MANAGERS REPORT

Dear Friends and Colleagues

Another month has slipped away and we are heading towards the end of winter already. I think we are all in agreement that the game viewing has been spectacular over the last few months, and it just seems to get better and better.

The Team

We welcomed Sam and Lucky to our Team in the position of Waiter Barmen, and we also welcomed Andrew France to our Security Team, great to have you with us and we look forward to a long and happy time with you as part of our family.

Employee of the Month

Well done to Given Mtetho on achieving the title of Employee of the Month for July, well deserved, we are really proud of you. Given has been a Chef at Leopard Hills since the 1st March 2004, and many of you who have visited Leopard Hills will be accustomed to Given’s smiling face behind the Buffet in the Boma.

Community Development

For those of you who are avid readers of the Leopard Hills Weblog, you will have noted that many years of hard work culminated in the opening of the new Jeremiah Crèche which we opened during July. It was a very special occasion and such a joy to see so many underprivileged children given access to a facility that will give them grounding to a very bright future.

None of this would have been possible without the incredible generosity and outstanding donations which we channelled into this building project, and although it doesn’t sound nearly enough, thank you from the bottom of our hearts, and thank you from all the children, who’s lives and futures are somewhat brighter now as a result of what you have done.

Rangers Report

Over to Marius for this Months Report, some more memorable sightings and some more outstanding photographs.

I must congratulate Marius on his achievement in getting some of his pictures published in the August copy of Africa Geographic. I will always remember Marius telling me a few years ago while he was thumbing his way through a copy of Africa Geographic, “one day when I am big, I am going to have some of my photos published in a magazine like this”. Well Marius I think you have officially come of age, well done, and an outstanding achievement, personally I think they are lucky to have your pictures in their magazine.

Duncan and Louise Rodgers
Operations Director and General Manager

RANGERS REPORT

We are in the middle of winter and temperatures on the late afternoon and morning safaris are pretty cold. But even with cold weather the Sabi Sand Game Reserve produced another month of absolute phenomenal game viewing.

We have had regular sightings of Makwela and her 3 cubs and in the end of the month she left the cubs a mere 400 meters from our Camp and provided all of us, staff included with special memories. The constant presence of hundreds of elephants all over the reserve and the amount of young rhino calves produced excellent sightings. And as I am busy writing this report Gary came running into the office with the news that he has just seen the 4 wild dogs for the first time in months.

Leopard

We saw no less than 15 individual leopards in the last month and all of them provided us with special moments in the hundreds of hours that we had the privilege of viewing them going about their daily activity.

With the arrival of a new male leopard the last couple of months, the Wallingford male leopard found himself once again under pressure. The new male leopard, known as the Tekwaan Male, named after an area which forms the core of his territory, have been scent marking continues and listening to his advertising calls, he definitely isn’t afraid to advertise his presence. On an evening safari my guests and I were busy watching the Tekwaan male leopard feeding on a bushbuck kill when he suddenly, in absolute silence, moved away and disappeared into the thick reeds surrounding him. We drove about 10 meters forward trying to find him when a little voice in my head told me to go back to the spot of where the carcass was.

As I managed to slowly make my way through the under growth, again my tracker Abraham turned around and said, leopard, Wallingford male leopard. And there he was, appearing like a ghost in the dark African night, he stopped meters away from us, started calling and scent marking and walked straight to the carcass. He grabbed the meat and within a couple of minutes disappeared back again into the river.  As I called my colleagues over the radio to report on what has just happen we all knew that the King might be getting old but he will definitely range supreme over this piece of Africa that he has defended for so long.

One of the female leopards that we see the least is a female leopard called the Tai Dam female. Her territory is in the North-Western sector of our reserve and due to the locality and the difficult terrain we only see her couple of times every month. Her cub is now almost 18 months old and the young female is really pretty. Unlike her mother she is completely relaxed with our presence and gave us two days of great sightings. Her mother caught a Nyala female the previous afternoon and on a morning safari my guests and I decided to head up North with the hopes of getting to see the two cats. When we arrived we found Tai Dam lying on a rocky out crop sunning her self, while the cub was running around tormenting a young male hyena that was hoping to get a free meal. After viewing the 2 leopards for a while the Tai Dam female suddenly jumped up and without any warning charged straight at us. She never really relaxed around us and maybe because of this reason we love viewing her so much. After everything calmed down the cub jumped up into the tree where the kill was stashed and started feeding on it, providing us with a great sighting and photographic opportunities.

Lion

Both the Sand River Pride of lions and the Ximungwe Pride provided us with some awesome sightings. The Sand River Pride spent most of the month down at the river, where they killed several bushbuck and Nyala. Most kills happened during the late hours of the morning, who said lions doesn’t kill in day time?

The presence of most members of the Mapogo Male Lion coalition also provided us with hours of great viewing. In the end of the month one of the males was seen joining the Othawa Pride of lions feeding of a buffalo kill close to the Sand River. Gary and his guests could here at least another 3 males roaring to the east of them but the lions never made it to the kill. We had an almost constant sighting of one of the males accompanying one of the females from the Ximungwe Pride. We are sure that she is pregnant and we all hope that we will have new lion cubs soon.

Wild Dogs

Gary and his guests had a report early one afternoon safari that 4 African Wild Dogs were spotted in the eastern part of our traversing area. A call came over the radio that the 4 dogs got located and that they killed an impala kill. Unfortunately the Ximungwe Pride of lions had stolen the kill and that they were on the move again. Gary moved into the sighting, only minutes after they successfully killed a duiker antelope. His guests and himself watched in awe as the dogs finished the kill in front of them before they eventually left for the east, where there puppies is safely left at their den site.

Cheetah

With no less than 5 sightings of our male cheetah in the last month we had another great month of the world’s fastest animal. On an afternoon safari my guests and I enjoyed a sighting of him lying on a termite mound soaking up the last bit of sun before the cold evening. The next morning Gary and his guests had a sighting of him further east. This time the poor cheetah had to run around the whole morning trying to stay out of trouble. He first had to avoid three spotted hyenas chasing him around and after inspecting a warthog burrow he got chased around one more time, by a big male warthog. We also had a sighting of him earlier in the month when he fed of a kudu kill that he killed during the day.

Elephants

As in last month we are still seeing massive numbers of elephants in our traversing area. The Sand River with its constant supply of water is the biggest draw card for the Giants of the African bush. We also experience various sightings of new born calves at the moment and with their little trunks not quite working to standard provides our guests and guides with great entertainment.

Rhinos

We had another absolute superb month of rhino watching with no less than 38 sightings. The big group of 7 rhinos were seen very frequently and we also had numerous sightings of female rhinos with the young calves. The one calf in particular shows absolutely no fear towards our game drive vehicles and to have a young calf of about 4 months meters away from us is very special.

Buffalo

The constant presence of numerous groups of buffalo bulls provided us with great sightings over the last month. Like most of the elephants the bulls were also seen around the Sand River, where they came to quench their thirst and feed of the lush riverine vegetation.

Specials

Serval, honey badgers and civet cats were all seen in the last month. With the vegetation getting more sparse sightings of these elusive mainly nocturnal creatures are getting more frequent.

Bush greetings

Marius Coetzee and the Leopard Hills ranger team