The bushveld is blooming in the summertime. Loads of beautiful, colourful flowers. The water dams and rivers are full and flowing strongly. And there are plenty of wildlife babies. Welcome to another update from the Klaserie Private Nature Reserve and Makumu Private Game Lodge, your home away from home. I will be covering some of the exciting things that we encountered over the last month.
All images in this article were taken by Stefan Breuer, the owner.
Wild dog:
With newborn baby impalas everywhere in the bushveld, it truly provides a great opportunity for all predator species to hunt. Wild dogs, who are amazing hunters, rarely miss when a hunting opportunity arises. This was the case the past month as we have had many encounters of the wild dogs successfully hunting impalas.
Lion:
A standout sighting from our river pride this month was from a breakaway group of sub-adult individuals who had spent a few days right in front of our very own Makumu, at our watering pan. The guests really enjoyed this as they could sit and watch the lions from the comfort of their own room decks. And as we were having dinner by the boma you could hear the lions roaring and contacting calling very loudly. It truly sends shivers down your spine.
Hyena:
A very sad but unique sighting we had was a newborn blue wildebeest wandering around on its own. It had sadly lost its mother to a clan of hyenas. They, unfortunately, killed her right after she gave birth, so they used that opportunity while she was still very weak and tired. The newborn was very lost and was not too sure what to do or where to go so it used our vehicle as a safety point in all the chaos, and tried to avoid the hyenas. But after some time, the hyenas did spot the newborn and sadly killed it too. This is the sad reality of wild nature.
Leopard:
It has been so nice witnessing Manzi’s cubs growing up over the past year. We are also slowly seeing the progression of them becoming more independent by moving on their own more frequently and exploring surrounding areas by themselves and moving away from their mom.
Elephant and Buffalo:
With the summer months comes big rain storms. And in this rainy season we get a lot of grazing and browsing herds almost everywhere. In the summer these herds are very dependent on drinking lots of water and cooling themselves down with water and mud baths. One afternoon we were extremely lucky to have big herds of both elephants and buffalo sharing one waterhole.