presence in the west, and was a saviour for us on an afternoon when I really needed to find a leopard. Driving through some open woodland, Jack casually pointed at a marula tree, but I thought he was merely pointing at the 100-strong impala herd beyond that. I was thus most pleasantly surprised when he casually said “leopard”. She came down from the tree after a few minutes and walked through the open area, much to the chagrin of the impalas that not only stood shouting their displeasure, but actually literally ran after the leopard, snorting and ushering her out of their area! It was a display of confidence from the impalas that I have not seen before!

Trips to the west to see the white lion often brought some spotted bonuses, and although this particular occasion wasn’t a leopard carrying a cub, it was the male leopard that fathered the cubs – Xivati. As the most relaxed male in the area, he is always a joy to see, and slowly growing into a good-sized leopard.

OTHER PREDATORS

As I drove for most of the month, one would imagine that no cheetahs were seen, but we actually had a handful of sightings over the course of the month – all of them of the Ximuwu male. Our south-eastern corner had just dried up enough to be opened up for traversing, and the first afternoon out there a male cheetah was found finishing off an impala kill! We got there after he had finished his meal, and was trying to get comfortable with his bulging belly, wandering around a little before moving off into a marshy area that we couldn’t follow. As the month drew to a close, Ginger found this male returning from his sojourns into the Klaserie as he walked down our entrance road heading for the eastern open woodlands. Scotch relocated him in the afternoon (which I was sad about, but couldn’t complain as I was in the west with the white lion), and he carried on to the east – hopefully we will pick him up upon his return trip next month!

Wild dogs were up and down through the month with three packs again being seen; the pack of 10 ventured further east than I have ever seen them go, and he had a wonderful scene as they ran across an open clearing harassing wildbebeest before going after some impalas. Two smaller packs of 5 were also encountered across the month. We were spoilt with the one pack of five that we followed – they caught an impala, and then had hyenas trying to steal it from them, but despite being small in number, held their own against the foes. The alpha pair were very fixated on mating during the end of the month, and if all went well, we can hope for some babies towards the end of May…we are keeping our fingers crossed that they will opt for a denning site within our northern traversing area.

SPECIAL SIGHTS OF SUMMER

The unusually high rainfall of this summer led to conditions being found in the Timbavati that made it suitable to birds that we don’t often see – this is most true of the water birds where dwarf bitterns (usually a rarity) are now common at the dams, as are African crakes and even lesser moorhens. My birding highlight was seeing my first harrier in the Timbavati when a Pallid harrier spent a few weeks in the grassy woodlands in the east!

The abundance of food and energy led to good insect life, much to the delight of the birds that continued to be found in abundance in this stunning summer landscape. The golden orb web spiders were also hard at work building their immense webs across the landscape. Summer really is a time of plenty!

Despite the bounty of food, sometimes it is just your time. There was one particularly old female giraffe that had been hanging around a neighbouring camp and her time sadly expired as she was feeding in the camp! It was impressive to see the speed with which over 100 vultures scavenged their way through the carcass!

EVERYONE ELSE

I have said it many times before, but the magic of the bush just wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t for all of the characters that make up the cast of this landscape.

The elephants were spread out across the reserve, and were strangely not as active in the area as usual, no doubt spreading into the adjoining Kruger National Park to make use of the food resources beyond their normal ranges.

Giraffes and zebras were found in very good numbers around Tanda Tula, and helped keep game drives ticking over as these stars popped up with pleasing regularity!

The hippos were also one of the big winners following the rains, and with dams full across the Timbavati, they moved around and we saw the more hippos spread across the reserve than we have for some time. One morning we watched a young male heading back to a dam, but he was not overly welcomed by the male that was already in the dam which led to a slight disagreement between them!

Waterbucks, buffalo bulls (and the occasional herd), wildebeest, impalas, nyalas, kudus and more could all be found around the stunning summer landscapes of Tanda Tula, and helped round off a wonderful month in the bush.

I trust you enjoyed this litte recap, and be sure to check back soon for more updates from the heart of the Timbavati!

Until next time!

Cheers
Chad

A marula tree stands in silhouette against a vivid summer sunset in the Timbavati.