The lions are firmly established, with four adults (two males and the two females) and three young of around 4months at Grass Pan, feeding on a zebra. The two males fought with two nomadic younger males, and these have been pushed out of the territory, not to be seen again. The young cubs are slowly growing up, enjoying each day as it brings new adventure and the every present curiosity of cats. The cubs have been introduced to the rest of the pride, with no animosity from the males. The mother still has to be careful of intruder males, as if they find the cubs, they will be killed. There is another female in the area with two five month old cubs that are doing well. The pride males, on the last day of May, killed a calf buffalo near Zebra Pan and consumed it in its entirety in one morning. They were rather full and sloth-like afterward!
The pack of eight dogs were seen along Pan road in early May – reading emails (as one of the guides termed it) from the rarely seen pack of twenty from the North. Essentially, picking up on the scent marks that larger pack had left behind. 500m away from this investigation, a female leopard was spotted hunting. We could see from her shape that she is a nursing cubs hidden somewhere.
Later in the month, it became obvious that three females of the pack of 8 dogs were pregnant. This is highly unusual, and has been caused due to there being no female being clearly dominant, so the alpha male has been mating with all females possible. We hope that we are able to get one healthy litter out of the three dogs, for there is little chance of all there sets of pups surviving – even with the best intentions, the remaining five adults would not be able to hunt enough to provide for three mothers.
The two shy young male cheetahs we saw for the first time last year arrived back this month, having grown and matured. No longer shy, they are totally relaxed around the cars, and seem confident in their manner.
Regular sighting of several leopards – including an unusual one of a female feeding on a side-striped jackal. Killed as competition for food, predators rarely feed on other predators. As it was, she eats only a small portion of the jackal, and then abandoned the kill. Closer to camp, a male leopard killed a reedbuck, but the leopard was forced to give up his kill to a group of hyenas. Other hyenas were also ‘spotted’ – with the best sighting being of ten individuals clamouring over the remains of a baby elephant carcass.
The breeding herds of elephants are back in full force, with all and sundry crossing the river in front of camp. Little ellies are dipping their feet in the chilly water, and then forcefully plunging in after their mothers, trunks raised for breath. Aunty pushes them along from behind, helping them up the bank as they tire. For the big males, a water crossing is often a good excuse for a tussle in the water, diving and plunging and knocking about with friends, to see who is the big boy at the pool.
Buffalo herds are in the area as well, but we have yet to see the large amalgamation of herds that we saw last year, which reached over 2000 individuals. This will hopefully occur in the next few months, and will be a sight to behold.
Lots of wonderful general game continues through this month, with zebras, giraffe, sable, kudu, assorted mongoose species and the night active animals such as civet, large spotted genets and servals.