MANAGERS REPORT

Hello Everyone.

Welcome to our February Report. Having gone through January with almost no rain to speak of, February started pretty much the same way. Fortunately we did receive some rain in the latter part of the month which was a bonus, but not really enough to make a difference to the rapidly drying out bush. Anything we get from now on will be welcome as a top up for the water table and the dams and pans.

The bush is really beginning to dry out and already there have been 2 bush fires over in the Eastern side of the Reserve which may be an ominous sign for the dry months ahead.

Having said that, the Lodge still remains a “green oasis in a rapidly drying out environment.

The Lodge

Thank you to all our return Guests in February for your kind words and comments on the re-vamped rooms. We are extremely pleased with the way things have turned out, and it is very fitting as we enter our 10th year of operation that the Lodge is looking better now than it ever has.

Employee of the Month

We would like to congratulate William Temba on his achievement on being voted as February Employee of the Month.

William is an institution at Leopard Hills, and has been a Chef for over 50 years in this Industry, and although he keeps threatening every year that he will be retiring at the end of the year, he always bounces back in January.......good to have you for another year William, the place would not be the same without you.

Leopard Hills Weblog

We have just launched our new Leopard Hills Weblog, (www.leopardhills.com/blog) and look forward to seeing some contributions from our Guests on the Blog. Marius has been busy posting some pictures and articles on some of the more memorable sightings on the daily Game Drives; we look forward to using this tool to keep you updated on a more regular basis.

Community Development

We have some very positive news on the Community Development side of things. It seems the local Chief has entered the discussions and we should have the go ahead to start building as early as next month. We look forward to updating you with some real progress in the future Reports.

Rangers Report

This months Rangers Report has been compiled by Marius Coetzee and the Team, thanks Marius for all the Pictures contributed to the Report.

Take Care and kind regards.

Duncan and Louise Rodgers
Operations Director and General Manager

Rangers Report

The month of February was once again another phenomenal month of game viewing for the guests and guides that are so fortunate to spend time in this phenomenal piece of Africa.

We had very little rain and the bush is slowly starting to dry out and the morning temperature’s are just perfect. For the first time in about 2 months we saw all 5 of the Mapogo male lions in our traversing area and cheetah sightings continue to be fantastic.

Cheetah

Raymond and his guests saw a phenomenal sighting when the female cheetah caught a steenbok right in front of them. Her cub joined her shortly afterwards and the 2 of them started feeding as soon as the female got her breath back. The 2 of them were seen frequently but unfortunately moved further north out of our traversing area.

The male cheetah also made several appearances during the month and we even saw him drinking water twice less than 5 meters from our game drive vehicle. On the second occasion when we saw him drinking it was late in the afternoon, the last bit of golden light covered the feline’s body and the water droplets dripping down its mouth shimmering like diamonds.

Leopard

Makwela, our resident female leopard has yet again shown us why she is one of the most legendary leopards in Africa. On a morning drive the guides found Makwela and her cub lying next to a kudu calf kill that she killed during the night. When we returned that afternoon we were absolutely amazed to see that she managed to kill a waterbuck calf as well. That evening my guests and I witnessed Makwela hoisting the waterbuck calf into a Marula tree about 10 meters away from the kudu kill. The next evening when we came across the 2 leopards both kills were lying side by side in the same tree, a truly remarkable experience for all of us present.

In less than a year and half Makwela managed to kill her second hippo calf which is unbelievable. Leopards are the ultimate predator and survive in most habitats in Africa south of the Sahara Desert, their diet include fish, birds and insects and are by far the most adaptable of all the big cats. Makwela’s youngster proved this to us when she jumped into the air and caught a francolin right in front of Gary and his guests.

Some phenomenal news is that the Hippo Dam female leopard has 2 new cubs. One of the guides found Mom and the two cubs one afternoon in a thick drainage system. Unfortunately for all of us the Hippo Dam leopard is not use to the presence of our game drive vehicles but we are hoping to get more sightings of mother and cubs in the future.

Lion

As mentioned in my introduction we finally saw 5 of the Mapogo male lions together in our traversing area. We are all hoping that they will stay in our area for a longer period of time.

The Ximungwe Pride of lions is truly back and managed to kill an adult buffalo cow in the Western part of our traversing area. We watched in awe as the pride protected there kill against hyenas for a period of almost 5 days.

The Sand River Pride also had another month of joy as they were able to kill various wildebeest and impala. The lioness that we wrote about in previous reports that injured her foot in a battle with hyenas recovered completely and is able to join her sister on all her hunts. Their 5 male cubs are growing fast and are getting stronger by the day. Hopefully in years to come there will once again be a formidable coalition of 5 male lions in the Greater Kruger National Park ecosystem.

Rhino

In the month of February our guests and guides had some phenomenal rhino sightings. With a total of 64 sightings, rhinos were spotted on almost everyday of the month. Gary and his guests saw 9 rhinos in a single sighting and the Sabi Sand Game Reserve is undoubtedly one of the prime reserves to see these prehistoric animals. My guests and I were treated to a spectacular sighting when a crash of 7 rhinos including the cow with the massive horn came down for a late morning drink.

While the rhinos approached the waterhole a hippo bull that was in the water moved straight towards them. The hippo bull then got out of the water and came within meters of the rhinos, after a little standoff between these massive pachyderms, the hippo finally slipped back into the water and the rhinos started to quench their thirst.

Elephant

Most of the big herds have returned and in contrast with last month elephants were seen daily. With the African bush slowly drying up our guests had various sightings of elephants from our main deck drinking from the pan in front of the lodge.

Buffalo

The big herd of hundreds of buffalo spent little time in our traversing area in the last month. But we still had numerous sightings of lone buffalo bulls in and around the Sand River.

Specials

Hannes and his guests saw a hyena feeding of an aardvark that was killed by a male leopard. The male leopard which is a skittish individual is unknown to us. This is now the second aardvark that’s been killed in the last 3 years by leopard. We still await our first sighting of a live aardvark.

Well that was another fun filled month, hope you enjoyed it. Till next month,
Gary, Hannes, Marius and Raymond

Sightings totals for the Month

Leopard:69 Lion:61 Cheetah:11 Elephant:104 Rhino:64 Buffalo:19

Note: The above sightings totals reflect the number of individual sightings of animals, not populations of animals in the area. e.g. If we see a herd of 12 buffalo this is noted as one sighting. These sightings are then tallied to get the figure reflected above.