WEEK IN PICTURES #46
Let’s start off immediately with the amount of leopard sightings we had this week, far more than ever before and with a total of 8 individuals as well. We would come back from an evening drive having seen 4 leopards, now this might not sound much to some but for us it is not an everyday thing.
Firstly we saw Faka Nhcovela right at the start of the week where she walked along a drainage line, keeping herself hidden, and spotted a herd of impala in the distance. She tried several approaches but the terrain did not offer her loads of cover and soon lost interest.
Thuli was very illusive this past week and only one or two sightings were recorded.
Nkanyi on the other hand was showing off this week and was seen almost daily. She was tracked down in the beginning of the week to find her with a steenbok kill high up in a tree. She fed on it for a while and later descended the tree to find a cool spot to rest for the morning.
Returning to Nkanyi’s kill site the afternoon it was found that she has moved the kill, the tracks were followed and she was found with only scraps of the kill and no sign of a full stomach. Whilst still following her around something caught our eye and when we got to the water point we found the Mohlabetsi female (mother of Nkanyi and Thuli) drinking and that she was the one that finished Nkanyi’s kill.
On that same afternoon Chavaluthu was called resting at one of the dams. He was seen for 3 consecutive drives and later seen again. Being a male with a very large territory we usually only spot him once or twice a week. The female with her 2 cubs were also seen with an impala kill but unfortunately I couldn’t get any pictures.
The Kudyela pride with their cubs along with the Machaton males were very elusive and we had to really work hard to find them and not like the week before.
A few small herds of elephant moved through and made a few stops at the waterholes along the way.
We are nearing the end of our dry season and good grazing grounds are scarce, and so the buffalo herds have been on the move and we’ve had to follow the almost across our entire traversing area. I also got very excited too see many Yellow-billed oxpeckers on the buffalo and is surely not a common sight.
