As promised …

… here the spectacular leopard sighting that Jay-Dee saw a few days ago, the same day that he saw the rhinos and lions earlier on the morning game drive.

This sighting happened towards the end of the afternoon/evening safari, as Jay-Dee was returning to the lodge. The leopard was quite close to the lodge, near the game driver track, and she was very, very relaxed. In fact she was so relaxed that our guests had a full hour to observe her and take hundreds of photo shots. It’s rare to get such a close and high quality sighting of such a rare and elusive animal. What a treat.

With more game drivers out there (we now have two instead of one), and also the number of leopards being constantly on the rise, this sort of sightings will become more frequent over time, though we have quite regular leopard sightings these days already.

Well, enjoy the photos, you can imagine why our guests didn’t want to leave the sighting, even after an hour. This is truly once in a lifetime stuff.

South Africa is the perfect country to see leopards, as they need trees and thick bush to hunt and hide, and no other area in Africa offers more optimal opportunities and wildlife space to leopards than the Greater Kruger Park area here. And we are proud of that.

Female leopard near the lodge
Female leopard near the lodge
One of the most relaxed leopards ever
One of the most relaxed leopards ever

Lions – meet the rhinos

OK, this is UNIQUE stuff!

A couple of days ago Jay-Dee was out with our guests, and he found the rhinos grazing near an area we call the “Annaboom Camp clearing”. The guests had a fantastic up-close sighting. Now, this in itself is already exciting enough! Rhinos are now one of the rarest animals in Africa (sadly enough), and one of the key reasons to come to South Africa is to see rhinos. 90% of all of Africa’s rhinos live in South Africa, and 90% of those live in the Kruger Park area (which is where we are located), so naturally our guests were overjoyed to witness them so up-close in their natural habitat. See below the photo that Jay-Dee took.

Rhino crash spotted!
Rhino crash spotted!

But this was just the beginning!

A few minutes later, Jay-Dee found the lions resting in the riverbed, near the rhino sighting location. It is rare to have two magnificent sightings in such quick succession, so our guests absolutely loved it. But the best was only to come!

Lions resting in the riverbed
Lions resting in the riverbed

Jay-Dee went back to see the rhinos, as our guests wanted to see them again. But the lions followed the game driver (this is becoming a new habit maybe), and stopped 4-6 m away from the rhinos. A rhino-lion stand-off right in front of Jay-Dee and all our guests! Now that’s a first, I have never seen this myself. For a safari enthusiast, it doesn’t get any more exciting than this, and it makes for the most unique photos one can imagine. Jay-Dee must have been very excited, so the photo is a little shaky, but it is proof of what happened. Enjoy! The lions have a very healthy respect of rhinos, as they are quasi impossible animals for them to take down, especially when they are in a group, and they can easily kill or injure a lion with their massive horns. Most injured lions will starve to death, so they are very weary of attacking animals that can cause serious injuries, such as giraffes and rhinos. Even a zebra, with a lucky and accurate back leg strike, can kill a lion on the spot, so they are careful when taking down these larger animals. With rhinos, it is not even worth trying, and the same is true for elephants.

Jay-Dee also spotted a leopard later that day (that story follows tomorrow), so overall, what can I say: yet another spectacular day out on safari at the Vuyani Safari Lodge. Many thanks to Jay-Dee for sharing these photos with us.

Lions next to the rhinos!
Lions next to the rhinos!

Curious giraffes watching elephants

Mike somehow always catches our wildlife doing unusual things.

A couple of days ago he was with our guests on the “Cotton fields” of our reserve, watching a herd of elephants, and a bunch of giraffes nearby. Now, I have never seen giraffes that close to elephants, but these ones were very curious, and they were observing the elephants all the time.

There were also quite a few zebra present, so that makes for an amazing animal sighting, in arguably one of the prettiest nature settings in the world.

It is amazing to see how small the zebras look compared to giraffes. And zebras are not small! They are about the size of a horse, so you can imagine the size of a giraffe. I never tire of mentioning this actually. It is only very difficult to imagine the size of these animals unless you see them in real life. Elephants can exceed 5m at shoulder height, and that’s almost the height of a 2-story house! Giraffes can go up to 6m and beyond, so they are truly towering creatures. One of the photos runs home that point. Enjoy the photos, and many thanks to Mike!

Elephant herd on the "cotton fields"
Elephant herd on the “cotton fields”
Zebras on the cotton fields at the same time
Zebras on the cotton fields at the same time
... incredible how tiny the zebras look compared to giraffes
… incredible how tiny the zebras look compared to giraffes

Up close cheetah sighting!

Mike was roaming around the Mbezi river yesterday, in the fairly large “Leopard’s Bent” portion of the reserve. Indeed the entire reserve is so large that you can only visit portions of it every day, it takes well over a week to see most of the reserve once.

Mike knows that cheetahs and leopards love to hunt in or near dry river beds, as they give them the sort of hunting edge they need to take down a prey (the green around the rivers gives them cover, while the river sand gives them perfect traction to accelerate and bring down their target).

Well, Mike struck gold yesterday! A precious and unforgettable up-close cheetah sighting. Now for something as rare as this it is well worth flying around half the world! These two cheetahs are male, still very young, but they are now very relaxed around the vehicles, as they were born on the reserve (amazing news of 2013!) and hence got used to them from a youngest age onwards.

They had taken down a young kudu (they seem to have upgraded from impala), so their hunting skills are still improving and they are in no danger to go hungry, as they are now very successful in hunting. Their mother taught them well! (we have also seen her on a few occasions, she is now hopefully pregnant again).

Cheetahs are now extremely endangered, with only 2000-3000 estimated to be still living in the wild in Africa, and of those most of them in Namibia, so you can imagine the privilege it is to observe two cheetahs up close, in a country twice the size of France!

There are more and more cheetah sightings on our reserve (there were quasi none 5 years ago). One of the reasons is an extremely effective wildlife protection system, as well as the huge size of the reserve, and also perfect nature conditions (lots of water points, and lots of prey game). So we now see cheetahs on an almost weekly basis, sometimes very near the lodge. Fingers crossed that this trend continues and that their numbers will continue increasing. The density of cheetahs on this reserve is already much higher than on most other reserves, and our cheetahs all live freely and unassisted on the reserve, and roam freely around. And that is in my opinion the right way of doing it. Bush walking with tame cheetahs is not in my eyes! What you get here is up close sightings of some of the world’s most famous (and sadly often rarest) animals, in their own natural habitat.

Many thanks to Mike and the guests for providing these stunning shots. I wish I had been there myself! Lucky them. 🙂

Hello?
Hello?
Checking out the game driver, but not really bothered
Checking out the game driver, but not really bothered
Actually really not bothered - the meal was tasty and plentiful, so some digestion is on the menu
Actually really not bothered – the meal was tasty and plentiful, so some digestion is on the menu

Lioness trying her luck

Mike sent in some very cool photos he took in an area called the “cotton fields”. We call it that because it is an open area, where many decades ago someone tried to grow cotton (but very unsuccessfully and hence gave up very soon), and so this area is still opened up to this day. This is one of the many great areas on the reserve for predators to hunt. I myself witnessed a failed wild dog chase in this area, so it is one of those high-risk areas (for prey, not for our guests!!!).

Mike spotted a lioness on the cotton fields, and she was preying on a bunch of warthogs. Bacon was clearly on her menu for breakfast.

Our guests were thrilled to see a kill attempt, but alas, the attempt failed, and the bacon was for another time. For a lion to have a kill success rate of over 50% is quite the achievement, and many male lions struggle to exceed 10%. Lionesses are much more experienced, so some of them exceed 50%, but that’s at a more advanced stage in their lives. It’s all about practice and experience!

Many warthog sows have now given birth to their litters, and it will take 6 months to wean them off. So they grow up fast. During this time there is increased danger for them, as they are not fast enough yet, and are very vulnerable. By the way: warthog sows have been observed to “adopt” and raise other sows’ litters, if they have lost their own. This is called “kin altruism”, so warthogs are social breeders.

Lioness waiting...
Lioness waiting…
... preying ...
… preying …
But the warthogs got away!
But the warthogs got away!

Lucky morning safari

Sometimes one sees elephants several days in a row, and then it is lions again. And sometimes, it is both!

Yesterday was one of those days. What a treat! Our guests saw the elephants and the young lionesses on the same game drive, in one morning. See below the photos. I think the small baby elephant is the cutest ever (you will spot him on the right of the herd).

The lionesses were in an area we call “Big dam”, which is a large lake on our reserve. We have over 30 lakes on our reserve, so there are names for each one of them, as it is so many. Lions of course love to stay close to waterholes as it attracts game, and makes for some successful hunting.

The elephants were still quite near the lodge, and they were feeding on all the fresh green that the spring rains have brought. It is amazing to see how much the reserve changes over the various seasons. It feels and looks like a completely different place.

Mike also sent in a nice shot of “wildebeest” in an area that we call the “Jackal Plains”, as there is almost always a jackal that can be seen there (and heard at night!). I watched last weekend the new film that just came out “The Wolf of Wall Street”, and in there Leonardo makes an allusion about “not being like a herd of wildebeest”. I couldn’t help but laugh. Wildebeest are indeed not the prettiest of all, and they are certainly not the sharpest tools in the box. They are so forgetful that they tend to return to the same place where they got ambushed by lions minutes earlier! Now that’s daft, but that’s what they are known to do. Staple food for the lions, I suppose. That said, it is beautiful to watch them move in herds, often mixed with zebras (they use them as easy brain power), and they are key to the eco-system. But then again, all animals are key to the eco-system, otherwise they would not be there.

Many thanks to Mike for the beautiful footage!

Elephant herd (spot the baby elephant?)
Elephant herd (spot the baby elephant?)
Massive bull!
Massive bull!
Curious lioness
Curious lioness
Wildebeest
Wildebeest

Elephants near the lodge

Mike just emailed in photos of two beautiful close-up sightings yesterday.

He spotted the elephants near the Moditlo River, very close to the Vuyani Safari Lodge. It happens several times a year that the elephants walk past the lodge, and we even saw them once drinking from the swimming pool. But it is easy to spot wildlife from the lodge: we get daily visits from warthogs, nyala, impala, and very regularly a giraffe (or several). One of the most amazing near-lodge events was a cheetah kill yards away from the honeymoon suite. It was an unlucky day for an impala, that day.

Even lions have been observed from the lodge, sleeping as close as 15 meters away from the swimming pool. This is rare, but when it happens, it is almost surreal.

We see giraffes on our game drives almost every day. We have close to 1000 giraffes on our huge reserve, which is astonishing. About 180,000 giraffes are estimated to live in free nature in Africa, so every 1 out of 180 African giraffes live on our reserve. Scary statistic, considering that Africa, as a continent, is larger than North America, Latin America and Europe combined!

It shows the massively positive impact this reserve we call home is to African wildlife conservation.

Male elephant near the Moditlo River
Male elephant near the Moditlo River
Elephant shot up-close
Elephant shot up-close
Giraffes in open area
Giraffes in open area

Lovely elephant encounter!

It may be a mistake to always assume that encountering the most famous African animals would leave the strongest impression. Personally, I am not too touched by seeing the lions, for instance. It is always a pleasure, yes, but there are other sightings that get me a lot more excited. And encountering elephants is definitely one of those things! Time and time again they impress me. The way they walk, behave, the way they can fool around with each other, and also the caring way they are towards their little ones. I always feel an emotional link between the way we as humans are, and elephants. They think, ponder, feel and they all have different characters, and it is very obvious to everyone’s eyes, especially if you take time to observe them.

Elephants in Africa are so much bigger than their Asian counterparts (a fully grown male elephant can exceed 6m in height!), and weigh well past 10 tons, even up to 12 tons and beyond, so you can imagine the sheer size and mass such an animal represents. Photos do not reflect this astonishing impression that being close to such an animal leaves with one. These animals tower over our game drivers even, and it leaves everyone in awe, without fail, always!

Jay-Dee sent in a lovely photo of yet another encounter with our elephant herd that happened yesterday. Our guests absolutely loved it! Many thanks for sending it through, it always puts a smile on my face.

Lucky guests …. I wish I had more time to be out there on safari with our guests and rangers. They have the best job in the world. 🙂

Elephant herd
Elephant herd

What a start to the New year!

Jay-Dee has just sent in photos of some of the nicest sightings in the first days of the year. Well, if this year continues in this manner, then it will again be a fantastic year.

First off, a beautiful close shot of a rhino family. This is a rhino mother with her offspring, the little one is not little at all anymore, and in the not so distant future, he (or she) will have to move off, as a new baby rhino will follow soon. That is the cycle of nature, and at some point the nurturing has to stop, and the little ones have to make it on their own (overbearing parents, are you listening? 😉 )

Mother rhino and her calf
Mother rhino and her calf

Jay-Dee and his guest also saw the 2 young lionesses sleeping on one of the many tracks on the reserve. What a lucky sighting! We do see the lions 2-4 times/week though, so this is not rare anymore, but it is a joy, every time. It is hard to get any closer to the lions than this, so that’s the advantage of being on a private game reserve.

Lioness sleeping
Lioness sleeping

We are also seeing the elephant herd regularly now, and the first days of the year were no different! Here a beautiful shot, taken 2 days ago, of the herd crossing the dirt road on our reserve, right in front of our guests. Now that’s impressive!

Elephant crossing
Elephant crossing

Jay-Dee also managed a super exciting leopard sighting. We have many leopards on the reserve, but many of them tend to be skittish. This one, however, is not at all! She must have grown up with a mother that herself had learnt that game drivers are no danger, and so she passed that knowledge on to her. Well, this leopard has a name: Bella! We hope to see a lot more of her this year. Here the video link of the sighting:

And here an amazing close-up photo:

"Bella" leopard
“Bella” leopard