January 2009 : Sabi Sand Reserve, South Africa

With the many predators capitalizing on the arrival of the baby ungulates that is coincidental with this time of the year, often offering an easy meal!

Leopards (Panthera pardus) have been providing us with some wonderful viewing – something that has become synonymous to safaris in this area. The Wild Dogs/ “Painted Hunting Dogs” (Lycaon pictus) were viewed on a number of occasions, always with much action and excitement to follow. The two surviving pups (from the initial litter of 5) seem to be fit and healthy, thriving on the condensed attention being paid to them by the adults. The Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) viewing has been less productive than usual but when we have found them they are looking fit and healthy.

The lion viewing has been exceptional over this period, as the prides appear to be re-establishing themselves finally, since the “cleansing” that took place in mid 2006 with the arrival of the Coalition of six males, which resulted in widespread fragmentation of the pride units and wholesale infanticide as well as the destruction of any adults that dared not submit.

 

The summer migrant birds are here in full flight with many having bred on this leg of their journey, coinciding with the plentiful food supplies in the form of seeds, fruits and arthropods. All together an action packed month, with many unforgettable moments, hopefully just a taste for the year to come…

 

Temptation

A large male giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) succumbed whilst attempting to ford the swollen Sand River, slipping on the smooth bedrock beneath the current and being unable to regain its footing.

Interestingly this is not an isolated event, as every year, sometimes on more than one occasion we find a giraffe that has met its fate in a similar fashion. The causeway that they choose to cross is not altered by human hand in the slightest; it must obviously just be one that seems to be negotiable by this species. Giraffe, although fleet-footed and graceful animals, can be ungainly and vulnerable when attempting to negotiate areas where the footing is unsure or uneven.

The resultant carcass was to provide a wind-fall feeding opportunity to any predatory species that stumbled upon it.

However, positioned in the middle of a fast flowing, crocodile-infested river, the free meal came with many challenges to those who arrived next…

First to arrive on the scene was a spotted Hyena (Crocuta crocuta) who spent about an hour weighing up the options and finally leaving having decided that “discretion was the better part of valor” in this instance!!

Later that morning a pride of three lionesses (Panthera leo) made their way down and it didn’t take long for the first to wade into the water, watched with interest by the other two. Eventually all three managed to reach the dead giraffe. As you can see in theese images, this was no easy feat. After feeding for a short while they waded back and left in search of a drier meal.

That evening a large male lion tried his luck but spent more time considering his options on the dry bank than actually feeding. While he was feeding in the darkness we counted six Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus) and a number of Sharptooth catfish (Clarias gariepinus) also taking advantage of the meal.

The following night after some serious rain, the river came down in flood and unfortunately the giraffe was washed downstream, with plenty of meat still remaining. Lucky for the crocodiles and catfish!

Nile Crocodile

Crocodiles reign supreme as formidable predators in the waterways throughout Africa. Their evolution dates back over 240 million years, where they are believed to have developed from a group of dinosaurs known as the Archosaurs, which also gave rise to modern day birds.

Through the millennia they have changed very little – an indication of a very successful ‘prototype’ design. Adult crocodiles average between 3-5m in length, with exceptional individuals reaching 6m and weighing up to 1000kg. They have been known to live up to 80 years and possibly longer.

Crocodiles have conical teeth and can exert up to a ton of pressure when biting down. There powerful jaws can clamp down hard on prey but they cannot chew in the conventional way and need to swallow items whole.

A Quick Swim

To help keep feathers clean and make them more flexible and pliable for preening, this Carmine bee-eater took a bath on a hot afternoon to help cool down. Many aerial feeders such as bee-eaters, swallows, swifts, drongos and nightjars, do not land and bathe. Rather, they plunge briefly into the water during flight.

Feathers may become quite water-logged whilst plunge-bathing, making it difficult for them to fly immediately afterwards. The bird then ‘flap-flies’ heavily to a safe place, shakes its feathers vigorously, then preens, scratches and dries off.

 

 

The Day the Leopard, Wildogs and Lions Tiptoed around One Another at Castleton

Johan and I were driving out of Castleton Camp, fielding some questions from our guests, wondering what animals they might see at the lodge. As we departed the lodge we came across the Castleton pride.

The next morning the wild dogs were located on the Castleton airstrip (a mere 200m from the camp).

After a peaceful sighting we moved off to follow up on Impala alarm calls in the open areas in front of Castleton. We were successful in locating the Ravenscourt female Leopard.

The lions had hardly moved from their overnight position near the workshop (just behind the camp).

Wow! What a morning - three of the highest profile predators all within meters of one another and the lodge!

- Tim Brown - Field Guide, Singita Sabi Sand

Full Bellies and Off To A Great Start

On route back from a morning drive, we were driving in the southern part of the reserve, and in the distance my tracker Shadrack spotted the remains of an impala carcass hoisted in a Marula tree (Sclerocarya birrea caffra).

As we drove closer to investigate, there were two very full little leopards relaxing in the tree.

The mother was not far away - as it wasn’t five minutes when she came to call the cubs away from the finished carcass. The carcass could potentially attract other predators that may pose a threat to her cubs. They descended the tree with a certain degree of difficulty - backwards - and bounded off into the long grass in search of a shady spot to retire for the day.

Upon arriving at a kill, one of the cubs will feed, while its sibling and mother lie nearby. When it has left the carcass, the other cub approaches and feeds, followed, if she is hungry, by their mother. And so it goes for as long as the carcass lasts, never more than one animal attending at a time.

Caught in a Web
This Cinnamon–Breasted bunting managed to get it’s self stuck in a Goldern-orb web spiders’ web. When we drove by and found the struggling bird up on the rocky cliff we watched in shock for a few minutes, and with nothing we could do to help, left the struggling bird to its fate. Later that morning while following tracks of a young male leopard through the same area we noticed the bird was free and resting on the cliff. What a relief.

Dogs on the Beach
On a wet and misty morning, the wild dogs were on the hunt and heading in our direction. That morning they ran about 6km and finally found and killed an impala. The feeding didn’t last more than 10 minutes and they were on the trot again. When they reached this beautiful spot they cuddled up on the warm sand to retire for the day.

A Reckonable Force

One of the most impressive birds in the sky, with a wing span of between 195-260cm and height of around 80cm a Martial eagle is always a highlight to see.

The bird pictured to the right is immature, with its back and neck being grey and still very white below. The overall appearance is very pale. The iris is still dark brown which later changes to yellow as the bird develops.

A single egg is laid between February and August in a large basin like nest which is about 2m wide and deep, found in the fork of a large tree. Incubation takes between 47 and 51 days by the female only. After which fledging takes a further 100 days, fed by female only, but the food is provided mostly by the male. The chick will be dependent on its parents for 3–8 months after its first flight.

They are generally very shy birds which avoid man. They can be seen solitary or in pairs. Soaring to great heights; some times perching on dead trees, they hunt by scanning the ground while in flight or from a perch, stooping to a shallow dive, rarely hovering.

Martial Eagles have been known to catch prey as large as small antelope by swooping down to grasp the prey with their powerful talons, often killing it on impact.

Interview with Sophia Lehr - Field Guide

Q: What is your age and when is your birthday?
A: I am 25 years old and was born on the 18th September 1983

Q: Where are you from?
A: Cape Town, the Mother City.

Q: How long have you been a field guide for? And how long at Singita?
A: My field guiding career started at Singita just under a year ago.

Q: If you could be an animal what would you choose to be and why?
A: I would be a honey badger. They are incredibly tough and fierce little mammals able to survive the venomous bites of snakes, manage to sustain multiple bee stings and survive the aggressive attacks from predators due to their tough and loose skin on their back and neck.

Q: You win the lottery! How do you spend your millions?
A: Buy a Land Rover Defender, invest more than half, and donate the rest to conservation charities.

Q: Your most embarrassing moment as a field guide was when?
A: I managed to get well and truly stuck in the mud after finding a pride of lion, the other day. We decided to leave the pride as it had started raining only to get stuck 150m away from them. With guests taken back to the lodge by another guide, my tracker and I were stuck for close on 3 hours trying the best we could to get out, with the assistance of two other Land Rovers but still to no avail. We finally managed to escape the thick engulfing mud by being towed out by the ‘Buffel’ (an ex-military ‘tank-like’ vehicle!!) in the now pouring rain!

Q: Do you have a specialist interest?
A: Yes I have two. One in Animal Husbandry, which is the rehabilitation and release of injured wild animals and the other being in the marine aspect.

Q: If you could pick any people in the world to take on a game drive at Singita Sabi Sand who would they be/have been?
A: My dad, Mahatma Ghandi and David Attenborough.

.../contined on the next page

Interview with Sophia Lehr continued

Q: The book on your bedside table is…?
A: There are 3: Tears of the Maasai by Frank Coates; Zamba, The True Story of the Greatest Lion That Ever Lived by Ralph Helfer; Modoc, The True Story of the Greatest Elephant That Ever Lived by Ralph Helfer.

Q: The 3 course meal of your wishes is…?
A: Tuna sashimi and fresh west coast oysters – till I cannot manage to eat anymore, followed by an assortment of sushi and completed with fat free Italian ice-cream from a little shop in Hout Bay, Cape Town.

Q: What’s your charity of choice & why?
A: The Endangered Wildlife Trust – I would like my children and grandchildren to be able to experience wildlife as I have.

Q: You know you’re in Africa when?
A: You can smell the rain coming and hear the call of the Burchell’s Coucal.

Q: If you weren’t a first-class field guide what would you have been?
A: A Marine Biologist.

Q: What was your worst subject at school and why?
A: Science! Only took it for my tertiary education.

Q: Top 5 films?
A:  Big Blue; I Dreamed of Africa; Dirty Dancing; Shawshank Redemption and Finding Nemo

Q: What’s been your favourite sighting?
A: Locating and viewing a female leopard with a duiker kill in a Sycomore Fig (Ficus sycomoris) when a lioness came and circled the tree and then proceeded to try and climb the tree to steal the leopard’s carcass. It was very exciting stuff and may be found in the October 2008 Singita Journal.

This entry was sumbitted by Nicky Silberbauer
All the photographs were taken on location by Nicky Silberbauer
Singita Sabi Sand
31 January 2009