Our guides followed this big male leopard, called Watsakile, on the 25th of September for a good hour through fairly thick bush. Just when they thought that they lost him he jumped into a huge Weaping-boerbean tree to rest and pose for everyone. It always amazes me how they can [...]
A rare sighting of a black rhino during a Pondoro safari. A territorial black rhino bull spraying while kicking his dung midden open. Dung middens are basically information centres which rhinos can visit to obtain info about who has been there, when and what is the sex and general health [...]
A recent sighting of cheetahs suffocating an impala. The mother caught the impala just before the safari cruiser got there and she left it for her son to kill. This is an important part of their learning curve of how to hunt. Cheetahs are the fastest land mammal and can [...]
A video of elephants swimming in a lake taken by one of the Pondoro guides just after sunset. Elephants love water and they can often be seen swimming and cooling down during hot summer days. We often see breeding herds frolicking around in some of our bigger dams and the [...]
Serval sightings are rare in Balule as they prefer marshy areas with long grass. As part of its adaptation for hunting the serval boasts long legs (the longest of all cats, relative to body size) for jumping, which also help it achieve a top speed of 80 km/h and has [...]
Saw this beautiful male leopard on the 26th of February. We first came upon him while he was sleeping in a nearby dry riverbed. He got up just after sunset to have a drink at a nearby waterhole.
Rul took this video of an elephant bull on the safari drive on the 28th of February. They often throw sand on their backs which acts as a sunscreen and help against biting insects. Might also help to lessen a nagging itch on that hard to reach places.
A video taken on the 3rd of March 2014 at Pondoro Game Lodge as we followed a pride of lions through the African bush. Tiny lion cubs followed their mothers as they moved them to another den site. This happens fairly often to avoid detection from other predators like hyena [...]
Imagine sitting on an open safari cruiser in the middle of the African bush surrounded by a herd of elephants. You have an open invitation at Pondoro Game Lodge. Enjoy the romance of Africa at great low season rates. Adventure in a romantic safari setting. What more can you ask [...]
Great morning safari drive on the 16th of February 2014. The young elephant bull was determent to have a drink in peace at a pool of rain water captured by the rocks. The presence of the lioness flared his temper. The lioness was actually hiding some tiny little cubs just [...]
Rul, one of our guides at Pondoro always seem to video some real gems while on safari with guests as you can see from this footage on the 5th of May 2014. Black rhinos are not only extremely rare but also notoriously short of fuse. All our guides have the [...]
Black rhinos are one of the most endangered animals in Africa with just over 4000 left in the wild. The majority of them are found in South Africa. Guests going on a safari to Pondoro Game Lodge are privileged in that Pondoro is one of very few lodges open to [...]
A video taken a while ago of a male leopard called Tintaka. The word "Tintaka" means snare in Shangaan, the local language. If you look carefully at the video you will notice that his head looks weird with the neck narrow and tight just underneath the jaw. A huge leopard [...]
Hyenas also seem to get a bad wrap and very undeservedly so. I am not sure why most people seem to dislike them. It might be the way they look with big round ears and faded spots running down a sloping back mimicking a human with bad posture. The shorter [...]
A video taken a while ago of a young male walking past our safari cruiser. Leopards are solitary and extremely secretive making them the most difficult of the Big 5 to find. In a weird way their solitary nature also makes them more confident as they are used to facing [...]