Some highlights of our sightings during the month of April 2011:
2 April – Saw Mazinyo and one young Olifants west pride male as wall as the Singwe pride females at a giraffe kill close to Billy’s lodge
3 April – Saw Masinyo and one young Olifants west pride male at the giraffe kill
The rest of the Olifants west pride were seen resting at Nyari dam
4 April – Mazinyo and young male were seen feeding on the giraffe close to Billy’s Lodge
10 April – The new young male leopard were seen again, this time at Xigamba dam. We estimate his age between 3-4 years old.
14 April – Olifants river pride were found on koppie road feeding on a freshly killed zebra
15 April – We found Big Boy and Mazinyo, the 2 territorial males, as well as 3 younger males feeding on a freshly killed baby giraffe when the 3 Singwe males arrived. Big Boy immediately got up and chased them away. It is clear that the Singwe males are now pushing into the older males’ territories and that they have to a large degree lost their fear. A huge fight is looming not too far into the future!
18 April – We saw the mother cheetah and her 2 subadult cubs close to the Olifants road during the morning drive.
22 April – 3 Cheetah ( mother and cubs ) close to Olifants road.
29 April – 3 African wild dogs hunting on the Barnard cutline.
Overall lion sightings were very good and we enjoyed several good leopard sightings as well. There are a lot of elephants around and breeding herds were seen nearly every day. A group of +/- 200 buffaloes were seen often in our concession area. White rhino were seen about every 3rd day.
