MANAGERS REPORT

Hello Everyone.

Well here we are, it has finally arrived, the Month of March, the long awaited 10th Anniversary of Leopard Hills Private Game Reserve. We celebrated in style and in a way that was a fitting tribute to the ten years we have been in operation.

The evening began with the necessary tributes to the Staff who have stood by us over the last ten years and went late into the night with singing, dancing and a little bit of alcohol was consumed along the way.

I spent much of the day reminiscing about the past and there are too many good times to mentioned them all here, however one thing that stands out more than anything else, and that is how happy these 10 years have been, and how special it has been to have been a part of such an incredible journey. It was an emotional ride standing next to so many people that have been such a part of making Leopard Hills what it is today. Staff, present and past, have left their footprints, and we thank them all for the contributions that they have made over the years.

It was especially pleasing to share the evening with Tom and Enid Taylor and Michael Lambert, our most regular Guests, they have become such a part of our Family over the years and we would like to sincerely thank them for travelling all the way from the United Kingdom to share in the evening with us.

As the saying goes, “pictures speak louder than words”, I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Employee of the Month

Congratulations to Rose from the Housekeeping Department on achieving the accolade of Employee of the Month for February, well done Rose, well deserved, keep up the good work.

Leopard Hills Weblog

As I mentioned in our last month Report, we have launched our new Leopard Hills Weblog, and we are finding it a very useful tool to post articles and pictures. We would like to encourage as many people as possible to partake in the weblog and comment, or add articles and photographs on the experiences you have had whilst out on Safari at Leopard Hills. You can access the Weblog on the following address: www.leopardhils.com/blog and following this procedure:

You can access the weblog on www.leopardhills.com/blog and subscribe by adding your e-mail details on the right hand side of the page, and then click subscribe. Very shortly you will receive an e-mail asking you to verify, please click on the link to verify your details and this will immediately activate you, this will enable you to post comments on already published articles and will keep you up-dated when new articles are posted. In addition we welcome you to register as a “Site Member”, which will give you access to be able to post articles and pictures. Again you will very shortly receive and e-mail giving you an opportunity to create a user name and password, this will give you access to the admin section where you can add your articles.

Community Development

Finally we have some positive news on the Community Development side of things.

I would really like to thank Bill and Susan Lane for their very generous donation to the fund, and indeed everyone who has made this dream a reality.

On the 24th of March we finally turned ground at the Jeremiah location, and we hope to have the new facility up and running within the next few months. In the mean time we will make regular visits out to the site and post progress Reports on the weblog.

The long awaited “turning ground” has begun, the foundations have been laid, and we are on our way.

Congratulations

For all of our registered Weblog subscribers, you will already have received the wonderful news of Marius and Vanessa’s engagement. Earlier this month, on a trip to Dubai, Marius popped the question while out on a Desert Safari.

Congratulations to you both, we wish you all the best for your future lives together, about time Marius!!!!

Rangers Report

Over to Marius for the next Rangers Report and thank you to all of our Guests for submitting so many awesome photographs, especially Michelle and Craig Strydom, and Kevin and Tina O’Sullivan.

This months Rangers Report comprises of photos taken exclusively by our Guests.

Take Care and kind regards.

Duncan and Louise Rodgers
Operations Director and General Manager

Rangers Report

With the morning and evening temperatures getting nice and cool conditions for safari are absolute perfect. In the month of March we had some fantastic game viewing yet again and seeing a group of wild dogs and a leopard, both species on different occasions, catching a warthog 3 meters from my vehicle was nothing short of phenomenal.

Leopard

It was a hot afternoon and after searching for a leopard for about an hour Duncan and I got a call over the radio from one of our colleagues saying that he had located the Mambiri female leopard. I went to join Duncan in the sighting and we could see the female leopard was busy stalking a duiker (small antelope), after about 10 minutes the duiker smelled the leopard and moved away.

The leopard continues to move, smelling and scent marking the round-leave teak bushes that was surrounding her. She walked up a nearby termite mount and stuck her head into the first hole, nothing happened , but seconds later as she turned towards the next hole a female warthog and three piglets came rushing out of their safety burrow. In one swift movement she leaped from the top of the termite mount and caught a piglet 3 meters from our game drive vehicle. The female leopard then stood right in front of us holding the piglet in her mouth and we could see in her, and the warthog eyes, the contrast between life and death. It was by far one of the most incredible sightings that I have witnessed in the African bush.

The morning of the same day was also an absolute treat. Makwela female leopard had a fight over territory with the Mambiri leopard. Although we didn’t see the clash we still saw the 2 female leopards and Makwela’s 2 year old cub in the same sighting, 3 leopards in one sighting............. only at Leopard Hills.

Gary and his guests saw Makwela and her cub having a full on fight. Afterwards the cub walked away and we all though that they have finally split up, but after a couple of days they were seen together yet again. We also had several sightings of the Wallingford male leopard who for many years now is the territorial male leopard in our traversing area. News form one of our neighbouring properties is that the Othawa male leopard got killed by the Othawa pride of lions. We will confirm this news as soon as we know more. The only one who will be pleased with this news is the Wallingford Male Leopard, who for years now has had his territory under threat by the Othawa Male.

Wild Dog

Our luck continued this month when we had our first sighting for quite some time of Africa’s most endangered predator, the African Wild Dog. Raymond, Gary and their guests had a sighting for more than half an hour as they watched the wild dogs moving through the African bush.

The dogs eventually went to lie down and that’s when the real action started. 2 Hyenas approached the dogs and within seconds the dogs got up and started to chase the pesky hyenas for everything they are worth. In the end both species of predators moved away unharmed.

Lion

The Mapogo coalition of male lions made their appearance at the end of the month. The same evening that they came into our traversing area, together with the Sand River Pride of females, they killed 2 wildebeest.

The Sand River Pride continues to do well and their 5 young male cubs are getting bigger by the day. They spend quite allot of time down south and on a morning safari my guests and I saw them lying next to a pan, not far from our lodge when suddenly the oldest female raised her head, ears back and ready to attack.

A small group of waterbuck appeared from the nearby bushes and the lionesses started to stalk. Unfortunately the waterbuck sensed the predators and after an alarm call ran off. Not even 10 meters from the lions another predator had much better luck in securing a meal or meals for itself. A Hamerkop, (medium sized bird), caught and ate 3 small tilapia fish in a space of 15 minutes. Using its legs to disturb the water below it and successfully chase the fish up, the Hamerkop mastered its hunting technique.

On the last morning of the month Raymond, our guest and I tracked the Ximungwe Pride of lions. After about 45 minutes we found the pride stalking impala not more than 600m from camp. Not 10 minutes later they managed to catch 2 impala’s right in front of us. The 1 female ran away with 1 of the impalas, feeding of it in peace while the other 4 lions were fighting over the second impala.

Cheetah

For the last 4 months we had some great cheetah sighting and the month of March was no different. Our territorial male cheetah was seen no less than 5 times.

Elephant

A month of fantastic elephant sightings at Leopard Hills, with the presence of numerous herds that moved into our traversing area we saw elephants almost daily. The Sand River with it’s continues flow of water and lush green vegetation is the perfect haven for these phenomenal animals.

Rhino

Raymond and his guests were treated to a very special sighting of a 2 day old rhino calf and its mother. The difference in the sighting was that the rhino cow was very relaxed with the presence of the game viewing vehicle and allowed everyone on the vehicle to get some stunning photographs of mother and calf.

Buffalo

With the presence of the big herd of buffalos present most of the month we had some very entertaining sightings in the last month.

Gary and his guests watched a four meter crocodile trying to catch a buffalo on several occasions over a period of a week. Every afternoon a herd of approximately 50 buffalo would come down to Wallingford dam to quench their thirst. On the afternoon of the 11th it finally happened as per usual, the herd came down to drink and the crocodile reacted immediately. The 4 meter monster rose through the water straight to the buffalo and shot out of the water at an immense speed. The croc went straight for a young buffalo but once again failed.

Specials

A single sighting of a serval cat hunting in the month was very exiting for Gary and his guests. On a morning drive Raymond and his guests had a sighting of a 4 meter python. We also had several sightings of genet cats and the nocturnal white-tailed mongoose.

Parting Comment

As this report is going to press, we had our first sighting of the Shangwa female leopard and her 2 new cubs that’s approximately 6 weeks old. We will write more about this next month.

Bush Greetings,
Marius Coetzee and the Leopard Hills rangers.

Sightings totals for the Month

Leopard:33 Lion:40 Cheetah:5 Wilddog:1 Elephant:47 Rhino:36 Buffalo:29 Serval:1 Python:1

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.