An adult male leopard was located heading north from Lebala camp in the cool of the morning. The cat was looking very hungry, and after only ten minutes of us following him, he spotted a herd of impala. Sadly, the wind was not in his favour, and the impalas smelt the danger, fleeing in bounding leaps .
The same leopard was then seen again the next afternoon, having just killed a zebra foal. This male appears to have taken over from the resident male of the area, which we have not seen in some time. As the sun began to set, a single hyena approached the kill, and the leopard moved off for five minutes before returning. There was then a very unusual sighting of a hyena feeding at one end of the kill, and, not 50cm away, a leopard feeding at the other end! Neither seemed too bothered about the other!
A morning visit to the hyena den produced an unusual sighting of five adults and three young out of the den, resting in the shade. Since it was late morning, the cubs would normally have been hidden away in the depths of the den, but obviously sought some comfort from the presence of so many adults.
On the fifth, the pack of five wild dogs were located next to the Old Hippo Pools during the afternoon drive. They were actively hunting, and made several attempts on impalas and tsessebes with babies, but had no luck. The next day, the same pack were more successful, and we watched them hunt and co-ordinate to kill a steenbok. Towards the end of the month, the Lagoon pack of dogs paid us a visit – killing and feeding on a fully grown female kudu.
Its not only wild dogs that hunt in packs and work well as a team: three of our trackers spent an hour and a half tracking indistinct footprints of a solitary male cheetah that was hunting. Eventually, the tracking paid off, and the male was found – it was tricky to identify if this was the male from the two brothers, or from the coalition of three. He was fully grown and well fed!
Lions have also been active in the area, and although two big males were found sleeping in the already hot temperatures of late morning, they proved their reputation of laziness wrong when they both got up and started walking. One began to roar and mark his territory, obviously responding to something that was far to distant for us to hear.
The King of the Jungle – the lion. Such a mighty beast: capable of pulling down adult elephants if they work together. Imagine what can happen if you get eight of them working together to catch a …. Dwarf mongoose? Yes, that’s right. Something that is roughly the same size as a small squirrel. Sad to say – though not for the mongoose – eight lions simply couldn’t manage it. All of them were chasing round trying to be the first to catch the mongoose, banging into each other whilst doing so. Whilst they were busy banging heads, the mongoose made its escape, and the lions returned to their fierce-looking demeanour.
Although the breeding herds will start moving off now, the bull elephants will stay in the area. One bull ele was caught napping – literally. It’s tricky for elephants to lie down for any length of time as their body weight places a lot of strain on their internal organs. It’s not uncommon however, for them to lie at an angle along a termite mound. Obviously, one ele was deep in slumber and did not hear the vehicle approaching until too late, and then it was a quick jump to the feet, seeming to say, no, I was not napping!
Two of the smaller cats were seen on the 7th – a shy African wildcat, who disappeared quickly off the path, and a strangely relaxed caracal, that eventually moved off into the bushes. Another wild cat was seen a few days later, this time with two kittens. But it was a very sad event, as a black mamba managed to kill one of the kittens, and the mother escaped with only one.