MANAGERS REPORT

A Year in Review

Dear Friends and Colleagues

I think there are many of us wondering where the year has gone and reflecting on how much has been achieved over the last 12 months.

Reflecting back over this time period there has been a couple of highlights;

The first of which was the celebration of Leopard Hills’s tenth birthday celebration, this marked a special event in the history of the Lodge, and especially for us to celebrate it with so many of our Team that have been with us since we first opened our doors on March 1^st 1998 (Read more...).

It has been a privilege for Louise and I to have been a part of this amazing journey, and there are so many people, present and past, that must take credit for taking this Lodge to the top of the pile, too many to mention in this one Report. However on behalf of Leopard Hills, we would like to thank you all for the incredible effort that you have all put in.

Secondly, the opening of the Jeremiah Crèche in July was a fantastic highlight after months and months of wrangling with Political “Red Tape”. Who could forget the excitement of so many children on the day we officially handed over the facility to the Community (Read more...).

 The Crèche continues to grow from strength to strength 

Staff

We would like to thank all the Leopard Hills Team for all their hard work over the year, and as always it has been a joy for Louise and I to be a part of such a phenomenal Group of talented people.

Community Development

Leopard Hills hosted the Christmas Party at the Jeremiah Crèche at the beginning of December and it was a delightful day, with so many excited little children getting to open their Christmas presents. Thank you to everyone who contributed to making this day so special for them and for all the donations, this has by far been the best Christmas the children at Jeremiah have ever experienced due to the generosity from so many quarters.

I think the pictures tell the real story of what impact the day had in so many little lives at the special time of the year. Click on the follow link to access the Leopard Hills Weblog for the full story.

Rangers Report

The following Rangers Report has been complied by Hannes and Gary, another wonderful month out in the bush.

Duncan and Louise Rodgers
Operations Director and General Manager
e-Mail Duncan / e-Mail Louise

RANGERS REPORT

After the first rain storms the bush has become thicker and thicker once again. There are now no existing signs of the previous winter. Little dots of beautifully coloured flowers brighten up the bush everywhere. Once again we have to work a little harder in order to find the animals since they are not as easily spotted as in the drier months because of all the leaves and long grass.

But on the other side, there are hundreds of cute, baby impalas running around. These are always fun to watch, with or without the hungry predators playing a role… There has been quite a few game drives filled with mixed emotions among the guests; some getting swept up in the excitement and adrenalin of the predators stalking, chasing and catching one of the little helpless calves and those who could not help but cover their watery eyes and ears in pure sympathy. But such is the circle of life and yet another unforgettable year comes to an end.

 

Leopards

The leopards must think that it is Christmas in the bush with all the baby impalas. Hannes and Marius followed the Hlaba Nkunzi female one morning and through the thick bush we spotted a small baby impala not far ahead. The leopard took her time, getting into the perfect position, trying not to make any mistakes that would give her position away. Painstakingly slow she leopard crawled closer and closer, tail constantly flicking from side to side. And then, as quick as an arrow from a bow she shot forward, tripped the impala and latched onto it with those needle sharp claws. She did not kill it immediately and a long cat and mouse game followed until the youngster eventually succumbed to its wounds.

There is some great news that Mambiri’s cub has now gained independence and has been named the Metsi female. She is still in her mother’s territory and now all the hard work starts for her to try and establish her own territory.

The Tekwhane male has also been giving us hours of pleasure. It was on a rainy afternoon drive that Gary and his guests saw him stalking impala. After a miss attempt he got a 3 week old baby impala in his sights.

He took off after the baby which spotted him just before that. The baby made a break over a small wallow; he obviously didn’t see this and landed up in the wallow. Needless to say that the impala got away. Definitely one of his top funniest leopard sightings.

The Hlaba Nkunzi female has also been flirting with the Tekwhane male but we think that he likes the older ladies (Makwela). She is still a little too young and will have to wait another year and a bit until she is roughly four years of age.

Wallingford is Wallingford and has been doing his rounds, with all the rain in the last few weeks and the Sand River flooding he has been stuck on the southern side of the river.

We recently got word that Makubela has cubs. This is great news and we really do hope that in the coming few months she will be showing them off to us.

Lions

The Sand River pride has been moving out of their comfort zone and has been found in some real odd places, including in front of the lodge, even on the southern fence line. This is about 7 kilometers out of their comfort zone.

The Xhimungwe pride has also been around and been covering a lot of ground. This is the pride that rules the south and has also been in and in front of the lodge quite often.

 

 

Elephant

The elephant sightings have been great. One rainy afternoon Gary and his guests were watching a small herd of elephants playing in a mud wallow. One of the young ones started a mock charge at its mom, when he realized that he wasn’t going to win he tried to stop but due to all the rainfall making the soil very slippery, he tried to stop. All 4 feet came out from underneath him and he fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes, too funny. 

Rhino

The large groups of rhinos that we were seeing concentrated around certain water points during the dry periods seem to have dispersed a little. We are still seeing a great many rhino’s, but they are now scattered around the reserve in a fairly even spread. The rhinos still remain fairly easy to locate on any given day providing us with regular sightings.

Buffalo

The big herd of buff has only been with us twice this month, but there seems to be a herd of about 70 animals that has been here for a while.

Wild dog

Unfortunately for the few of you that saw the pack of 9 dogs their numbers have been depleted to only 6 now, but good news is that they were seen mating so hopefully in the next few months we will have a new litter. They just need them to find a suitable den on our property!

The dogs have been in our property for most of the month and some great sighting was seen.

Between Gary, Hannes and Marius 9 kills were seen, and all were new baby impalas. On one morning Gary was about 30 minutes into his safari when Ronald spotted wild dog tracks. After closer inspection he concluded that they were very fresh and decided to track them. The tracks were so fresh that as we were getting on the vehicle we heard an almighty commotion, on closer investigation we found 4 Hyenas trying to steal a kill from the dogs. The dogs took exception to this and chased the hyenas away!

 Cheetah

The cheetah sightings this month have been on the up and up. There has been the male cheetah that has graced our presence many times this month.

On one occasion he was found on the open plains on a kill. Raymond and his guests were watching him finish his kill when all of a sudden Mambhiri (the female leopard from the south) rocked up. She had obviously got wind of the kill and was coming to challenge for it. After a little scrap she won the cheetah over and stole the kill.

Bush greetings
Hannes, Gary and the other Leopard Hills Rangers.