WEEK IN PICTURES #47
Lions, lions and more lions. It was a week filled with a great amount of lion sightings but not of our usual Kudyela pride or Machaton males.
We introduced these males in a previous week in pictures post and since then we have seen more and more of them. We are confidant that it is a coalition of 4 males and hopefully with time we can learn more about them. Their movements seem to be an east-west pattern along the Olifants river which is an area unoccupied by neither the Machaton males or the Kudyela pride. They have really been announcing their presence lately, hopefully that means they will stick around.
There was another pride of 11 lions total that was viewed in the far south-east. A short while ago we had a sighting of them for the first time and it was they that stole the GoPro. They were all spread out and that made it difficult to see the make-up of the pride but from what we could see there were 4 adult lionesses with 5 sub-adult females and 2 sub-adult males.
We did not see much of the Kudyela pride and their cubs this week along with the Machaton males.
Chavaluthu had a run-in with some of the Kudyela lionesses one afternoon. He was busy feeding on the remains of his young zebra kill when 6 lionesses came charging in and forced him to move off. Luckily he didn’t lose much as there were only 3 pieces of bone left.
Faka Nchovela was seen one afternoon seriously marking her territory by smelling and marking almost every 100 meters.
Currently there are 2 tiny little hyena cubs at the den site. It is such a treat to sit there at sunrise and watch these 2 little cubs play and welcome the morning light.
There was also a bit of a territorial battle between two big male white rhino and we made sure to keep a safe distance from the as we watched them push one another around.
