Good day everyone… It was a busy week with lions and also the search for the leopard den! Three days of search and we found them again. They are growing up fast and are venturing further from the den every week! Hopefully they will stay away from the lions! The lions killed for times the last week and wont hesitate to kill both cubs! Hopefully mom will stay clear of them! Enjoy and see you on Monday!
Good morning everyone! … We bumped into this Brown hyena just south of Leeudril! Brown hyenas are primarily scavengers , the bulk of their diet consisting of carcasses killed by larger predators, though they may supplement their diet with mice, insects, birds around waterholes! However, brown hyenas are aggressive scavengers, frequently appropriating the kills of black-backed jackals, cheetahs, and leopards, including adult male leopards. Enjoy and see you tomorrow!
Good morning everyone… The last five days the southern pride made four kills, two springbok, a gemsbok and this morning a blue wildebeest! They are turning out to be formidable hunters. The pride consists out of three females and two young males. Because lionesses hunt in open spaces where they are easily seen by their prey, especially in the Kalahari, cooperative hunting increases the likelihood of a successful hunt.
Enjoy and see you tomorrow!
Good day everyone… Over the weekend this female cheetah almost got the springbok but slipped close to the end! It chased it for a good hundred meters, and then lost tracking. Running at speeds between 112 and 120 km/h (70 and 75 mph) puts a great deal of strain on the cheetah’s body. When sprinting, the cheetah’s body temperature becomes so high that it would be deadly to continue, this is why the cheetah is often seen resting after it has caught its prey. The cheetah kills its prey by tripping it during the chase, but in this instance, the cheetah slipped and the springbok got away! Enjoy and see you tomorrow!
Good day everyone!… We had a busy weekend, the lions are back in the south, meaning our leopard that we are following will be very scarce! If there is lion movement you normally don’t see any leopards. We bumped into a pride of five young lions late on Friday evening, and we thought its going to be a lazy evening for them as usual! SO WRONG!! A group of about 200 springbok were grazing about a 100 meters from the lions and one of the females started stalking, she just ran from about 30 meters straight into the herd and struck a springbok with her paw, the springbok never moved after the hard blow, the female grabbed it behind the head just to make sure! Shows you the power these big cats packs in just one blow! The other four were soon on the seen and devoured the whole springbok within five minutes! It was an incredible show! Sad for the springbok, but its part of the cycle of wildlife! Enjoy and see you tomorrow!
Good morning everyone!…Dung beetles are beetles that feed partly or exclusively on faeces! Here the beetle is rolling the leftovers of a lion! We’ve only seen this twice in the last 5 years here in the kalahari. Most dung beetles search for dung using their sensitive sense of smell. Sometimes dung beetles will try to steal the dung ball off another beetle, so the dung beetles have to move rapidly away from a dung pile once they have rolled their ball to prevent it from being stolen. Dung beetles can roll up to 50 times their weight. The “rollers” roll and bury a dung ball either for food storage or for making a brooding ball. Usually it is the male that rolls the ball, with the female hitch-hiking or simply following behind. In some cases the male and the female roll together. When a spot with soft soil is found, they stop and bury the dung ball. They will then mate underground. After the mating, both or one of them will prepare the brooding ball. When the ball is finished, the female lays eggs inside it.
Good morning everyone!… We bumped into these three cheetah up towards the Rooiputs area. These three males scent-marked almost every tree for 5 km, until they found a nice resting place for a couple of hours! Males are often social and may group together for life, usually with their brothers in the same litter. Males are territorial. Females’ home ranges can be very large and a territory including several females’ ranges is impossible to defend. Instead, males choose the points at which several of the females’ home ranges overlap, creating a much smaller space, which can be properly defended against intruders while maximising the chance of reproduction. Enjoy and see you tomorrow!
Good morning everyone!… The Black-shouldered Kites are still building nests, but as usual there are other birds of prey that interfere all the time! Pale-chanting Goshawks, Gabar Goshawks and Red-necked Falcons bomb-drop the kites all the time while building their nest! They have been building about two weeks now and should be finished soon. Black-shouldered Kites have been observed in aerial combat at the margins of territories, locking talons in a behaviour described as “grappling”. In this photograph the Red-necked Falcon bomb-drops the Kite every time it flies to the nest with twigs. Enjoy and see you tomorrow!
Good morning everyone…The lion pride of Achterlonie caught a gemsbok and ate until only the head was left, which was devoured by jackal afterwords! Lions are powerful animals that usually hunt in coordinated groups and stalk their chosen prey. Lions hunting in groups are capable of taking down most animals, even healthy adults, but in most parts of their range they rarely attack very large prey such as fully grown male giraffes due to the danger of injury. About three years ago the Mata Mata pride caught big old bull giraffe close to Craig Lockhart waterhole. Unfortunately I arrived late and only saw the leftovers and the lions sleeping it off for 3 days under an acacia! Enjoy and see you tomorrow!
P.S. If anyone knows of someone that passes through Upington on the way to the Park in the next 2 days please let me know, thanks!
Good morning everyone! Like we mentioned on friday, its getting very cold in the early mornings here in the Kalahari at the moment, and there is a little mist hanging over the riverbed this time of the day. The animals, especially the big cats prefer the dunes that time of the day, its about 4 degrees hotter in the dunes than in the riverbed! The great thing about this time of year is that the big cats are more active in the late hours of the morning and even in the middle of the day! We were watching a leopard last week that was stalking in the middle of the day and followed her around all day, she never slept one minute! In the hot season things change drastically, they sleep almost the whole day! Today’s photo is of a wildebeest early at sunrise with a bit of mist in the riverbed! Enjoy and see you tomorrow!
