The season started well, rain very early on and good amounts of soft rain. We were all so excited as the lightning storms out here are spectacular. What was to follow no one was prepared for, heat wave after heat wave.
All the small pools and wallows all dried up, animals ducking and diving for shade as early as 07:00 in the morning. The bush is still dense even though one can see that the grass is suffering. We all know that there is some importance to drier seasons. The bush can be harsh as it is natures way of controlling numbers and eliminating the weak with good mating seasons to follow, the only question is how long will it last. Guess only time will tell.
With all the above said, sightings have been really good, forcing animals out to water sources, playing, sleeping and wallowing in the shallows to cool down.
All images in this article were taken by Stefan Breuer, Owner & Founder
Leopard:
Leopard sightings has always been great around Makumu, even though this time we have to work really hard for our leopard sightings. Xivindzi has been pushing hard further north, marking and calling, looking for a potential male, and advertising her presence. She has not been so active around the lodge as she usually is. We have seen the son and daughter of Manzi a few times, down by the river sneaking around, mostly at night though.
Pale Male has been doing his thing, I am always just amazed at the size of the area that he walks and how much distance he covers during a single night, at least he has given us some good sightings.
Lion:
Lion sightings have been beyond great both the group of 7 and 14, they have pretty much been all over the traverse. They have been very successful at bringing food down, giraffe, buffalo and at the moment the impala babies. One thing that I have noticed is swollen mammary glands on a female in the group 7, so we will definitely keep you updated on that. Another interesting thing that happened is that the large males that use to be dominant in the area and moved north made an appearance and to my surprise the males in the group of 7, actually chased them away tail between their legs. The younger males are only half their age at +/- 4.5 years, so I am very impressed.
Elephant:
These big gentle giants have been all over, feeding on the river reeds while standing in the cool flowing water. They were literally around in their 100’s. While up at the lodge you would have one group come in after the other to grab a drink from the lodge pan. For all the baby lovers, there are lots of little ones around at the moment. The elephants have been providing us with some good laughs, as they are always up to something. As humas you can relate a lot with certain behavior’s they have, which makes it even funnier.
Buffalo:
It is not in every report we can say that the most exciting things was buffalo the month, vehicles responding and actually tracking them down as we had 3 different breeding herds in the area, usually we only get a breeding herd in the winter months and the rest of the time groups of males.
I remember one afternoon there where two groups headed to the same drinking area in the river, coming from two totally different directions, there must have been 500+ buffalo. We have been spoiled this month.
Hyena:
They have been all over the place. We were lucky to see the clan together again as they were following a pack of wild dogs around for about two to three days between the two watering holes. They have also been very active and vocal around the lodge.
That’s all from us, thank you for reliving this months’ sightings with us.