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Lions (2) - Mbiri pride (1)
We had one sighting of the Mbiri’s over the two days. They killed a Buffalo on Rian's folly, and were looking really good and well-fed. We do believe that the mystery of who assaulted the Nharhu Lioness in the previous blog was answered. One of the older Mbiri Lionesses had a damaged ear, and was favoring it throughout the sighting. It is very possible that these prides met, as their territories do overlap, and the other two Nharhu Lionesses took the cubs to safety, and she stood between the Mbiri’s and the cubs. I’ve seen lionesses do that with males, so its very plausible that this was the case.
We found some of the largest pride in the Manyeleti on S10, on the morning of the 1st. It was the oldest female with four of the sub-adults. They came from the Kruger National Park cutline area, and then settled down to the west of S10.
We found the Xiluva female leopard quite by luck, on the afternoon of the 1st. We were following two male Cheetah to the south of 4x4, when one of the guides discovered an impala kill in a big Marula tree. He followed up, and the Xiluva female was waiting under the tree. Some Impala were alarm calling at the approaching Cheetah, and Xiluva started stalking the two big cats. She was quite alarmed at first, until she realized it was Cheetah and then the behavior changed to predatory stalking. It was great to finally see this beautiful female leopard, and to watch this behavior was a cherry on top.
We managed to find two male Cheetah on 4x4. They moved south into the block towards Bateleur road, and eventually crossed into the Sabi Sands at Bushbuck Dam. They were very fat, and had obviously killed something in the morning. It was the same males that we see from time to time further north around Koppies and Marula ridge.
The general game sightings were once again incredible. The Elephant and Hyena sightings in particular were of a very high standard. One of the Hyena sightings was of 6 Hyenas on Pungwe access, and they had just finished eating something. Elephant sightings were particularly good in the south of the reserve.
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