Managers Report

Welcome to the New Year and in these uncertain times ahead across the world we hope to see you back in the bush with us during the course of 2009. It is business as usual and from a game viewing perspective, it has started off with some amazing sightings already.

We have had some heavy rainfalls over the last month and experiences on of the biggest storms of the season at the beginning of January, with 130mm of rain in an hour and a half. As I write this, the Sand River is flowing from bank to bank and it will be a while until in subsides enough to get to the North.

A tragic end to a beautiful Pride

We began the year here with a tragic set of circumstances that culminated in the demise of the Sand River Pride. I have already posted this article on the Leopard Hills Weblog and for the full story and comments, please click on the following link http://www.leopardhills.com/blog/index.php?itemid=217

I have copied the article below for those that wish to see the story without the comments; needless to say we are all devastated by these events.

It is with a very heavy heart that I report to you the demise of the Sand River Pride.

Towards the end of last week we were notified that the Sand River Pride had broken out of the Reserve and were out in the Community Area adjacent to the Reserve. The information we were given was they had crossed out at a section of fence that had been washed away by the recent heavy rains. Immediately we had a sense of déjà vu, and remember clearly the shooting of seven member of the Sand River Pride three years ago having also broken out of the Reserve under very similar circumstances.

The law states quite clearly that if animals leave the protection of the Sabi Sand Private Game Reserve, they then become the responsibility and jurisdiction of the Mpumalanga Park Board, who are the local Provincial Authority for the adjacent areas of the Reserve.
                                                          

We fully understand that the protection of the Local Community is our utmost priority and ensuring their safety has to and will always come first, however I do not believe that these Lions were posing a direct threat, a broken fence and the smell of domestic live stock was just too much for them. In the past we have always been given a chance to intervene and utilize all resources available to us, to get the Pride back into the Reserve, and in the rare occasions that the Pride has broken out, there has never been a threat to human beings, albeit the occasional livestock has been taken, for which we have always paid substantial compensation. I am saddened to report to you that no such chance was given on this occasion, and in the same communication we received that the Lions had broken out of the Reserve, we were also informed that the entire Pride, the two adult females and their 5 sub adult offspring had been shot.

The news of this tragic event not only infuriated us beyond belief, it has left us saddened to the point of despair, as I for one, have had the privilege and joy, as have so many of you, to witness this beautiful Pride for so many years.

There is not too much more I can write, for once words have escaped me, and I have been left with a hollow feeling, as we all have, as I am sure we could have intervened and brought them home, at least we should have been given the chance to try.

We are conducting a full investigation at present, we need to ensure that something like this never happens again, but for the Sand River Pride it has become a situation of “closing the stable door after the horse has bolted”. In a heart beat we have lost an entire gene pool of a Pride that should right now, be roaming the bush along the banks of the Sand River.

Yes we have other Prides of Lions that frequent our Traversing area, but that is not the point, it is a case of not who's right, but what's right.

I leave you with some memories of the good times we have spent out in the bush with the ‘Late” Sand River Females and their offspring.

Thank you Marius for the use of your pictures in this article on the weblog.

Regards from a very sad Leopard Hills Team

Staff

   There has been an addition to the Leopard Hills Team during the month, Ginger joined the Team and is proving to be a real pleasure and a real handful, thanks to Faye for all the help and advice, and coming with us to pick her up.

Community Development

A new year brings us to the challenge of new projects on the horizon for the Community. As soon as we have formulated these I will report back.

In the mean time, the Jeremiah Crèche continues to flourish and we thank everyone for the on going contributions. I would like to make special mention of Horst and Jo Engle from VIP Travel, for their very generous contribution to the Day Care Centre; we will utilize the funds wisely and look forward to showing you around the facility on your next trip.  

Rangers Report

This months Report has been compiled by Marius.

Duncan and Louise Rodgers

Operations Director and General Manager

duncan@leopardhills.com    louise@leopardhills.com

RANGERS REPORT FOR JANUARY 2009

We are finished with the first month of the year and after copious amounts of rain the bush is green and there is water all over the reserve. This hasn’t dampened our game viewing and with the pack of 6 African Wild Dogs that were still around in the beginning of the month, and continuous phenomenal leopard sightings through out January, game viewing is as great as ever.

Wild Dogs

As I mentioned in the introduction of the report, the magnificent wild dog sightings that we had last month continued into the New Year. Hannes and his guests had a report from our colleagues that the pack has been found. He swiftly responded, but as he approached the dogs disappeared. His tracker June and himself then managed to track down the pack, and found them feeding on an impala kill.

 

 

Leopard

The year started with a bang regarding our leopard sightings. Not only is Makwela female leopard pregnant again, but with Mambiris female leopard’s cub, now known as the Metsi female, being parted with her mom we expect her to mate soon. 

At the beginning of the month we had our first great news of the year in that the Makubela female leopard has two new born cubs. Her choice of den site was phenomenal, if it wasn’t for two trackers that accidentally found the den while following a rhino on foot; I doubt that we would have had the chance to view the cubs at their mother’s first choice of den site. The bad news is that since we had extreme rain, more than a 100mm in 3 hours, there hasn’t been any sighting of the cubs and we are sure that she has lost them.

On an afternoon safari, my guests and I came across the Hlaba Nkunzi female leopard and she managed to kill a full grown Nyala cow. Unfortunately we had to leave the sighting shortly afterwards as a massive thunder and lightning storm was upon us. When we returned the next morning there was no sign of leopard or kill, but looking at the tracks we quickly came to the conclusion that the clan of hyena’s that frequent the area had a free meal.

Lion

Another month of great lion sightings, with most members in the Mapogo male lion coalition been seen in our traversing area.

On an extremely wet afternoon safari my guests were sitting on the clearing in front of the lodge surrounded by 3 male lions from the coalition. We initially only saw one of the males and I was desperately hoping that my guests would have the opportunity to hear the male lion’s powerful roar.

Suddenly like ghosts out of the darkness the other 2 males appeared from the bushes surrounding the clearing and laid down meters from our game drive vehicle. It all started with a low rumble and then the deepest most awe inspiring roars covered the African air. The second and third male joined in, the hair on my neck standing up right, I was breathless. I slowly turned around and my guests were absolutely stunned, they have experienced Africa at its rawest form.

 

 

 All three of our female prides were also seen on a regular basis. The Ximungwe pride consisting of 5 females spend most of their time in our traversing area and had an absolute feast on all the young impalas.

Due to water being in abundance the Sand River pride was forced to leave their winter hunting grounds of the Sand River and surrounding area. In winter the river area provide water for most of the plains game and lurking around the thick reed beds and stalking game as they come down to drink was the perfect hunting stragedy.  The Sand River pride moved far and wide over our traversing area in search of food and was seen around our Lodge on a regular basis. As you will have seen from Duncan’s Managers Report, this was the last time we were to see them, what more can we say other than the fact we are all devastated.

Cheetah

We have had once again some solid cheetah sightings in the Southern part of our traversing area.

Buffalo

We haven’t had any sightings of the massive herd of buffalo in the New Year, but still had great and regular sightings of all the various bulls in our traversing area.

Elephant

The New Year started of with a bang regarding elephant sightings. Not only did we have the opportunity to view some massive elephant bulls on a continuous basis but also saw some huge herds of females and cows.

There are also loads of new born calves in the reserve and on a morning safari my guests and I viewed a calf that was less than a week old. The little one hardly managed to stay on its feed and couldn’t quite get to grip with its trunk. Every time he saw one of the cows or older calves eating he tried to mimic them without any luck.

Rhino

Rhino sightings continue to be excellent with at least 2 crashes numbering 7 rhinos that we viewed in the last month. We also had sightings of numerous bulls and smaller groups of cows and calves. On an afternoon safari we viewed one of the groups of 7 feeding on a massive open plain. It was a great sighting for all and with the presence of more than 10 Red-Billed Oxpeckers there was something happening all around us.

Specials

 With the abundance of water all over the reserve we have had some stunning sightings of various waterfowl in our reserve. Comb ducks, Red-Billed Teals, Red-Knobbed Coots and Dab Chicks are all present in our major waterholes. We are also seeing loads of Black-Bellied Bustards standing on top of termite mounds doing their famous champagne cork popping sound.

Bush Regards

Marius Coetzee and the Leopard Hills rangers.