WILDLIFE REPORT

SINGITA PAMUSHANA, ZIMBABWE

For the month of August, Two Thousand and Sixteen

Temperature Rainfall Recorded Sunrise & Sunset Average minimum: 13,7˚C (56,6˚F) For the month: 0 mm Sunrise: 05:56 Minimum recorded: 09,2˚C (48,5˚F) For the year to date: 401.5 mm Sunset: 17:46 Average maximum: 28,8˚C (83,8˚F) Maximum recorded:37,0˚C (98,6˚F) Last month I reported that if you have the patience, all you need do is sit at a waterhole and wait for the game to come to you. This month is no different, but it certainly was exceptional, as the above after-sunset photo shows, with elephants refusing to leave the water, lions lurking nearby and two white rhinos also wanting to take their turn to drink. Wildlife overview for August

Wild dogs

14 wild dog puppies. Yes, you read that correctly – the pups are running with the pack now and there are 14 patchwork bundles of them! Together with the 12 adults they are a sight to behold, especially when you find them lying in the middle of our main track, romping around and playing with each other. The pack 's hunting activity is at an all time high with 14 more mouths to feed, and guests witnessed them out on a hunt at the river where they brought down an impala and devoured it before their eyes.

Lions

Guests got to enjoy a special time with a pride of lions when the predators woke up, emerged from thick vegetation and came over to they vehicle and began playing, grooming and roaring. Three male lions killed a buffalo on the shore of Malilangwe Dam, making it ideal to view the scene from our sundowner boat, over a couple of days. A black rhino was also seen on the shore during one of these outings, and a hyena came to scavenge but quickly realised the error of his ways. Guests enjoyed a quality sighting of two lionesses and two little cubs, whilst on a walking safari. The cats walked right passed the group, within plain view, while they stood above them on the banks of the Chiredzi River. But I’m afraid the Southern Pride has disgraced itself. They killed one of our most magnificent sable bulls. Sables are rare, endangered, tricky to breed in captivity and thrive on a very specific type of vegetation. They are sold for millions of dollars in breeding programmes. I think the lions might want to employ a PR person to spin a story that the bull was past his prime and needed to be eliminated so that ‘new blood’ could take its place, etc. Leopards

Guests enjoyed a leopard sighting shortly after they’d viewed the ancient rock art on foot, in the Chidhumo area. Brad’s tracker Robert thought he spotted a leopard, and turned to him saying he thought it was a leopard but it’s just a bush. Brad said he’d double check using his binos and, to everyone’s surprise, there was a huge tom cat lying in the shade in all his golden glory, watching the world go by. He was a good 250 metres off but they sat and watched him for about 25 minutes, and had time to call Japhet in with the rest of the guest party so that everyone got to see it.

Hyenas

Ever the opportunists we have had quite a few hyenas wander through our bush dinner sites to see if there are any ‘doggy bags’ on offer. Of course, there are not, and they are discouraged from milling around. They must have got the message because on one morning seven spotted hyenas were found feeding on a wildebeest carcass.

Cheetahs

The month’s cheetah drama was when the short-tailed cheetah was hunting, and caught an impala. Then a big baboon came and rescued the impala! The impala made its escape and the cheetah gave chase but missed her prize. To add insult to old age the short-tail cheetah is no kitten anymore – have a look at how receded her gum-line is as she yawns in this photo: Rhinos

There have been daily sightings of crashes of white rhinos, as well as short sharp encounters with solitary black rhinos.

Elephants

There have been sightings of elephant bulls on every drive, and time has been spent with a couple of breeding herds too. On one occasion we were surrounded by a breeding herd and enjoyed lots of interest from the curious animals and watched in delight as the little calves nursed from their mothers.

Buffalo

We weren’t the only ones watching buffalo – on one occasion while spending time with about 400 buffalo along the Chiredzi River we noticed an adult male lion watching them from the opposite bank. Plains game

Excellent plains game, as well as a couple of sightings of sable bulls and herds as well as a herd of seven

Lichtenstein hartebeest. Here a giraffe calf feeds on a thorn tree, and nervous impala snatch a drink.

Birds

Some great sightings of southern ground hornbills, African hawk-eagles, African fish eagles, and a pair of Verreaux’s eagles. Rare sightings

The most unusual sighting of the month was a pair of mating crocodiles.

Photographic hide

It’s an ideal time of year to spend time in the photographic hide, and it’s not uncommon to have several elephant bulls come and drink, as well as zebra, impala, warthog and wildebeest. Activities

Fishing: Some good fights with tigerfish have been had, and some great specimens landed. Walking: We do a lot of on-foot safaris, and on one walk guests enjoyed great sightings of over 200 buffalo, a bull elephant, two black rhinos and a pride of five lions. On another walk we tracked a female and calf white rhino and located them deep in the mopane woods. The guests enjoyed it most when the baby took a nap nearby.

The best bad smell there is

Without having to look down at the ground for spoor I knew the wild dog pack had run along the path only moments ago. The air was thick with their pungent scent - certainly the best bad smell I know! Every time I recognise it I know there’s a chance of finding these often impossible to find canines. I rounded the bend and there they were – some of the adults and last year’s pups. They were waiting to hear if any of the others had made a kill, but they hadn’t and soon they all regrouped and trotted off to the dam further down the path for a quick drink. Here’s were I faced one of the best dilemmas of my life, because on the opposite bank was a black rhino making his way to the water. I could scarcely believe my luck, or take photos fast enough, when I had two of the world’s most endangered species in frame at once. And there was lovely soft pre-dawn light! The activity and movement of the wild dog pack running along the shore ‘spooked’ the black rhino and it circled back and trotted off into the thickets with disgust. Then the wild dogs disappeared over the crest, in full hunting mode. Now what to do? Try and chase after hunting wild dogs – a pursuit that is often unsuccessful, frenetic and disappointing; or wait to see if the black rhino returns for his drink. I chose the later. I poured myself a mug of coffee and decided to sit it out…

Well, the black rhino didn’t return, but two extraordinary things happened which I never would have seen had I not been sitting there in patient silence. First of all a common duiker (Sylvicapra grimmia) appeared and drank from an inlet, just as the sun was rising. My field guidebook tells me they are independent of water as long as they have green food – and there is still greenery about… We see duikers often enough – but I have never got a good photograph of one as they always dash away with a distinctive diving, zig-zag motion. The word ‘duiker’ means ‘diver’. Then a flash of green and yellow caught my eye. A flock of brown-headed parrots (Poicephalus cryptoxanthus) flew down to drink from the same inlet. You often hear them, but it is rare to get a good clear sighting of them!

Sundowner heaven

There’s a wooden platform that overlooks one of the popular waterholes on our reserve, known as the Nduna deck. This deck is the perfect spot for sundowners as you can get out of the vehicle and walk about in safety before relaxing on a chair with a sundowner in hand. If luck is on your side (and it’s never guaranteed) you might find that elephants and rhinos do the same sort of thing, on the opposite bank. On this evening we had two white rhinos drinking and wallowing on the right, several bull elephants drinking and wading on the left, and hippos cruising along in the middle just as half the sun hid behind the rocks, and the other half ignited the distant landscape. Two of the elephants wandered over to a dead tree in the middle of the scene and used one side for head scratching, and the other for rear scratching. What a perfect way to spend a day in Africa. (With a sundowner that is, not a rear scratching!)

White rhino, pink mist

A couple of vehicles were out tracking wild dogs early one morning, as a low layer of mist hung over the reserve. I quickly abandoned the search when I came across this magnificent white rhino bull wrapped in blue pink mist. It was such a remarkable scene - this huge, strong, cumbersome animal shown in such delicate sensitive light. It was like the environment was illustrating the delicate sensitive nature of these misunderstood animals. As the sun broke through the mist it cast a rose gold cloak over the scene for a rare and priceless memory.

Spurs and tusks

From the underground photo hide we watched these two elephants drink, only a few metres from us. We marvelled at the huge tusks of the one bull, and it then wandered over to where the other had been and gave us a perfect view of his weapons. Alongside, some tiny spurfowl chicks, armed with spurs on their legs, drank from the mighty footprints left in the mud by the elephants. The footprints filled with water and provided the chicks with a safe drinking pool.

Horns - different shapes and sizes

In all three of these species it's only the males that have horns, and they're used against each other for dominance. Kudus have large wide spiral horns with a ridge along the length. Fights among males involve lunging, horn clashing and wrestling with locked horns. Deaths occur from stab wounds and when horns become inextricably tangled. Bushbuck have twisted and very shallowly corkscrewed horns. In serious fights they engage horns and try to push and twist each other off balance. At the highest intensity they lunge and stab, and this can be fatal. Nyalas have shallow corkscrew horns with a ridge up the outside curves, and short yellowish tips. At highest intensity a status display involves two males raising their manes and parading slowly past the other with exaggerated high steps, heads down, horns forward and tails curled back. Sparring involves head pushing and horn clashing. Serious fights are rare but fierce, and can be fatal.

All a twitter

Being out on the water on our cruise boat, is about the most luxurious way to go birding that there is. We cruised past this white great egret with its breeding plumes gently tickling the air, and then drifted right up to this fish eagle before it took off. It's amazing how birds and animals don't seem to mind a boat so much - even the bushbuck in the previous story allowed us a photo opportunity, something that they hardly ever do when you're in a vehicle.

And now for the cute factor...

There's hardly a need for explanation here, just a couple of utterly adorable elephant calves doing what elephant calves do. This little one was showing determined effort and perseverance in trying to pick up a pebble with its trunk. Alas, it was not yet as dextrous as its mother, and she soon called him to hurry up and stop dawdling about. Over the page you'll see one crossing the road behind mum, dwarfed by her size and doing its best to keep up. Then there's the little character who practised his smiles for the camera - possibly a born performer. The final shot is of a tiny calf thinking that it should have a drink of water just like mum had done, but had absolutely no idea on how to use its snorkel for this purpose. It swished its trunk about in bemused frustration, then tottered over to suckle from mom's steady supply of warm nutritious milk instead.

Goodbye autumn

Thanks to late rains we also had a late autumn, but August saw an end to that and these warm metallic colours have been replaced with the stark blue-grey browns of winter. (Yes, that's a young lion perched on a rock!)

Written and photographed by Jenny Hishin Singita Pamushana

Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve Zimbabwe

Thirty-first of August 2016