Panozebras 3of5newmalesjan2010 Elephantscamp

June Newsletter

12 July 2010

Hyena cub
Hyena cub
Photo: Louis Marais
Soccer comes to the bush!!

June has been a crazy month with guests visiting us from all four corners of the world; everybody has been on a soccer high, guests and staff. Guests have been responding to the roaring of lions by chanting their country’s war cries and most of the chats on the vehicle have been about last night's game and not the animals we have seen or were watching. All the drives and dinners have been orientated around the evening games and many a dessert has been eaten in front of the television.

It has also been great to hear the positive feedback from all our guests about the World Cup, how well South Africa has done in hosting the event and how hospitable the county has been with every aspect and having exceeded all the expectations of the many different nationalities that came to watch their team and taste a bit of Africa.

The animals have also been in high spirits and have been popping up all over the show. With the lodge being so busy and having 4-5 vehicles out every drive, it has helped tremendously with the sightings as the guys all work as a team to track and find the animals. There have been some new additions to the lion pride, a female gave birth to 4 cubs at the beginning of the month and she has finally brought them out for all of us to see. The pride now consists of the 5 dominant males, 5 females and 6 cubs,2 were born about 3-4 months ago. Amongst the new elephant and white rhino calves, there is also a new cub in the hyena clan. The cub is still black in colour and will only start getting its characteristic orange and black spots after a month or so. We have also spotted a Black rhino calf and it’s great to know these highly endangered animals are breeding, especially at Lukimbi.

The other highlight of the month was an incredible sighting of a male cheetah. He was relaxed with the vehicles and allowed us all to watch him walking across the plains.He even jumped up on a fallen Marula tree to scent mark which allowed for some amazing photography. Cheetah tend to move great distances as they are not territorial so we are very grateful and excited when one appears on the concession. We have had a quite a few great leopard sightings and some of the rangers spent the afternoon watching a female leopard stalking a heard of impala but unfortunately there was an important soccer game and we had to leave her before she could make a kill.

With winter finally here the bush has started to thin out and some of the natural pans have started to dry up. This is great news from a sightings point of view as it is easier to spot the animals in less dense bush and we are looking forward to the next few months to see which new animals appear and to spend more time with the ones we know that have made their home at Lukimbi.

Paul Davies,
Head Ranger.


Click to enlarge
Black Rhino
Photo: Louis Marais

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