MANAGERS REPORT

Dear Friends and Colleagues

I must begin by apologising for the delay in getting some of the Rangers Reports out to you all; we are working on being able to put these directly onto the website from the Lodge, and therefore being able to ensure we get them out at the beginning of every month.  There have been a few delays in setting this up, but hopefully within the course of this month we will have achieved our goal. In the meantime I hope everyone has been able to log onto the Leopard Hills Weblog, www.leopardhills.com/blog , and been able to gain access to all the happening in and around the bush.

An Eleven Day Safari

It has been wonderful to have had Allen and Ruth Wolf back in the bush with us again on their annual pilgrimage to the Lodge, travelling with Mary Kay and great to meet Beverly, Stu and Deb as well, we look forward to seeing you back with us again really soon.

I have left it to Marius to describe the quality of the sightings we had during the time we spent out in the bush, but I can honestly say it has to have been the best Safari we have ever done together in all the years I have known and guided Allen and Ruth. There is one highlight however I would like to share with you:

There is no question the highlight was sitting in a dry river bed one morning at the location where Makwela, female leopard, had made a kill the previous day, waiting, watching and hoping that she would return to the kill site with her cubs. Up until this stage we knew she had at least two cubs, we were hoping for three as our Tracker Abraham had predicted, the tension was almost unbearable.

Suddenly out of the bushed she came, ambling towards us.........alone. It is hard to describe my feelings of disappointment, if that is at all possible at seeing such a magnificent animal walking past our vehicle at no more the a couple of metres, but I was so sure she would bring her cubs to the kill site. She stood before us, sniffing the air and looking around cautiously, testing the air with a sense of purpose, as if to satisfy herself that the coast was clear. Having made sure the kill was safe and no unwanted attention had drawn itself to the area, she turned and backtracked the way she had come, I was now convinced she was on her way to fetch her cubs. We followed her at a safe distance up the drive riverbed and stopped at the point where she went up the bank into the riverine thicket, we waited with baited breath. Then for ten minutes or so we waited for what seemed like an eternity, the stillness of the early morning bush was interrupted occasional by the singing of a white browed scrub robin, but this was not the sound we were straining our ears to hear. Suddenly there it was, Abraham held up a finger, then a second and finally a third, his instinct had been correct all along, the sound of three leopard cubs moving through the thicket in pursuit of their mother. Makwela appeared on the river bank above us and stood motionless, as if taunting us with a, “do you want to see them”? Then there they were, three little leopard cubs standing side by side next to their mother, I cannot describes the feeling at that precise moment in time. Twenty one years in the Game Lodge Industry, I have never seen cubs this small before, it is a defining moment in my career, and one I will never forget. I think it is very pertinent that I could share this moment with such passionate bush people as Allen and Ruth Wolf, it somehow made it even more rewarding.

Makwela walked down the riverbank into the sand, flowed by her cubs completely oblivious to our presents, the youngsters following close behind, a little unsure of this strange object they had probably never seen before. Makwela was so unfazed at our presents that the cubs, taking their queue from her, walk right past our vehicle and followed their mother back to the kill. We followed at a distance and had an amazing spectacle for the next hour of the cubs playing in and around the bush while their mother fed on the kill, occasionally venturing in to suckle, before bounding away again to explore the vegetation close by.

Thanks to Mary Kay for the first pictures captures of the three cubs, credit to you, I would not have been able to even hold a camera I was shaking so much!!

Employee of the Month

Big congratulations again to Amos for attaining the “Employee of the Month Accolade”. You will recall that Amos won it last in April, and since then has transferred to our Gardening Team, so to win it again within two months of taking up his new post is a wonderful achievement indeed.

Community Development

June has been a frantic month of activity out in the Community, with the final preparations for the “grand opening” of the new day care centre. The official opening is on the 11th July and we look forward to reporting back on this very special event in the July Report.

So many people have contributed to making this happen, and as the big day looms, I am humbled as to what we have achieved through incredible team work together as a Lodge, and through the incredible generosity of our Guests, thank you.

Rangers Report

Over to Marius for this months Report, and what a month it was. Thanks to Marius for all the pictures taken in this months Rangers Report.

Duncan and Louise Rodgers
Operations Director and General Manager

RANGERS REPORT

We are halfway through the year and once again in the month of June we have had some of the most phenomenal game viewing that the African continent has got to offer.

Duncan was finally allowed to do a safari again and much to my dismay and in his own words, his skill, he had great game drives ever single day. If you ask him or any one of the Wolf’s:” what stood out as the most special sighting?” they would definitely say it was discovering Makwela, the female leopard, and her 3 approximately 2 month old cubs.

Leopard

Once again as in all previous months that I have had the privilege of working in the world renowned Sabi Sand Game Reserve, my fellow guides and I had some phenomenal leopard sightings. On an afternoon safari my guests and I saw the Tekwaan male leopard lying close to the Sand River. After watching and photographing this beautiful male leopard for some time we suddenly heard calls from a female leopard nearby, and less than 2 minutes later, the Hippo Dam female leopard walked straight to the male leopard, calling and flirting with him. We all thought that we are in for one of the greatest sightings ever, that of leopards mating. The female tried several times to get the male leopard to mate with her and much to her and our disappointment it never happened. Every few years the biggest challenge in the whole of the Western Sector of the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, is who will find Makwela, the female leopard’s new cubs first. This year was no different, and this year after much speculation as to where they might be hidden, Duncan and Abraham, on a cold winter morning found Makwela and three approximately 2 month old cubs less than 400 meters from our lodge.

As usual for such big occasions I was on leave and when my phone rang that morning I knew that Duncan had found the cubs. By the end of the month all the guides at Leopard Hills had the opportunity to view the new cubs, which at this young age are already completely relaxed with our game viewing vehicles, thus allowing us some phenomenal photographic opportunities.

A few days later Duncan was following Makwela when she suddenly stopped meters away from a thicket, and after starring and listening for about 20 minutes she suddenly leaped forward. No one could see anything and after sounds of a massive thumb, a distress call and lots of dust Makwela came walking out of the bush with a bushbuck lamb dangling helplessly from her mouth.

Lion

Lions, lions and more lions were seen in the last month. In the beginning of the month we were treated to a spectacular sighting of the Sand River pride of lions feeding of a young giraffe kill which they killed the previous night. The next morning Duncan and I witnessed one of the most dramatic serious of events that both of us have ever seen.

Duncan went out a little earlier than me, and shortly after he went out, I got a call to get to the sight where the lions killed the giraffe. On my arrival I was met by a clan of hyenas, but they weren’t trying to chase the lions off the kill, instead in the boldest move that we have ever witnessed, the hyenas steered the elephants straight into the lions. The lions scattered but unfortunately the hyenas didn’t capitalise on the situations and the lions managed to get their kill back minutes later.

At the end of the month we were awakened by continues roaring of lions during the night. The next morning we were treated by the sight of no less than 13 lions, all either feeding off a wildebeest kill or lying close by. Four males from the Mapogo Coalition, the Othawa Pride of lions and a female from the Ximungwe Pride were all seen.

The evening of the same day my guests and I had one of the males roaring meters away from us. Sitting there in the pitch darkness, our vehicle vibrating and our hearts pounding I silently said to myself “this is Africa”, and looking at the expression on my guests faces I knew they all thought the same.

Hannes and his guests got interrupted one evening having their “sun downer” drinks. A single lioness walked straight up to them and forced them to get into the vehicle as soon as possible. She nonchalantly walked passed them, stalked and successfully caught a wildebeest right in front of them.

One evening Duncan had the most amazing sighting of the Sand River Pride of Lions who has killed an adult Male Kudu in the reed beds just off the Sand River Causeway. While they fed on their prize, a brazen crocodile, about six foot long, left the sanctuary of the river and proceeded to steel chunks of meat off the carcass, even while the lions were feeding. Eventually the lions dragged the carcass away from the waters edge, and Duncan was forced to leave the area as numerous Hippos were leaving the river on their nightly wanderings, making it quite challenging to manoeuvre out of the riverbed and make his way back to the road.

Cheetah

In the last month we had three cheetah sightings. The jewel in the crown was by far seeing the male cheetah at the end of the month feeding of a steenbok kill, which he caught in the heat of the day.

Elephants

As in previous years we were astonished by the amount of elephant sightings that we have seen during our winter months. With the African bush drying up, these massive pachyderms were seen close to water and especially around the Sand River. Almost daily our game viewing vehicles got surrounded by huge herds of elephants, all of them blessed with the presence of numerous little calves still unable to utilise their 100 000 individual muscles in their trunks.

Rhinos

Another month has gone passed where we had so many sightings of white rhino that we couldn’t believe our luck. A crash of 8 rhinos were seen often, and no less than 5 calves, less than 6 months old, were seen accompanying their mothers around the various waterholes.

Buffalo

Except for numerous and constant sightings of lone buffalo bulls, we haven’t had the big herd of buffalo in the Southern part of our traversing area.

Instead unlike previous years, a big herd numbering more than 400 individuals were seen in the Northern part of our reserve.

Specials

Much to the dismay of fellow guides the presence of a single Striped Pipit, a little brown bird, seen in the parking area in front of our reception was by far the most special sighting of our monthly specials for me.

We also had a sighting of a single honey badger and 2 sightings of Serval cats, not to mention the amount of genet cats and civet cats seen on a regular basis.

Until next month

Marius Coetzee and all the rangers at Leopard Hills