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The great rains continued by way of February, and after Cyclone Eloise in January had stuffed the water desk, this deluge (228 mm in complete) took all of the dam ranges to the utmost! For the primary time in in all probability eight years, Georgie’s Dam in entrance of the lodge has overflowed! Extremely, the hippo responded instantly, and we’ve got counted over 20 hippo on some days. We now have a relentless cacophony of hippo calls resonating up the valley to the lodge within the early mornings and evenings. We additionally sit up for it attracting many attention-grabbing birds once more.
The bush has continued to thicken up, decreasing visibility considerably. Whereas we often see numerous kudu right now of the yr, being strictly browsers, they simply disappear and it’s troublesome to get a very good view of them.
The rains have attracted quite a lot of attention-grabbing birds, particularly those who love tall grasslands and the wetland sort of environments. Now we have seen numerous African crakes which have been scarce over the previous few years, and in addition managed to see (pictured proper) the elusive Corn Crake!
Most of the birds are additionally persevering with to breed, from the big Saddle-billed storks (pictured left) to the diminutive Little Bee-eaters (pictured beneath). Now we have additionally began seeing fairly just a few child warthog, particularly out on the quick grass of the big open clearings.
The younger Ottawa sub-adults have continued to remain in unbelievable situation, opposite to our expectations. Being so younger and inexperienced, we suspected that they may battle to search out meals or hunt, however they’ve proved us improper and are wanting extremely good. All 4 of them are nonetheless collectively, and the older male specifically is beginning to present indicators of being a really huge lion!
The Ottawa females, in flip, don’t appear to be too upset in regards to the kids transferring off, and could also be having fun with the truth that they don’t have to struggle for meals with the three males. They’re additionally very often aside, with one feminine being with a Thumbela male, whereas the opposite two keep away and luxuriate in some alone time.
Misava has remained in his natal territory for fairly a while. At 4 and a half years previous, it could have been anticipated that he would transfer additional afield however, like Ravenscourt, he has remained near the place he was born, and continues to present nice sightings. Lately, he had an impala carcass hoisted in a marula tree, which gave us some nice alternatives to {photograph} him.
Thamba and Ravenscourt are nonetheless having their territorial disputes, though it’s in a extra passive approach for now. Thamba has been pushing additional north and west, and evidently Ravenscourt has responded to this strain by coming down south fairly regularly this month. He nonetheless has Euphorbia placing strain on him within the north, so he by no means stays down south too lengthy, earlier than marching again to the river to guard the core of his territory.
Nyelethi can also be nonetheless seen pretty repeatedly, however his boundary with Ravenscourt is rather more settled, and so they appear to have come to an settlement as to the place it’s a while in the past.
The younger females, Khokovela and Tisela, have for a while now been our greatest viewing leopards. Khokovela just lately had a recent impala kill, however earlier than she may hoist it out of attain, hyenas arrived and stole it from her. She had no selection however to slink away, but posed superbly on a fallen tree to watch her kill being devoured.
Tisela additionally had a kill, however happily she managed to hoist the kill, giving us fairly just a few days of fantastic viewing and, as it’s in her genes, posed completely for the keen photographers.
Our resident male cheetah has been seen fairly various instances and really used the cooler, wet situations on one event to efficiently chase down and kill a younger impala at Nkombe Dam clearing.
The pack of Painted Wolves has not but absolutely resumed their common visits to the West, however just a few of our visitors had been lucky to see them on just a few events. As at all times, they’re wanting good and hopefully quickly they may return extra repeatedly. We hope the identical for our visitors!
Elephant numbers have been on the regular enhance within the Higher Kruger, though we’ve got seasonal actions and sporadic excessive and low numbers within the Sabi Sand as they transfer seeking good meals and water. Generally it may be laborious to search out the breeding herds, however now in February we’ve got had quite a few nice sightings of those unimaginable animals.
We even have had fairly numerous giraffe within the southern components of the Western Sector of late, which is uncommon, as we don’t have the perfect habitat right here for them. They’re often discovered additional north, close to the Sand River, the place we’ve got the next focus of Acacia timber, which is their most well-liked food regimen. Nonetheless, we’ve got been loving having these massive ‘Journeys of giraffe’ out on our clearings.
We depart you with a wierd sighting, in that we don’t usually get to see or {photograph} these little creatures. We discovered two Mauritian Tomb Bats roosting on the primary stem of a big Scotia tree, and curiously, they don’t roost in massive teams. Normally solely as much as 5 will roost collectively. In addition they have unusually good eyesight in comparison with different bats, permitting them to detect hazard extra simply. In addition they use echolocation, which suggests they emit sounds that bounce off their prey, to find and hunt. Many individuals don’t notably like bats, however they’re very important in feeding on bugs which regularly carry illnesses dangerous to people. They’ve been recorded as feeding on as many as 4000 bugs every per night time!
We hope that each one our associates and visitors have been preserving protected and wholesome, and that your vaccine rollouts are going nicely, which in flip could show you how to all return to us quickly to witness in particular person nature at its finest.
To compensate for all of the updates throughout our lockdown, please take a look at our YouTube Channel right here.
With heat needs
Neil, Natasha and The Savanna Group
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