Happy lion family photo

About 4 days ago Mike found the lion pride again, as they were resting in a clearance. It looked like a happy family gathering, see for yourselves!

I must say, our male lion is turning into a very handsome boy, and a very huge boy as well. Already one of the largest lions I have ever seen, and as he is still growing (he is about 3-4 years old, so he still has 2 years of growth ahead of him), I reckon he will turn out a true show piece of a male lion in the end. He certainly looks very, very impressive now already, and I hope he will be with us for many, many years to come. His mane is turning into a distinct blond color, which gives away his Northern Cape lion ancestry (and which is also causing himn to be so unusually large, in my opinion).

Truth must be told: lions never look as large on photos as they really do when one sees them in real life. These cats are absolutely massive, and we reckon this lion is already approaching 400kg in weight. So you can imagine the size of this cat! (a normal house cat weighs only about 5kg or so).

What’s great is that one can observe these wonderful creatures up-close on our reserve, and we see our lions very regularly, so if you stay 5 nights at the Vuyani Safari Lodge, then we can quasi guarantee that you will see them at least once, most likely twice, when on an African safari here.

Enjoy the photos that Mike took 4 days ago! Great work!

Male lion
Male lion
Male lion
Male lion
Lion pride
Lion pride

 

Lots of general game

Over the last 2 days the weather has been unusual, with over cast skies, but the same temperatures (about 18-26 degree Celsius). That’s very unusual for a late September/early October time, but now the weather is fine again. This was odd, because until Friday it was 26-28 degree Celsius every day during daytime (which is just perfect), with blue skies, but then this weekend was not as perfect. Well, maybe we are so blessed with great weather all the time that the odd two days when it is not that great it seems so unusual to us. In general, when it is overcast, and the winds pick up, there is less game to be seen, as animals feel exposed when the wind is blowing, giving away their locations to predators.

Still, Mike has seen lots of general game over the last two days with our guests, and amongst the many photos I received, I picked a beautiful herd of wildebest, and also a group of hippos. Hippos never fail to impress with their wild antics in the lake, their displays of dominance being a key part of their social behavior. That’s definitely always the highlight of any sundowner drinks near one of our many lakes (we have over 30 lakes on our huge reserve!)

Group of hippos
Group of hippos
Large herd of wildebeest on the reserve
Large herd of wildebeest on the reserve

 

 

Girls hanging out

A few months ago we noticed that the two lion “cubs” were spending more and more time apart from their parents, and that they had become quite proficient hunters.

Well, for the last weeks, the two young girls have split from the pride (for now) and are spending their days together, but away from the rest.

This is typical if it was male lions, but a little more unusual given that both are female. That said, maybe they are annoyed by the male’s constant urges, so they prefer to spend time together on their own.

Mike and his guests saw them hanging out together 3 days ago. They seemed to have made a recent kill, and they took a keen interest in vultures circling around.

I was astonished to see how large and pretty these two lionesses have turned, and it will be interesting how the relationship between them and the pride evolves in the future.

For now, they are doing very well, feeding well, making lots of successful kills (daddy taught them well), and enjoying their time together. As one can imagine, as they grew up together, they are very, very close.

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Elephants seen digging for water

The dry season is now coming to an end, and October usually means that the very first occasional rain falls set in. Sometimes we have to wait until November though for the first rain. Fingers crossed that it comes early this year, it has been a long and dry season now, and animals are finding it harder to find food and water. While we have many water lakes, and they still carry plenty of water, many animals prefer to dig for water in the dry river beds, as it is safer for them, or just more convenient.

Mike and his guests witnessed this first-hand yesterday. They were at a dry river bed, and the entire herd of elephants arrived and started digging at a river low point for water. Their sense of smell is so strong that they know where the water is flowing close to the surface. Even during the dry season, when all riverbeds are dry, the water is always flowing not too far deep down underneath the river bed, and elephants know how to use that to their advantage.

It was particularly interesting to observe the behavior of the youngsters amongst them, and a very shy baby elephant trying to hide behind her mother’s legs. They know they are vulnerable still at that age, and they seek protection from their mother at all times.

Many thanks to Mike for taking these amazing shots, it made my day!

Digging elephants
Digging elephants

Thirsty youngster
Thirsty youngster
Shy baby elephant
Shy baby elephant
Elephant herd moving off after refreshing drinks
Elephant herd moving off after refreshing drinks
Opportunistic drink!
Opportunistic drink!

 

 

 

World Rhino Day!

Every year, on the 22nd of September, the World Rhino Day raises awareness of the terrible plight of the 5 surviving species of rhinos.

Rhinos are one of the oldest kinds of mammals on earth, and they were doing fine until mankind (at least in some parts of the world) decided that powdered rhino horn had curative powers. Well, it doesn’t, but old beliefs die hard, and as a result of hugely increased demand from Asia, rhinos are now being poached by the hundreds. In South Africa over 690 rhinos have been poached this year, and that’s already more than for the whole of last year (2012). Things are looking bleak for this rare animal indeed.

90% of all African rhinos live in South Africa, so this country is right in the middle of the storm that’s hitting this beautiful and rare animal.

We have had much rarer incidents of poaching on our reserve, and our rhino numbers are increasing. A rare exception! Good surveillance and rhino de-horning have done the trick, so far. Fingers crossed that the increased anti-poaching activities in this area start bearing fruits in the near future, because right now poaching levels have reached such levels that the total numbers are now decreasing. This is truly shocking.

Our guests are priviliged to witness rhinos up close on our reserve (see the photos taken 2 days ago by Mike and Jonathan), and we are proud to be an integral part of rhino conservation. Our guests ensure that the rhino conservation efforts are funded and that their conservation remains viable for the very long-term.

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Spectacular lion kill video

A little while ago I had posted some photos of yet another lion kill that we saw a about 3 weeks ago. Gilles, our design and program whizz kid, has now uploaded the video footage on Youtube. No words needed, this is the pinnacle of safari luck! It doesn’t get any better, quite simply.

Mind though that the fate of this small warthog is NOT a pleasant one, so this video is not adviseable for the more faint/kind-hearted folks out there.

But this is nature: brutal, but this is the truth, no two ways about it! Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWaG402LekU

Yesterday’s sightings

The rangers always email me through the daily sightings, and while there is often something that really sticks out, it is nice sometimes to just post all animals they have seen on game drive. This will give you a good impression of what one sees on a typical safari game drive outing with us. Of course one gets luckier on some drives than on others, but from what I can see, there is usually something very exciting that was seen every day, and often more than one!

So let’s take a look at what Jonathan saw yesterday with his guests:

First off a beautiful rhino bull. What a sighting!! Probably the most impressive of all Big 5 animals, right after elephants. It is hard to imagine the sheer size of these animals before one has seen one in real life. They weigh easily over 2 tons (think pickup truck weight!), and yet they move about very silently. See the “dented” ears of this rhino: that’s a sign of it being a male, and the dents are injuries from fighting. Many thanks for the impressive shot of this highly endangered animal.

Rhino near the Vuyani Safari Lodge
Rhino near the Vuyani Safari Lodge

Our guests then saw a lot of wildebeest (also called gnus), which is a typical African animal. One sees them often on TV programs, as they are, along with the zebra, the main animals going on the great migration by their thousands (in fact hundreds of thousands). Not the cleverest of all animals, that’s for sure, but always impressive in large herds. This animal, by the way, is so stupid that when it sees a predator it runs away (so far so good), and then a short while later (having forgotten already what happened), it will come back to the very spot where they were ambushed earlier on, for it to happen again! Incredible. They survive by means of sheer numbers, but definitely not for their intelligence.

Wildebeest
Wildebeest

Then a maybe less spectacular sighting for guests, but from an ecologist’s point of view a very exciting sighting indeed: the super rare Southern Ground Hornbill! This bird is highly endangered, so it is great to see them do so well on our large reserve. They have a very long life expectancy (over 40 years) and only rear one chick every 2-3 years, so this makes it hard for them to survive if there isn’t enough habitat for them. The ground hornbills on our reserve have been successful at breeding however, so they are safe here.

Southen Ground Hornbill
Southen Ground Hornbill

By now darkness was setting in, when Jonathan found the two young lionesses that have split from the main pride for the time being. We are not sure why that is, maybe they just want to be left alone by the male (which is a good reason, I suppose). They have become very good hunters already, if you remember my previous story showing them making a warthog kill. They were sleeping in an area that we call the “cotton fields” as it is very open there, quite close to the lodge. We have had the entire pride sleep literally 10 yards from the lodge (right behind the swimming pool) a few times now this year, so they have become very relaxed to our presence.

Young lioness sleeping away ...
Young lioness sleeping away …

All in all an amazing safari, no doubt there, and by now it was time to head back to the lodge for a delicious dinner. Lots to talk about!

Crocodile visit during safari break

Jonathan had stopped at a one of our many lakes for coffee break with our guests (this happened yesterday), and all of a sudden, on the small island in the middle of the lake, one of our resident crocodiles apppeared. What a beautiful sighting! Crocs usually don’t move much (in fact they don’t move 99.99% of the time, to conserve energy), so it was beautiful to see this one move out of the water onto dry land.

Crocs are one of the world’s most ancient creatures, they are true “living fossiles”, from the age of dinosaurs.

The are cold-blooded animals (literally), so they spend hours in the sun heating up their blood stream to give them speed and energy to go for the occasional hunt. The way they hunt is spectacular, and very cunning. They approach an unsuspecting prey, usually drinking at a waterhole or lake, and then suddenly leap out of the water at exhilirating speed, and snap the prey and drag it into water where they drown it and then eat it in one go (how lovely is that?). This attack happens at the incredible speed of 20m/s (!!) and they can jump forward by 4m in one go, so the prey has little to no chance if the attack is well timed and executed.

So our advice is clear: don’t stroll near a lake or waterhole, or stand too close to it! Danger looms.

That said, crocs are not the deadliest animals to humans, and neither are the lions. It is the hippos that are fiercely protective of their territory, so they kill more humans in Africa than any other animal (it is about 300-400 per year). Advice: don’t go for a swim in an African lake either!

Some say, however, that this statistic is only true because hippo victims’ bodies are usually found (hippos don’t eat meat), while crocs just eat the bodies and so hence they are never recovered, and neither are the disappearences of people properly reported or investigated very often in Africa. Anyway, enough now of this sombre stuff, enjoy the picture! 🙂

 

Crocodile moving into the sun
Crocodile moving into the sun

Spectacular lion kill! (viewer discretion advised)

I just received photos of a spectacular lion kill that occurred about a week ago. At the same time, we had another lion kill (all in front of guests) about two weeks ago, which was even filmed. We are just working on this film footage and will post it here shortly. It is gruesome, but extremely gripping, I can promise you that much!

We have now seen 4 lion kills on our reserve over the course of the last 6 months. That is a very high number for a lodge to generate over such a small amount of time. Most rangers will have seen 3-5 kills in their whole careers. Mike has seen two over the last 6 months, Pierre one, and Jonathan the other. So that shows how lucky they have been over a few months only.

What’s interesting also is the fact that all four kills involved (poor them!) warthogs. We have found carcasses of killed kudus, giraffes, as well as wildebeest, so they catch anything (especially the giraffes requires enormeous skill and tactical savvy so we were very impressed), but they seem to catch warthogs every day, and indeed they have specialised in digging out warthogs out of their burrows, and enjoying them as pre-meal appetisers. Well, who doesn’t like some bacon for breakfast? They certainly do.

Please see again here the footage of the lion kill about 6 months ago, where big daddy showed the little ones how hunting warthogs is done:

Now the little ones have grown up, and they enjoy hunting warthogs themselves. How fast they grew up! Just 6 months ago they were scared like chicken of the tiniest warthog, and now they go for anything and everything. They have been raised well!

It's mine!
It’s mine!
The kill!
The kill!
Good teamwork!
Good teamwork!
Tasty meal indeed
Tasty meal indeed
Bacon for breakfast? Yes please!
Bacon for breakfast? Yes please!
Proud father, he's done well teaching them
Proud father, he’s done well teaching them

 

Mike and Uyai at work

I spent a few days at the Vuyani Safari Lodge last week, and was able to go out on a safari game drive with Mike and Uyai.

Usually I am VERY unlucky when it comes to safaris. The norm is that if I am on the game driver, then the sightings are sparse, if not non-existent.

Not this time though!

Uyai and Mike were tracking the lions, whose tracks they had seen on the morning drive already, so they knew broadly where they were. Uyai spotted fresh tracks all of a sudden, so Mike and Uyai decided to walk off into the bush to take a close look at where they had gone. After about 5 minutes all our guests (and myself) saw them reappear from behind the bush, looking very happy (and with a definite spring in their steps).

Turns out that Mike and Uyai had walked right into the lions, and got an angry growl from the male lion when Uyai noticed that he was only 5m away from him. I would have died of a heart attack right there and then!! But Uyai kept his usual cool, and did the right thing. He stopped for a while, and then backed off slowly (ask him though how he battled off an attacking leopard by kicking him in the bum while the leopard was trying to drag his boss out of the car from the window … this guy has real courage!)

We then proceeded to approach the lions in the game drive vehicle, and after about 10 minutes of careful manoeuvring, we suddenly spotted the massive male lion resting in the shade of a bush. The yellow/grey coloration of the bush had made it impossible to spot the lion from further than a few yards, and we suddenly noticed how close Uyai had gotten just a few minutes earlier.

The lions were slowly starting to get ready for the upcoming night hunt. After about an hour of observing them we decided to call it a day and headed back to the lodge. This was without a doubt the best lion sighting I had ever experienced. The male lion has also grown to the largest lion I have ever seen, and he has two more years of growth in him. Impressive!

Mike and Uyai reappearing from the bush
Mike and Uyai reappearing from the bush
Uyai, our tracker
Uyai, our tracker
Well hidden male lion
Well hidden male lion
Just so that you know!
Just so that you know!
The world's largest cat: 400-500kg!
The world’s largest cat: 400-500kg!
Female cat nearby
Female cat nearby
Our lucky guests :-)
Our lucky guests 🙂