David M Wilson Photography: April Week 1 highlights

The lion viewing this week has been very good! The Mapogos were showing interest in an old buffalo wandering across Schotia Dam clearing. They soon lost interest and went back to the usual morning nap.

In the middle of the week, we found the one lioness with both of the older cubs on the rocks at Makazalitche, near Skwenga dam.

The following morning we found two males from the Mapogo coalition, with four females from the Ximungwe pride and both sets of cubs, on a young giraffe kill on the western firebreak. The good news is that Sataan (the male who has killed all the cubs) was with the kill, and seemed to have accepted all the cubs.

The oldest male from the coalition arrived the following day, and the kill was finished pretty quickly thereafter. Once the kill was finished, the lioness with the cubs both took their offspring away from the kill site, while the others did not move too far, and lay on the road to digest the huge meals still in their stomachs! The lioness with the older cubs had moved them into the Mabrak drainage line just east of the western firebreak, while one male and female moved to near the Ulusaba Airstrip, where they started mating. The other two males and two females ended up at the end of the week near Nyati Airstrip, still with very full bellies!

The male cheetah has also been seen on numerous occasions this week. Initially he was found in the south on the clearings near Windmill Mackenzie. A few days later, he was found again further north but heading south again. He was lost heading into a very thick block and appeared again a few days later with a full stomach, having obviously been successful with a kill. He moved to the clearings west of Mackenzie Camp, where he too lay down to digest his meal for more than 24 hours, moving only to have a drink at a nearby pool of water. (11,12,13)

A few days later we found the male cheetah crossing the Day One drainage line. He lay down in a mitre drain at Six crossing.

A very large herd of elephant has moved onto our concession this week, providing some fantastic viewing of these special creatures. They were all extremely relaxed, and we were able to get in amongst them, to get close up sightings of the many young calves in the herd.

The leopard viewing has been prolific. We start off with some sad news that Hlabankunzi’s one remaining sub-adult cub was also killed this week by the Xinzele male leopard. He had stolen a kill from Hlabankunzi and her cub, and the cub presumably tried too hard to get some of the kill back. Even though this is unusually old for a cub to be killed, Xinzele is still trying to stamp down his dominance in the area, and took out his aggression on the cub. Hlabankunzi will no doubt come back into season soon, and produce a new litter with him as the father.

Metsi has been seen often this week as well. Early in the week she was found hunting impala near Mackenzie Camp. She can still be pretty illusive, but when she is found, she gives us great viewing! (20,21)

The following evening she was found south of Makazalitche while we were tracking the lioness with the older cubs. She moved east toward Wallingford Dam, where we lost her as she moved into a very thick block.
She was again found the next morning, having fetched her two 12 month old cubs. She led them back to a large impala ram kill west of Little Serengeti. The more relaxed of the two cubs initially fed on the carcass, until Metsi joined him on the kill. They fed in relative peace as they unusually shared the kill without too much fighting!

Rhino viewing has been good this week. On many occasions we have found them still ‘sleeping in’ early in the morning along the sides of the road.

The Ottawa pride was found north of the sand river on main road Pickett. The pride of eight lions were resting out in the open.

Numerous old male buffalo’s have been seen in the south. As the large herds of buffalo move through the reserve, a few lone males have broken away from the herds.