WILDLIFE REPORT

SINGITA SABI SAND, SOUTH AFRICA For the month of July Two Thousand and Sixteen

Temperature Rainfall Recorded Sunrise & Sunset Average minimum: 11˚C (51.8˚F) For the month: 15 mm Sunrise 06:28 Average maximum: 23˚C (73.4˚F) For the season to date: 397 mm Sunset 17:33 Minimum recorded: 7˚C (44.6˚F) Maximum recorded: 32˚C (89.6˚F) Rain, glorious rain… wait a second, was that it? As quickly as the rain arrived, it just as quickly dissipated, settling the dust and replenishing a few shallow dried mud pools that last only a day or two before evaporating during the midday warmth. Well, as brief as it was, it was glorious. The evening sounds echoed through the bush. Thunder rolled in close and far for several hours before we heard the pitter-patter of drops falling on the dry earth. It was the melodic sounds we had all been waiting for. The next day felt like the bush had been cleansed, the dust was settled and the bush was washed with the brief winter rainfall. As most people recount of their trips to Africa, it’s the smell of rain that is invigorating, and oh what a sensory experience to watch the bush come alive - even if it was only for a short while. Here's a highlights package of the month's sightings: Leopards The Hlab’Nkunzi female leopard has been very busy interacting with the Nyelethi male leopard, and mating ensued for at least three days. During one of our morning game drives the N’weti male was seen in close proximity of the two mating leopards, much to the disapproval of his mother, the Hlab’Nkunzi female leopard. After a few days she was seen roaring and contact calling for the young male, instinctively looking

for her offspring and making up for her aggressive behaviour. Perhaps this was a way of saving her male offspring to avoid having contact with the dominant male being in the area, considering the N’weti male should be independent based on his current age? Fortunately it is a highlight viewing two leopards at one sighting and this young male and his mother have been spending much time within a fairly short distance of the lodges, adding highlights to our encounters with them when they are together. It may not be common to see three leopards but for two mating and an independent offspring joining the rendezvous, interpretation of this type of sighting gets very interesting. The N’weti male is doing well and has been regularly viewed within fairly close proximity to the lodges during the day and in the evening. As time progresses this male will soon move further away from his territorial father.

African wild dogs The wild dog pack of eight adults have moved their den-site on two occasions this month, and fortunately the pack returned to an old den-site that has been incredibly rewarding for guests and guides alike. We can never get enough of these magnificent creatures. On several occasions they have been viewed within the lodge perimeter, predominantly hunting nyala, bushbuck and impala, all of which are capitalising on the nutritional vegetation within the area around the lodges. The pack and their seven puppies has been extremely successful with their hunts, acquiring the majority of their prey in close proximity to the Sand River. Lions The powerful but ageing coalition of Majingalane male lions continue to dominate our sightings of male lions. They have been sighted with the Othawa pride, with two of the male lions courting the two remaining lionesses. An interesting dynamic is that three sub-adult lions are accompanying the two lionesses, considering that hyenas killed their mother several months ago. The two dominant males have been tolerating the presence of these sub-adults. Lions are known for their opportunistic behaviour even after a recent meal, but this lioness definitely was aiming high with the view of a rhino being a prospect of her next meal.

Buffaloes A large number of old male buffalo bulls have started to permanently reside within the lodge perimeters. The grazing material around the lodges continues to draw in large mammals and the buffalo bulls are quite comfortable within the surroundings. These robust animals always amaze us with their size at close quarters. It has definitely added to excitement when returning from our walking trails knowing these large beasts are generally encountered from a safe distance upon our return. The golden light in the afternoon lingers for most of the afternoon and it is a photographer’s dream to be capturing any subject in the light - it simply illuminates the beauty of the bush and her subjects. Elephants The larger herds of elephant have been sporadic this month, with more sightings of smaller groups and notably very few bull elephants amongst the groups that we have encountered. Larger herds have been reported along the Sand River in the south-east and the irony is that there is less grazing material in the area resulting in more trees being pushed over or stripped of their bark for a suitable food source.

Hippos With the limited water resources amongst the hippo population it is inevitable that someone is going to get into a fight when you are not the dominant male of the area. This hippo bull stood outside the water along the banks of the Sand River in the early morning not moving much. The night must have been incredibly stressful as the honks, screeches and whooping sounds of hippos fighting could be heard throughout the night from Singita Ebony Lodge. The river crossing in view of the lodge currently has an average of 50 hippos in the pod actively feeding on the river banks in the evening.

Birds Our total species recorded for the month is 199, with a few specials being: white headed, lappet-faced and Cape vultures. For the water birds it was the ruffous-bellied heron and African Finfoot. We suspect that a pair of secretary birds is nesting in the south. There have also been two sightings of a pair of juvenile lanner falcons. A green-backed heron perches patiently

A fish eagle throws its head back mid call. A hornbill awaits a tasty termite to emerge from the mound.

Winter on its way out? Article by Leon van Wyk The month of July has already come to an end, and with that, days are lengthening. The fact that some rain fell towards the end of the month has been really welcome. Although it was not a large volume of rain that fell (only around 15 mm on most parts), it has had a most welcome impact, the most significant being a noticeable greening-up of the short, sparse grass cover on the sodic areas in particular. Selective grazers, notably impala, wildebeest and warthogs have already converged in good numbers on these sodic areas. Another great, albeit very temporary, benefit of this winter rain that fell, is that it has partly filled a number of small pans and mud wallows with water. This obviously means that there are far more places where animals can drink, without having to go to the Sand River or any of the more established waterholes. As this fresh drinking water undergoes a metamorphosis towards a thick, dark sloppy mud, it becomes more and more desirable to the major wallowing animals, namely warthogs, buffalo, elephants and rhino. Fruits of the jackalberry trees (Diospyros mespiliformes) are now abundant, though not yet quite ripe on most of the trees. Monkeys and baboons don’t always wait for them to ripen, however! Other signs of winter being on its way out are the increasing number of frog and toad calls being heard in the evenings, as well as birds such as fiery-necked nightjars being more and more vocal in the evenings. The impala ewes are starting to show visible signs of bulging, as they enter their third month of pregnancy. Early mornings are still sometimes really crisp and cold, but by mid-morning the extra layers of clothing are being peeled off, and most guests are discarding their hot-water bottles by the time they stop for their morning coffee break. I still think (and hope) that we are going to experience at least one more cold snap before we can really welcome the onset of spring, but there is no doubt at all that winter is on its way out. Yet another exciting change of season! The legends Article by Ian Mey The African painted wolf or wild dog has and will always have a special place in my heart. Not only are they one of southern Africa’s most efficient hunters, they are also one of its rarest and, in my opinion, most

beautiful. Wild dog sightings in any part of the Africa can be very few and far between and that is if you can actually keep up with them as they float through the bush, effortlessly ranging from grasslands to thick woodlands as seamlessly as a bird changing direction in the open skies. Their hunting strategy is the very pinnacle of collaboration, with the pack working intuitively with one another to wear down their prey, which can range from antelope as small as steenbok to fully-grown kudu bulls. In the last month at Singita Sabi Sand, we have been extremely fortunate, in that a pack of eight adult wild dogs have been denning in the northern parts of our property, allowing for an insider’s view into one of the greatest privileges of my life, to be allowed to view and watch seven tiny pups grow. The structure of a pack is very similar to that of the wolves found throughout Europe and North America, with there being an alpha pair who lead anything from 2 to 30 other individuals. The alpha pair is usually the only breeding pair in the pack and whatever young they produce are raised by the entire pack as their own. The size of the wild dogs makes it difficult for them to drag back sizeable chunks of meat to the den for both the pups and their minders, who would stay behind to guard the youngsters while they are too young to join the hunts, but their ingenious solution is to devour their prey and the n regurgitate ready-made take-away portions! Watching these sublime predators interacting with the animals around them has provided some of my most spectacular sightings as they punch far above their weight with the pack structure and their incredible speed and agility allowing them to out-compete and out-manoeuvre all but the largest and most powerful of Africa’s predators, the lion. On more than one occasion I have witnessed packs chasing leopards up trees or fighting hyenas far larger then themselves into submission. Many guests arrive not knowing the occasion behind a sighting of these magnificent carnivores, but most that do get to share our delight in such a viewing, leave with a memory as haunting as the call of a pack member lost and trying to find his way home.

Singita story Article by Iska Meyer-Wendecker

In the Sabi Sand we are lucky enough to live side by side with wild animals that are so comfortable with our presence that we are often able to witness behaviour that generally only occurs when humans are absent. One of my favourite bush moments was following a lion pride hunt, which we observed on an early morning summer game drive. We watched nine lions carefully stalking a huge breeding herd of buffalo over vast open terrain. After three intense hours the attack finally happened, but in the end the

stealth and patience of the lions did not pay off for them that day: they missed a heavy-weight bull merely by a few inches. Their miscalculation resulted in hundreds of buffalos turning on the lions – the hunters became the hunted. The silver lining Article by Johan Ndlovu The day began as it often does, but for us it was very slow, we had not seen much game since the tour began; we were all getting more and more anxious as we had no certainty of whether or not we would see a single “high-profile” animal. We had almost lost hope.

But before we did we got a report of wild dogs scouting about the bushes near the Sand River. We rushed over as quickly as possible, and from a distance we gazed at those majestic creatures without actual certainty of what they were in search of... From out of nowhere our confusion was cleared as a bushbuck stormed right out of the bushes running for his dear life. Turns out the wild dogs were in hot pursuit seeking breakfast which was that buck, it was a game of chance, to eat or to be eaten...

The elusive one Article by Ross Couper Named after a beautiful tributary of the Sand River, the Hukumuri female leopard continues to elude us as she spends most of her time along the steep-banked Hukumuri drainage, which zigzags across the western parts of Othawa, north of the Sand River. Over the past few weeks, with smaller mammals being drawn to the river system for food opportunities, they in turn are being the attraction for the predators in the area. During one of our sightings with the Hukumuri female leopard she cautiously approached the N’weti male leopard that recently became independent of his mother, the Hlab’Nkunzi female. It was an interesting interaction and the two leopards showed little restraint to their displeasure of encountering each other. The N’weti male leopard continued to mark his territory in view of the uninvited female. The altercations were brief and violent, but neither of the leopards departed with severe wounds. As the Hukumuri female departed the scene, it was confusing when we watched another female leopard approach us again. At first we all presumed it was the Hukumuri female returning for another ‘cat fight’ but it was the Hlab’Nkunzi female. It was amazing how they somehow walked past each other without realizing either of them were in the area, or without them moving across each other's scent trail. It was as if we were watching a pinnacle scene in a thriller movie! The sightings that we have had have always been rewarding and her single male cub is growing quickly and has become habituated to the vehicle movement very quickly.

Rock jumper Article by Sipho Sibuyi and Louis Gumede The klipspringer is the common antelope that we see around the Boulders rocky outcrops with his drizzled coat which is yellow with brown-grey flecks. As we leave early in the morning with guests for game drive my tracker Louis spots this antelope up on top of the rocky outcrop. We were excited as this was the first animal on this morning to be spotted and it was still cold. Our guests were taking pictures of this male klipspringer posing on the rock with his beautiful coat that affords excellent protection against contact with sharp rocks. While we were pointing out that males have horns and females have no horns, some of the guests were viewing with binoculars. We saw this klipspringer jump and snort at the same time, land on the cliff, and in a split second jump from rock to rock (we counted up to seven rocks). We were surprised by the way he fell from a deep cliff, for first we thought he was injured. It is amazing how their coarse coat can protect their body during a fall. While I was talking, my tracker and I knew that there was a cat around. Sure enough, Louis spotted a leopard on the same rock where the klipspringer had first been standing. We were all happy to see how this little antelope was so well -adapted to living its life in its particular habitat and how it escaped the danger. On a more peaceful note, to end this month's report, here is a scene of a large troop of baboons in search of anything that is possibly edible, before they'll climb the large trees on the bank for refuge during the night.

Photographs on location (unless stated) by Ross Couper and Johan Ndlovu Singita Ebony and Boulders Lodge

Sabi Sand South Africa

Thirty-first of July 2016