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Mauritz Photographs a Trio of Leopards at Umkumbe

Last week we shared Marius’s photographs of Umkumbe Safari Lodge’s leopard sightings. This week, Mauritz compiled a selection of leopard photographs from his encounters with Kigelia, Tatowa and White Dam. There have been plenty of leopardess sightings but only the occasional sighting of dominant male, Mxabene. Seems like the females are stealing the show and hogging the limelight ! Let’s hope the exquisite female leopards of Umkumbe retain their power to enchant us.

Kigelia, the young leopardess, certainly has come into her own. During the course of last year she was often spotted with her mother, Little Bush. She has matured and blossomed into a curious and tactful hunter. Kigelia was spotted chasing an ostrich, which is an unusual choice of prey. She pounced, prowled and darted around after the flightless bird, but eventually gave up and took refuge in a nearby Marula tree. Mauritz and the other rangers marked this as unusual sighting. It’s not often you see a leopard chasing an ostrich !

It is always a privilege to see White Dam. Recently, there have only been fleeting sightings of her and she doesn’t hang around. When Warthog Wallow and Mxabene were seen mating close to the lodge, White Dam started to move south of the property. She actually has two cubs sired by Mxabene – a male and female; but we’ve had any recorded sightings of them in the past few months. Mauritz spotted White Dam lapping up water from a small waterhole and managed to capture her on camera before she disappeared into a drainage line.

Tatowa is a breathtakingly beautiful leopardess who crossed over from the northern boundary onto the Umkumbe traverse. She’s the only surviving leopard from a litter of 4 and appears to have no fear. She ambushed an young impala and made a successful kill. The area is surrounded by other predators and hungry scavengers, so she dragged the antelope up a Marula tree to prevent it being stolen.

We hope you enjoy Mauritz’s photographs of this trio of leopards.

Week in Pics: A Kruger Kaleidoscope of Colours

When you go on safari to the Kruger, a kaleidoscope of colour awaits. The fawn and tawny hues of lions, colourful plumes on birds, blood red sunsets and khaki-green landscapes combine to produce an incredible palette of natural paints. You’ll see hues and tints you probably can’t pinpoint on any colour spectrum. The interior design of lodges is often based on the colours nature has naturally placed together.

For this week in pictures, we’re going to highlight the images that combine the most intense and contrasting colours. It’s Friday and we want you to have a vibrant weekend!

Africa on Foot and nThambo Tree Camp

Before we share a few of our most spectacular colour-filled photos with you, we just want to quickly give you and update from the week. The highlight of the week at Africa on Foot and nThambo Tree Camp has been the sighting of the endangered nomadic wild dogs. The pack was spotted close to the dam and appeared to be quite playful. Another incredible sighting, not to be surpassed by the wild dog sighting, was that of a male leopard. This elusive cat kept its distance and strolled along the road in front of the vehicle.

Ezulwini Game Lodges

Below are just a handful of our most colourful images from Billy’s Lodge and River Lodge. This week there have been incredible sightings. Duma, the king of the Olifants West Pride, was seen while out on game drive. He wasn’t the only cat to make an appearance. An elusive but majestic leopardess was seen hiding in the fork of a tree. The usual suspects were seen enjoying time in their natural habitat – elephants, giraffe, Cape buffalo and an array of birds.

Umkumbe Safari Lodge

We are inundated with reports of leopard sightings at Umkumbe and Mxabene seems to hog the limelight in terms of sightings. Tatowa, a relatively new leopardess, was seen feasting on a young impala. Kigelia, Little Bush’s cub, was spotted exploring her immediate area. During the weekly #LiveBushFeed session, a somewhat reserved and shy cheetah was seen surveying the landscape. And let’s not forget the unusual appearance of an ostrich during the sundowner session.

Enjoy the week in pictures – have a bright and colourful weekend !

Two Weeks of Wild Dogs in Klaserie

How lucky can you get? African wild dogs with the unending expanse of the Kruger National Park to roam, have stuck around Africa on Foot and nThambo Tree Camp for at least 2 weeks. These pack animals are exceptional hunters, they don’t have territories and are always on the move. Their home ranges can reach up to 1500 sq. km and they will constantly circulate their area, chasing prey during dawn and dusk, and resting overnight, perhaps two nights. Unless the pack is denning with pups, we don’t expect to enjoy their presence for such an extended period of time, but what do you know?

This morning was the most recent in the unbelievable wild dog activity in the last 2 weeks, and we couldn’t have expected what we got! Our ‘usual’ pack of 7 was nowhere to be found, but in its place was a fantastic scene of 17 wild dogs together! These are certainly not the same dogs we’ve been seeing since July last year, and it is not big enough to be the famous Orpen Pack, which is about 30-strong. It is a possibility that this group of 17 is a split from the Orpen Pack, but that is only speculation – we would need to get a status update on the Orpen Pack to be able to know for sure.

Either way, it was a spectacular sight! The dogs gathered at Buffel Dam near Africa on Foot and enjoyed a drink and a rest while guests looked on in awe. Enoch was taking guests on a walking safari and managed to position the group in the perfect spot to view the dogs, making for one memorable morning! It’s astonishing that as our 7 wild dogs move off, these 17 move in. Hopefully the dogs stick around during the heat of the day and the afternoon game drives are as lucky as this morning’s!

Top 4 Videos of the Week : NEWLY Released Footage of Umkumbe

Leopard Party at Umkumbe Safari Lodge

When you stumble across a stocky, powerfully built cat with black rosettes dotted on its fur, you know it’s a leopard. Sightings of the elusive leopard are considered rare – they have a habit of hiding in thickets, up in trees and don’t care much for the limelight. When you see this elegant cat saunter towards you, with swag and attitude, you are in for a treat. Over the past few days at Umkumbe Safari Lodge Marius spotted 3 leopards – majestic Mxabene, the young Kigelia and the graceful Tatowa.Leopard sightings have become the norm while out on game drive with the Umkumbe rangers.

The Sabi Sand is quite the drawcard for guests who come on safari to see leopards. The reserve has a high density of leopards and Umkumbe is located in prime leopard viewing territory.

Over the weekend, firm favourite, Mxabene was spotted out on patrol. Sightings of Mxabene are generally when he is marking his territory and patrolling his turf to prevent unwanted visitors. Male leopards guard their territory against other males but their traverse overlaps with, on average, 3/4 females. Their scent marking activity normally happens in the dead of night and they spray urine and disperse droppings over vegetation. This is not their only measure of marking their home range, they may even have trees which serve as territorial scratching points. They also tend to emit a distinctive long-range bark to signal ownership of a territory. Max, yet again, was seen enjoying his normal nocturnal activities !

Young Kigelia is Little Bush’s cub who is now old enough to fend for herself. She still has cub like qualities and was seen chasing squirrels. She is obviously practicing her pouncing skills and also tried to chase an ostrich! Leopards will begin to hunt alone around the 18 month mark and a young leopardess will often claim a territory on the fringe of her mother’s range. Kigelia appears to be putting her natural instincts to the test.

Tatowa is a slender and beautiful leopardess who crossed over from the northern boundary onto the Umkumbe traverse. She’s built a name for herself as quite a tough cat and is the only surviving leopard from a litter of 4. She had no problem taking down this unsuspecting impala !

Thanks to Marius for the leopard update. Hopefully we’ll see more of the elusive Tatowa and perhaps next time Kigelia will be stalking something larger in stature than a squirrel !

Hornbill Chick Flees the Nest

This time last year, we reported that we had witnessed red-billed hornbills leaving the nest at Africa on Foot, and now, a year later, the same thing has been recorded, except that this time it was a yellow-billed hornbill chick! Catching this sort of intimate act of nature in action is very special, and we are lucky to have this repeatedly used nest in the tree between the kitchen and dining room to monitor.

Hornbills are known to reuse suitable nests year after year, and they seem to quite like this particular hole in a tree, giving us the pleasure of watching the nesting process year after year. Curiously, last year we had to wait until the chick finally left the nest to tell whether it was a red-billed or yellow-billed hornbill, because the parent birds of both subspecies were seen maintaining the nest and feeding the chick inside. It turned out to be red-billed then, and yellow-billed now! Interesting that the two different families utilise the same nest.

Africa on Foot camp manager, Jen, managed to capture the moment the young chick fled the recently, offering this incredible look into the bird’s first moments in the big, wide world. First, the mother exits a small hole made in the otherwise sealed nest, and she will continue to fly back and forth with the male parent feeding the chick for its last short while in the nest. Eventually, the baby bird, fully feathered, is finally ready to leave the nest. Take a look at this incredible photo sequence of the once-a-year event:

Elephants from above in the Sabi Sand

The Sand River flows and dries up with the change in seasons in South Africa’s Kruger Lowveld. As the summer heat creeps in, the epic thunderstorms roll in on through great, purple clouds, and the rains nourish the land after a long, dry winter, and rivers such as the Sand fill up and bring life to its banks once again. Umkumbe Safari Lodge is ideally located on a rise overlooking this river in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve – a private section of the Kruger Park with a reputation for predator interaction, particularly leopards. When the Sand River comes to life, it’s not leopards that draw the eye, but elephants. In this superb piece of aerial footage taken over Umkumbe, watch elephants from above as they can be seen crossing the water from one bank to the other.

The current drought punishing South Africa has withheld rain during the months it is needed the most. A tragedy for people, wildlife, vegetation, and agriculture, as the lack of water begins to take effect; however, the Sand River has received enough of a push from what rain has fallen, and is coursing beautifully through the Sabi Sand, decorating its surroundings in colour and offering much-needed water to the wilderness surrounding it.

Elephants are entirely reliant on water, and as a result, they have famous migration routes carved through the plains of Africa to lead them to water wherever it is located during different times of the year. It is a miracle of nature that there are elephants that survive in the desert of Namibia, where water is virtually unheard of. This footage of a herd of elephants enjoying the water in the Sand River is a refreshing visual during a time of concerning drought in the rest of the country. What a view from the perfectly positioned Umkumbe Safari Lodge!

Sabi Sand : The Eccentricity of Nature

Nature is an eccentric place where wildlife often breaks free from the documented textbook behaviour and leaves us feeling somewhat bewildered. Just when we think we understand a species, its physical markings and behaviour; you stumble across an anomaly.

Marius Zeilinga, a game ranger from Umkumbe Safari Lodge, stumbled across a zebra with unusual markings on its forehead. Zebras have unique markings, akin to that of a human fingerprint. Their markings generally have a similar pattern but Marius discovered a zebra with distinct concentric circles on its forehead.

A baboon established his throne on a decaying tree and made guests question whether lions truly are the kings of the jungle. This baboon certainly wanted the title of king!

The ravenous raptors of the Sabi Sand were caught in the midst of their feasting. A Wahlberg’s eagle, with its delightful rufous colouring, was seen dining on a snake. The Wahlberg’s eagle is often near water and preys on snakes, reptiles and small mammals. A bateleur eagle was spotted smashing a terrapin and enjoying the meaty delights hiding beneath its shell. Seeing it devour a terrapin was quite unusual as it normally targets snakes, small birds and mammals.

While guests were enjoying a sundowner session a clan of hyena strolled past. They were probably on the move in search of a kill to steal. This is definitely not behaviour that deviates from the norm, but it made for an exciting sighting !

The rule of the wild is – never tried to figure it out !

Elephants digging for water at Ezulwini

It is well known that elephants are some of the most intelligent members of the wild population of African inhabitants. Emotional beings with a mysterious reputation for good memory, elephants have been known to carve out age old migration routes that lead to reliable sources of water, and to remember where herd members have laid down to eternal rest. They develop along a similar chronological scale to humans, making them particularly relatable animals. Elephants also possess the incredible ability to sense water underground, and are known to dig to access it during times of drought.

At Ezulwini Game Lodges in the Balule, Greater Kruger, guests came across a herd of elephants digging in a sandy drainage line to get to underground water, which was an incredible sight to witness. The elephants dig using their feet to carve out bowls in the sand, which, when deep enough to reach the water table, become temporary watering holes providing much needed water. Adult elephants plunge their trunks into the sandy pits and pour litres of water down their throats, while the babies kneel or lie on the ground and bury their heads in the waterhole in order to reach the water at the bottom.

Other animals rely on this aspect of elephant behaviour, and rush to drink from the dug waterholes once the elephants have had their fill and left. Droughts can be devastating, particularly in areas where rainfall is frequent and expected, as the animals dwelling here are not equipped to deal with the drastic change in the climate. Elephants possess the ability to create a water source for themselves and other animals during times of such need.

Week in Pictures: 2016 Begins with a Bang!

A week into the new year, and things are looking promising! Despite the almost unbearable heat waves sweeping South Africa, 2016 has kicked off with a bang. The Olifants River at Ezulwini is an offer the elephants can’t refuse, and they have been seen enjoying the sweet riverside reeds, alongside buffalo and waterbuck, which are also avid water-lovers. The presence of buffalo in the Balule means the lions are out and about (so that’s 3 of the Big 5, if you’re counting). Take a look at the Week in Pictures.

The neighbouring Klaserie was overrun (in the best possible way) by African wild dogs this week! An unexpected and rare opportunity to study some of the most endangered predators in Africa was bestowed upon guests at Africa on Foot and nThambo Tree Camp when the pack of 7 dogs were the highlight of their game drives, day after day. A beautiful glimpse of the Ross Dam leopardess was a stroke of luck too this week, and to top it off, the Ross Breakaway lionesses were seen this morning!

Our Sabi Sand jewel – Umkumbe Safari Lodge – has had elephants crossing the Sand River in full view of sun bathing guests, while a whopping total of 4 different leopards have been sighted in the first week of the new year. Kigelia, Tatowa, White Dam, and Mxabene are famous faces in the Sabi Sand, and guests were thrilled to be introduced to them. An enormous bull elephant almost trod on a camera trap, and a small flap neck chameleon was spotted clinging to the end of a twig.

As for Botswana, Afrika Ecco Safaris enjoyed getting up close to some of the commonly seen species in the top safari locations of this wild country. Cruising through the Kalahari, we almost bumped right into a very relaxed springbok; a hornbill allowed us to get up close and personal with his foraging process; an elephant in Moremi kicked up dust; and our guide in the Okavango Delta presented our freshly caught dinner for inspection.