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This April – When Hyenas Make a Fool of Super Predators…

The hyena is not the best looking animal but it’s certainly one of Africa’s most successful scavengers and ruthless carnivores. These stout morphologically dog-like creatures are the most misunderstood species in the safari world. Notorious for being cowardly, cunning thieves and unrepentant killers; it’s no surprise that they have a bad reputation. Hyenas are actually highly social, intelligent and successful hunters. They play a vital role in the ecology of a specific area and are both the thinkers and doers of the animal kingdom. And they certainly know how to make our feline friends look weak and foolish!

If there’s an opportunity to steal a kill, they’ll charge in with a sense of bravado and whip the carcass away. Hyena’s often make a fool of super-predators by stealing their kill out from under their noses! There are often showdowns and anarchy between big cats and hyenas, which is always incredible to watch.

When the hyenas have retrieved a kill, they’ll emit a series of cackles and vocal calls, which signals to the rest of the clan that “dinner (take-aways)” is ready. The calls sound like laughter, which adds to their bad reputation. It seems like they are poking fun at the victim after stealing their meal! Then again, why do the dirty work if a big cat is going to do it for you?

Hyenas have an acute sense of smell and can sniff out a fresh kill from quite a distance. They also use their lateral thinking ability and follow vultures to a carcass, where they rally around in clans to devour every morsel. Hyenas are not fussy eaters and will crunch on bones, flesh and even the surrounding vegetation. Being indiscriminate feeders means they clear the immediate area of all debris which prevents the spread of disease. Many refer to them as the “clean-up” crew of the safari world because they leave no stone unturned.

But wait. Hyenas are not only notorious scavengers but they’re also incredible predators. A hyena’s kill method is to wear out their target by chasing them at an average pace for about 3 km. They hunt collectively, so if the main runner in the clan tires out from the chase, another one takes over – a bit like a relay!

This April Fools’ day we take a look at the ridiculous behaviour we’ve encountered from spotted hyenas in the Kruger. Our witness accounts highlight just how foolish hyenas have made the more revered species look when losing kills to them.

Here are a few witness accounts on how big cats and wild dogs have been duped by these secondary predators.

Toothfairy is a legend in the Sabi Sand. She has a decaying mouth of unsightly rotten teeth and has a mischievous attitude. She’s renown for stealing leopard kills shortly after a kill has been made. Toothfairy is often seen with her cub and is always looking to scavenge on a ready-made meal. Leopards will rather discard their kill than put up a fight. They cannot afford to get attacked by the powerful jaws of a hyena. Sorry leopards of the Sabi Sand, but Toothfairy does have the ability to make you look weak and foolish!

The Balule recently lost a legend Tusker, a fallen giant who roamed the Balule traverse. There was much sadness surrounding the death of this majestic elephant called Shoshangane. Now, as nature continues to take its course, Shoshangane’s body has become part of the ecosystem, feeding a variety of carnivorous critters. The hyena clans got there first and wasted no time in feasting off the carcass. Absolutely ruthless opportunists – jokes on the rest of the scavengers and predators, the hyenas got there first! Plenty of incredible hyena sightings in the Balule because of the abundance of big cats.

The African wild dog is a rare and nomadic species fondly referred to as the painted dog. One morning in the Klaserie, the dogs conducted three kills – one of which was stolen by a hyena.There was quite a scuttle between to the dogs and hyenas. What an incredible experience for guests at nThambo Tree Camp to witness the interaction between the notorious hyenas and the skilful wild dogs.

Painted as a thief and tainted by negative connotations, hyenas are by far the most misunderstood creatures of the Kruger. The Hyaenidae is a competent predator, successful scavenger and a delightful eco-warrior boasting a range of vocal calls. How can you not respect this talented species?

Walking Safari with Hyena & Vultures on Kill

The aim of a walking safari is to offer guests an alternative perspective on the bush – the animals’ domain. Every morning begins with analysing fresh tracks, seeing flowers open with the dawn sunlight, and discovering the evidence of the night. Often, the Africa on Foot guides track elephants, or buffalo, or lion and establish a safe route to walk their guests through the wild territory, and sometimes to view these animals safely from the ground. Just recently, Mike and Enoch were out on a morning walking safari with their guests when an old knob thorn tree came into view, and it was heavy with vulture activity. A quick radio chat with Greg revealed that there were no lions in the area, and so a strategic approach was established. Mike positioned his guests behind a tree to watch a fascinating scavenger scene unfold!

The evidence showed that the carcass was that of a young buffalo, and there was very little remaining other than the skin and bones. It seemed as if it had been killed and devoured by lions, which had already moved off, satisfied that they had eaten all they can. Now, the rotting carcass was a festival of food for the most famous scavengers of the bush, and they were putting on quite the performance to get to what they wanted.

The Africa on Foot group squatted behind a leafy bush, unnoticed by the lone hyena, and watched has he ran at the crowd of vultures and chased them off the kill. The vultures – white-backed and hooded – never moved too far away, and progressively got closer as the hyena became distracted. Once again, the hyena would rear up at them and the birds would fly off, but never for long.

A thrilling sighting, which was discussed over breakfast after returning to the lodge, and surely one to be remembered. It is something quite different to watch this primal behaviour from the ground, hiding, and hushed into silence.

Naming a New Leopard: Meet “White Rock”

There’s a certain excitement surrounding the guides at Africa on Foot when an unknown leopard (or a known leopard, for that matter) is spotted during a game drive. Questions asking ‘who is it?’, ‘do we known him/her?’, and ‘where was it seen?’ fill the air as soon as the guides put their heads together back at camp. These solitary, elusive cats are among the most sought after animals on safari. They are at the top of guests’ check lists, and they become a source of thrill and excitement for the rangers who get to know these territorial animals over time. Last week, 4 different leopards were seen in one day in the Klaserie: 2 mother-and-cub pairs, one being Ross Dam and her male cub, and the other being an ‘unknown’.

At Africa on Foot, Greg, Mike, and Kevin pulled up their ‘leopard ID kit’, consisting of folders of images of various leopards seen in the area; close-ups of whisker patterns, facial features, and unique rosettes, which give each one its identity. In these folders are photo albums of Zero, Marula Mafasi, Ross Dam, Cleo, Rhulani, among others. The guys analyse the footage captured during game drive, pausing and rewinding and studying this unknown female’s facial features. A tattered right ear triggers Kevin’s memory, and they quickly refer to images of that unidentified leopard that killed an impala and lost it to a hyena right outside Africa on Foot camp not long ago.

Bingo! After some deliberation, it is decided that the leopard seen with a subadult cub in the dead of night is indeed the female that made a kill nearby. Now that it seems clear this leopard has her territory within the camp’s traverse, it is possible to name her for easier identification in the future. Everyone puts in their suggestions, and eventually Greg’s suggestion of “White Rock” gets the majority of the vote. This is descriptive of the area she has been sighted in, and therefore, we deem it an appropriate name.

Week in Pictures: Easter Feast!

Welcome to the Week in Pictures: Easter Feast! A photography round up of the week’s wildlife activity at the Sun Destinations Kruger camps.

It’s the end of a short week and the beginning of a long weekend – the Friday feeling is stronger than ever! South Africans are taking their rooftop tents and braai grids and flocking to the Kruger National Park and various outdoor camping spots to spend the welcome break out in the sticks with family and friends. Our safari lodges are chock-a-block with visitors from far and wide making use of the public holidays, and it seems the wildlife is playing along nicely!

After a decent amount of rain, the change in the Greater Kruger environment is staggering! Green tufts of grass have spread out over the previously bare earth, and trees have burst into bloom virtually over night. Elephants are in their element, while buffalo and warthog are plunging happily into numerous mud wallows that now occupy the wet ground.

Umkumbe Safari Lodge is enjoying the strong presence of the Sand River, as well as the regular sightings of White Dam, female leopard with cub in tow. Africa on Foot and nThambo Tree Camp have raked in the leopard sightings, too, in the last week, while a leopard tortoise was captured enjoying the wet weather, and some superb sunsets appeared at dusk. Ezulwini River Lodge and Billy’s Lodge each enjoyed watching young elephants celebrate the unfamiliar wet weather, while the river heaved with water and the Olifants West pride of lions lay around like kings!

Africa on Foot, Klaserie Private Nature Reserve

Ezulwini Game Lodges, Balule Nature Reserve

Umkumbe Safari Lodge, Sabi Sand Wildtuin

nThambo Tree Camp, Klaserie Private Nature Reserve

Van Wijk’s Leopardess: Princess of Ezulwini

The Van Wijk’s leopardess is a small, yet powerful cat often spotted on Ezulwini’s traverse. She loves nothing more than to be in the limelight and never misses an opportunity to have her photo taken. Alongside Chavaluthu, the blue-eyed boy of the Balule, she’s one of the most commonly spotted leopards while out on game drive. A couple of nights ago, the leopardess was spotted patrolling her turf. Seemingly relaxed and confident, she let guests and guides watch her antics for about 20 minutes before she sauntered back into the thickets.

If you recall, about 1 month ago, Chavaluthu was heard contact calling for female company. There happened to be two leopards at the time – the Van Wijk’s female and an unknown leopardess. The unknown leopardess has not been seen in a while but the Van Wijk’s female is now part of Ezulwini’s regular cat sightings. Hopefully Chavaluthu will sire cubs with the leopardess!

In the meantime, here are 5 interesting facts about female leopards. Hopefully this will help to understand the Van Wijk’s behaviour.

A leopardess can give birth at any time of the year and, on average, gives birth to two cubs which are bundles of grey fluff with undeveloped rosette patterns. The cubs stay with their mother for the first two years and then pursue the solitary lifestyle of leopards.
A leopardess will defend her territory against other females but does tend to tolerate overlap from their neighbours, which is probably why the unknown female and Van Wijk’s female were seen in the same vicinity. Perhaps once of them was crossing back to its turf. Being aloof creatures, these cats will avoid each other rather than confront.
A male leopard is a lot larger and stockier than a female.
There is speculation that a leopardess can determine if a male is the territorial male and has the ability to remain dominant in that area for a long period of time. If he isn’t the “warrior” of the area she’ll sense it and make herself less fertile! This is a clever tactic – if the male is ousted from his territory, then a new male could come in and kill off the cubs.
To avoid infanticide from males a female will mate with more than one male. Males normally kill off cubs sired by other males when they want to mate with a leopardess. Killing off the cubs sends the female back in oestrus.

Ezulwini River Lodge Hostess: Glory Wati

Glory Wati possesses the broadest and most dazzling smile in the Balule where she hosts at Ezulwini River Lodge. Glory welcomes new guests with cheerfulness and genuine kindness, along with a refreshing drink and a briefing about Ezulwini River Lodge, before showing them to their rooms. Ezulwini guests immediately bond with this happy character, and are blown away by the dedicated service and attention she offers them throughout their stay. It is people like Glory that offer this lodge the comforts of home, creating a light-hearted atmosphere with her warm, friendly company.

Watch Glory talk about her work at Ezulwini, the joy she finds in singing, and her love-hate relationship with the vervet monkeys that tend to ambush the open-air luncheons served on the deck beneath the trees. Thank you for all your hard work, Glory. Your enthusiasm, kindness, and your endlessly smiling face are assets to Ezulwini River Lodge, and we love having you around!

Guests on Walk Spot Ross Pride Breakaway Lionesses

The Ross Pride Breakaway females still hold pride of place in the Klaserie Private Nature Reserve and the Timbavati Game Reserve; and prove time and time again to be a formidable force within the reserves. The Klaserie is their turf and those who dare cross their land are in for a potential showdown. These are two lionesses who’ve shown us the survival instinct and they live a true guts and glory lifestyle (their maternal skills leave a lot to be desired!).

The Trilogy boys are the male lions often see mating with the Ross girls. One of them sired a litter of cubs with one of the Ross breakaways. Unfortunately, the cubs were killed under rather dubious circumstances at the hands of the notorious Hercules Pride of lions. As a result, these two lionesses are incredibly protective over each other and their turf.

With that history in mind, this brings us to Friday’s event. Mike Beard was out on the morning walk with Africa on Foot guests when they stumbled across the Ross Pride Breakaways. Here’s Mike’s version of events.

“We were out on our morning walk and stopped for our normal coffee break. We heard about 4 or 5 lions contact calling and quickly made our way towards the calls. As we headed north we heard two contact calls, which sounded incredibly close. We found an elevated area on a termite mound and hid in the shrubbery, lying in wait. We managed to see the two Ross Pride lionesses together. We stayed with them for about 15 minutes and then watched them head west.” – Mike Beard, Africa on Foot ranger.

Our rangers speculate that the Ross girls heard the calling from the neighbouring lions and decided to investigate. Both Mike and Greg think that the other calls were originating from the Hercules Pride and the Ross Pride Breakaway lionesses appeared to be “chasing” them as they were permanently on the move.

Were the lionesses of the Klaserie chasing away a pride attempting to invade their territory? We’ll have to keep watch over the dynamics and see what unfolds in the coming weeks!

Leopardess Marula Makes a Kill at Africa on Foot

Another superb leopard sighting for guests at Africa on Foot and nThambo Tree Camp in the Klaserie Private Nature Reserve. A big focus has turned to leopards during the unusually dry summer we’ve had, and these solitary cats have emerged from their secretive lives. Marula, a leopardess whose territory crosses through Africa on Foot traverse, is revealing her stunning physique more and more during game drives, and most recently, guests got to watch her with an impala kill! Take a look at the video captured by guide, Greg, during his incredible sighting with his guests and Marula.

The story goes that Marula made her kill that day, and guides from both camps took their guests to see her in action as she feasted on her prize. It was a large impala, and female leopards, although phenomenally strong, can struggle to take down such a large, thrashing animal. She ate for the day, and guests watched her lazing and panting in between feeding sessions, but unfortunately, this hard-earned meal was taken away from her as soon as night fell and the scavenging hyenas tracked her down. Unable to haul the big impala into the safety of a tree (leopards’ age old trick), Marula lost out to the hyenas who snatched up her kill with ease. Better luck next time!

Week in Pics: Wildlife Behaviour in the Rain

The skies have opened and torrents of fresh water can be seen soaking the parched lands of the Kruger. The rain is here in full force and it’s creating a playground for our wildlife ! Dagga boys are spoilt for choice with waterholes, elephants are frolicking in the water like first time beach goers at the seaside; and some strange, yet wonderful things are happening in the Kruger. The rains have breathed new life into the arid landscape and Africa is dancing with delight.

This week in pictures, we’re celebrating the diversity of wildlife and focussing on the creatures both large and small who’ve emerged while the rains have pelted down. Because our focus today is the abundance of water and changing weather patterns, we’re going to look at how wildlife behaves with the wet weather.

Ezulwini Game Lodges

Our pride of the Balule is Ezulwini River Lodge and Ezulwini Billy’s Lodge. The lodges enjoyed heavy but intermittent rains over the past week, with a few days of dry weather and heavy clouds looming above. Last night there was a light rain and 34mm was recorded! The Balule bushveld is looking green and waterholes are looking quite full.

This week the accomplished scavengers hyenas, curious zebra, gentle elephants and stoic buffaloes have taken centre stage. Buffalo need to drink twice a day and the “pathfinders” normally lead the heard to the closest water source. Dagga boys are the old bulls who you see wallowing in mud pools. All this rain is making the dagga boys very happy!

The huge breeding herds of elephant are spending plenty of time coating themselves in mud and their moisture laden bodies is a relief for everyone to see. Even the hyenas have taken to cooling off in the newly replenished waterholes. They’ll be sure to scurry away when they catch a whiff of a kill somewhere!

Umkumbe Safari Lodge

Despite the incredible downpours and the mud soaked lands; our delicate water-fearing big cats have been seen in abundance this week at Umkumbe Safari Lodge. Leopards are one of the most adaptable cats and can live in a range of conditions. If there’s a downpour, they’ll seek shelter under the shrubbery or in a drainage line, which is preferable to the soaking weather, but nothing stops an opportunistic leopard on its quest to kill; even when the weather is undesirable.

White Dam, the notoriously shy leopardess, was seen with her cub just relaxing in the thickets. This week, the elegantly patterned leopard Mahlatini was seen guarding his duiker kill. This elusive leopard hasn’t been seen in 3 months, so this definitely topped the sightings of the week.

Bloats of hippo have been enjoying the high water levels of the Sand River, which runs in front of the lodge. Water loving species like waterbuck, buffalo and elephants have come out of the woodwork. Honey badgers and civet cats were also seen just flittering about under the cover of the starlit night sky. Antelope and plains game have certainly enjoyed the new growth and fresh grass on offer – the rains have delivered a fresh buffet!

This week, Umkumbe has just released an interview with Marius Zeilinga about the rains and the cause-effect it has on nature and the bio-diversity of the area.

Africa on Foot and nThambo Tree Camp

The Klaserie team happily reported a sighting of the Ross Pride Breakaway females. Albeit a brief sighting, the lions were spotted. They were on the move during the drier parts of the day and the gentle pitter patter of paws could be heard crunching through the thickets. We’ll tell you about that later on today…!

In other news, as predicted, the huge buffalo and elephant herds are enjoying the wet weather. These two mammoth sized herbivores need water sources in order to survive; more so than other species. The smaller creatures have been out to play and there was a rare sighting of a deadly puff adder. Clearly the snakes are on the move to find sources of heat during the day and drier areas to hibernate from the rains.

Wading birds, such as the unfortunate looking marabou stork, also seem to be celebrating the rains. Raptors such as the fish eagle clearly love the full dams – more fish and reptiles. Plenty of activity from nThambo Tree Camp and Africa on Foot game drives.

Enjoy the week in pictures and let’s celebrate the birth of a more “green” Kruger. Our lands have been thirsty.

Third Kill for Leopardess White Dam & Cub

White Dam is a notoriously shy leopardess roaming the traverse surrounding Umkumbe Safari Lodge. With stealth and grace she darts between shrubbery dotted along the landscape. The past week she has exhibited unusual behaviour, quite uncharacteristic of her rather coy demeanour. You’re not going to believe this, but White Dam has been hunting out in the open together with her cub and is unfazed by the limelight!

Rangers and guests at Umkumbe often report sightings of White Dam together with her cub. She is clearly teaching her offspring how to hunt successfully and arm her cub with finely tuned ambushing techniques. Has her playful cub brought out an extroverted side to White Dam? It appears so – this was the third kill in a space of 4 – 5 days. During this period of time, the cub clearly upped its skill set.

We’ve told the tale of two of her kills, now here is the third. When this famously elusive leopardess made her first kill, the youngster hung back. At 10 months old the cub will accompany its mother on a kill – nothing better than on-the-job training. Cubs are often left to their devices while the adults patrol and hunt; and clearly the cub wasn’t confident enough to take centre stage. When the kill was made, the smell attracted our infamous scavengers – the hyenas.

The antics from the second leopard kill were caught on the sneaky camera trap. The antics were incredible and it’s amazing to observe what happens when the game viewers aren’t around ! There’s plenty of playfulness, gentle ambushing and ripping apart of the carcass. Due to successful scavenging from our hyena species, the carcass was stolen, leaving them without a much anticipated meal. At least both leopards were sufficiently full from their first kill. However, this expectation of a meal obviously left them salivating. Leopards are also opportunistic hunters which is why the third kill happened. And this time, the cub was more involved!

Unfortunately guests didn’t see the kill happen but caught a glimpse White Dam’s cub dragging the fleshy carcass up a tree. White Dam was nowhere to be seen but she has clearly taught her cub how to stash a kill for safekeeping.

Watch this space, White Dam and cub are dominating the Sabi Sand leopard sightings!

Not a bad trilogy of leopard kills for the Sabi Sand !