I was at the lodge yesterday, working on some emails, when suddenly Gerrard ran in and said that Jonathan was watching the wild dogs with all our guests! They had found them about 100 yards from the lodge, right next to the river. They were very relaxed, and it was obvious they had made a kill nearby. How exciting!
Gerrard rushed over to take a look at them as well, and took some lovely pics with his phone camera. See them below!
Wild dogs are the rarest and most endangered of all predators in Africa (only 3000 specimen left in the wild), so to see them here regularly, and doing so well, is beyond amazing. It is an experience that is akin to an honor that not even many safari buffs will ever experience. Many rangers out there have never seen any in their lives! This is as exciting as it gets for safari connoisseurs.
Enjoy the photos, they are true gems of a very special sighting.
Wow … we had a close encounter with rhinos yesterday! This happens on a regular basis, of course, but these photos that Jonathan took are particularly beautiful.
You can see that their horns are quite short, and the rhinos will be dehorned soon again, to protect them from poachers. Recently we haven’t had too many problems with poachers, but at the moment rhinos are under massive pressure because of a wave of poaching. Somehow one hopes for an economic crisis in China so that demand drops off, because it is the silliest thing ever: rhino horn is chemically the same as a finger nail, and has NO medical benefits whatsoever. Still, rhino horn is worth more than gold these days, and gold isn’t cheap at the moment. Poor rhinos, why can’t humans just leave them be?
It is so rewarding though to see them do so well on our reserve, and the rhino mothers are very successful at raising rhino cubs here. Their numbers have been going up over recent years, and the introduction of the super rare black rhino will only add to the excitement.
These rhinos here are “white rhinos”, though they are of the same color as “black rhinos”. Here the link to my blog story that explains that conundrum:
Yesterday, Mike was out on safari, full game drive vehicle with 10 guests, when he found the male lion at first! Turns out, they were feasting on a nice kill and staying nearby to make sure they will be able to eat it all and taking breaks in-between eating (it is a bit like humans on holidays actually, with the only difference that nature will impose a diet on these lions, so things never get out of control).
The whole pride was present and it was amazing to watch them all being together (the lions were spending quite a bit of time apart in previous months), so they seem to have all reconnected. The male looks stronger and more stunning than ever, and in the next months and few years he will grow to become even larger than now. He is still young. What a beautiful example of a healthy (and happy) male lion.
I am wondering if the rumours of one of the lionesses having had a cub a few month ago is true, we will find out soon enough and I will update you about this in the near future.
Enjoy the pictures, I really did! Many thanks to Mike for taking all these shots, well done! Possibly the best any of our rangers has ever taken actually …
LionFunny, it is a lioness just next to the male lion drinking together …Lion
Jerry Parker who stayed at the Vuyani Safari Lodge a little while ago has emailed in an exciting (to say the very least!!) Video clip that he has compiled of various takes during his stay at the lodge and while out on an Africa safari with us.
The video gives a fantastic idea and feeling of what an evening/night safari game drive is like and how stunning the sightings at that time of day truly are.
The night shots show a beautiful lion, a spectacular sighting of the super rare cheetahs and also a huge rhino. Fantastic stuff indeed!
The daytime footage shows a buffalo, a typical sundowner, as well as a large herd of wildebeest (and a couple of jackals right behind them!), and a dry riverbed drive. This was followed by a journey of giraffes and a pretty couple of birds …
Many thanks to Jerry for compiling these beautiful shots and footage and sharing it on Youtube! Please have a look at the clip and give it the thumbs up, it’s well worth it!
I have been away for a couple of weeks on holidays, so it was very frustrating to receive so many emails with so many cool photos of the many sightings we have had over recent days and weeks. In fact I would say that the volume and quality of sightings on safaris has never been higher than these days. I am downright jealous of what our guests are seeing these days, t be honest. I wish I was more out there myself to see these stunning animals, but work and then also the fact that we are almost always fully booked means that there is no space left on the game driver for myself.
Anyhow, I am back at work now, and I can’t wait to resume sharing the best of the best we see on our game drives with all our fans!
So here some very pretty photos of a breathtaking elephant encounter a few days ago.
Mike and Uyai were out with our guests when they came across the entire herd. The male is in heat these days, so he was acting, well, let’s say he wasn’t in the best of all moods, to say the least. As a result Uyai had to move off his front hood tracker seat back into the vehicle, next to Mike, as Mike felt it was too dangerous to leave him in front and up close to a volatile and aggressive elephant.
The whole herd could be seen, and eventually the male relaxed enough and they all moved on. What an amazing sighting! Wish I had been there, I have not seen the elephants in a while, though we see them all now very regularly. The herd is also growing nicely, and I believe they must be 15 specimen now, while it was only 11 just 2-3 years ago, so it’s very cool to see them do so well on our reserve. Their numbers will probably keep on rising, as the conservancy is so large now (over 36,000 acres) and with so much plant growth that we believe the reserve could easily absorb a herd twice the size. There is still debate over this, but stubbornly thick bush seems to be answering the question in a natural way. Sometimes the proof is just in the pudding, and one should just observe and listen to nature, and it will give one the obvious answers to these complex questions.
We are also in the midst of releasing the super-rare black rhino on the reserve (and that’s REALLY exciting news!!), so as soon as the first sightings of this crucially endangered animal will come in I will spoil you with the photos of it.
I cannot wait for the day that I can proudly say that we are one of only a very few reserves in South Africa where one can see this species, of which only 3000 specimen survive in the wild at the moment. What an honor and pleasure to being able to help this beautiful animal survive in this world where all too little space is left for them!
Justine emailed through a couple of days some pretty shots of an animal that is well known, but not often seen in nature. We see them very regularly on our reserve however, and it is always a delight to see them. Sometimes one can observe them close-up, especially in the large open fields in the Muruti Wilderness area. However there are also several jackals living quite close to the lodge, on the other suide of the hill and their high-pitched yapping can often be heard in the night.
Now there is more than one type of jackals in the world, in fact there are three: the side-striped Jackal, the golden jackal and the Black-backed Jackal, which is the one one sees on our reserve. The golden jackals are genetically closer to wolves and coyotes than the other two sub-species.
We all know that in folksy tales (and films, see “The Jackal”) the jackal is known as a cunning smart being, and this is probably due to their facial expression.
As such jackals are mainly scavangers as well as hunters on birds and mice (similar to the European fox).
They are not particularly rare as they are very adaptable and do not need to much roaming space to work well.
