Month: June 2013

A common Species to Madikwe , at this time of the year we are noticing on the plains large numbers of these birds gathering together. The Kori Basturd been mostly an Omnivore the will feed on Grasshoppers, dung beetles, caterpillars but have also been seen feeding on lizards, snakes and small mammals
Being one of the heaviest Birds, the male which is larger than the female, can weigh up to 20 kg (44 lbs)

People always ask if they can fly and the answer is yes, they have a very impressive wing span of 2.75 m (9 ft) which helps them get in to the air
During mating season which is between October and March, the males are capable of inflating their throats to 4 times its normal size just to try and impress the little lady Bustard. The impressive thing is, once the male has mated with a female, he will immediately begin searching for another mate. The female will lay her 1-3 eggs on the ground in a shallow little hollow where she will incubate them between 23-30 days. The young will stay close to the female for close on 3- 4 months

This morning we set off to try and locate a male Leopard that had been walking our eastern fence line the past week, during the course of the week we have managed to get lots of tracks of this male but always manages to get away from us.
On rout to the area, about 20min into the drive we located a very large Black Rhino crossing the road in front of us, giving us a chance to get some amazing pictures with the sun rising in the distance. After about 15min or so he moved off into a thicket and we decided to carry on seeing if we could find fresh tracks from the night before of the leopard.

Not too long later we located tracks heading south away from the river. Lebo my tracker decided to follow up on foot as I moved the game viewer around onto the next road to the south of the tracks where I managed to relocate the tracks that Lebo was following, at this stage Lebo was not far behind and joined up with us. I spoke to the guests and said to them that I was going to join Lebo on the tracking as the tracks where leading into a very large block. So we set off, we returned back to the game viewer, about 40min later explained to the guest what the leopard was doing. As he was heading into an area that he likes to hide in ‘’not too far from where we had the last set of fresh tracks’’.
On rout we decided to drive the fence as there were some nice size Leadwood that he could climb into on rout, checking most of them we found nothing not even a track. There was another game viewer in the area trying to help us who then decided to pull out of the relocation. After a nice drink stop with Hot Chocolate and Amarula to warm every one up. I said to all we were going to back track and see what happens, not even 5min later we located a very young male lion all by himself who had moved up from the south eastern section of the reserve.

He started to move and we followed him, after some time I heard the pied crows in the one of the Leadwood start to go crazy and wondered what was going on, at this stage the young male lion was drawn in on the noise of the pied crows going crazy and started to move towards the tree, a few seconds later he was off and Lebo noticed the leopard leap into the tree to get away from the lion.

We slowly made our way to the tree which was not far away. And got our self’s into position for some amazing pictures of him climbing deeper into the tree. Becoming more settled near the top of the tree where he stayed for all of us in the area to have a good look at him. We managed to spend about an hour with him and left the sighting for others to enjoy. This was truly an amazing morning that none of our guest at Madikwe Hills will ever forget.

In the last week we have been very lucky to be treated with some very nice Leopard sightings in the northern section of the park. With two individuals giving us very stunning sights of them.

This young Leopard has given us a few chances in the past week to get close and personal with her, she is very relax around the game viewers and get within several meters of the Game Viewers. We were able to view her twice in the past week.

The Older Leopard made a prize kill which was an Impala ewe, hosting his kill into a large Monkey thorn on the plains to keep it out of the reach of other predators that maybe around. We manage to sit for over an hour with him feeding on the Impala while the Brown Hyena kept close by for any free offerings that may fall off of the kill with the Leopard moving it higher into the tree. The next morning we went back into the area to see if he was still feeding but had moved off and the kill was gone.

Our Leopards are becoming a lot more relaxed around the Game Views, and we are starting to see them more often and better, as this week has shown

The pangolin being one of the most rear species of the African bush, we were lucky enough to be able to view one of these magical animals.
The pangolin is a resident to the savanna, where they would live under dense cover or burrows. The Pangolin also likes an area where water and termites or soft bodied insects maybe found. The Pangolin has no teeth, using its claws and snout to dig up its food, using its long stick tongue to assist in catching its food.

One of the main features of the Pangolin is it scaly looking body, which helps them protect themselves when threatened or under stress, the pangolin will roll its self into a tight ball the scales are very sharp and can cause a lot of damage. It also uses its anal secretor, to emit unpleasant smelling acid, just like skunks.

This was truly an amazing sighting not only for the guest but for all the Rangers of Madikwe

Like most of you guys know, we introduced 6 male Cheetahs to Madikwe in the past year.

First of the two were released in January 2013.

Secondly the other four boys in Feb 2013, sadly to say that it looks like we lost one of the first two males already. We are not sure if he was killed by lions or somewhat other predator, as a matter of fact we don’t know if he and his brother just broke up their collision and he is moving around in the south, (the blocks in-between roads are big there). This is what I hope for that we may see him in the future laying next to or on a road.

I have to say that these four brothers make us work; they don’t make it easy at all I have to say.
Let me tell you about a 5 hour drive we had to do to get these photos.
We heard over the radio that morning that the guides down south had picked them up on a young Wildebees kill. I had a chat with Samuel and we decided that we will leave at 14h00 that afternoon. We had no cheekiness, that day I discussed it with my guests. Everyone was up for it and so we left the lodge at 14h07, like you all know there is always one……..
So we set off, there was nothing that is going to stop us going to see the boys. Ok maybe a leopard in a tree but then it needs to be on our root that we were driving. I don’t think that there were more determined people like us that wanted to see these Cheetahs that afternoon.
After about 1hour and 40 minutes, “and there he was”! A collard male, we had to have a look around to make sure he wasn’t alone. But there we saw another non-collard male walking straight past us, we were the only ones there in the sighting, Jacques was on his way but still 15 mintes out. We followed the two out to a water hole, not long after the other two males came out of the bush and joined them at the water hole.
We spend about 45-50 minutes with them…… Wow!

The collard male

The one who walked passed us

The two late comers

We had one at the water hole

Two

Three

The fourth one was drinking alone. It was a real treat to see them.

Hi Jacque hope your guest enjoyed it just as much as I did.

Like everything in life, winter time has its ups and downs.

It is so good to be back at the lodge and in the bush, to be able to chat and share some of my photos with you guys again. As well as letting you know what is happening out there in our beautiful Madikwe.

We came across this herd of Elephants crossing the road. Rushing off, it appeared as if they were late for a shopping special at the local market! Samuel and I decided to make our way to Tshukudu dam in the hope to meet our giant friends there. Not too long and to our delight we saw a cloud of dust approaching.

In winter, if it is a big herd of animals, you only need to look for the dust cloud, it is so cool! It is a total giveaway that there is something on its way.

…and as quickly as they arrived they left again. Amazing! From the biggest to the smallest!

Time for our feathered friends:

I could never get enough of this one species, the Rollers!

This is a Purple Roller.

However, the cream of the crop is most probably the Lilac-breasted Roller with his amazing colors.

From the beauty to the undertakers of the bush, the Cape Vulture.

According to my opinion, the next two birds are most probably the friend of all guests, the Snake Eagles.

The Black-chested Snake Eagle.

The Brown Snake Eagle.

This one, with his curled beak, is a Pied Avocet

The next bird is one of the culprits that are more than likely to give you and your tracker a heart attack while on foot in the bush, the Double-banded Sandgrouse. Now why would I say that? You know they are very sneaky little creatures. They would wait until you are almost on top of them and then they will shot up in to the air, leaving you with the feeling of fear and grabbing your heart to try and calm it down. I am talking from experience, it happened a couple of times in my guiding career.

The next one speaks for itself, the Snouted Cobra

Staying with reptiles, the blue headed tree agama. They look so scary, but in actual fact they are so timid and harmless to humans. They are most probably more scared of us, than of what we are of them.

This is just one of those ones, the Zebra looked up and smiled to us for a snap away.

Since the park’s management tarred the main road going downhill, we started to see these little guys more and more. On the photo you can see them standing right next to the road, they are licking the salt and minerals off the road.

I have to say that we do stay in one of the best areas in the world! Just look at the sun set we had.

A moon rising, some people will call it a blood moon.

Good bye until next time