A serious set of horns on a bull buffalo. This male was one of the first bulls to repulse the attack of the Mhangeni females, which took place about 5 minutes after this photo was taken. The pouring rain adds a nice touch to what otherwise would be a relatively unexciting photo. f2.8, 1/800, ISO 1000

The great news for us is that the cub of the Nanga female is still alive! She has been seen mating with the Gowrie male (who we believe to be the father of the cub) near our Northern boundary, and the cub had not been seen for about 10 days, until Mark Nisbet and Andrea Sithole discovered the two of them (mother and cub) on an impala kill in the Mahlahla drainage system a day or two ago. My F-stop was too low on this occasion, resulting in a depth of field that was slightly too narrow, as the cub is not quite in focus. f4, 1/3200, ISO 320

He’s back! After the mother cheetah and her two sub-adults left, we began to get concerned that the male cheetah had followed suit, as he hadn’t been seen for a couple of weeks. Apparently he was hanging out in the far west of the park, but Ranger Lucien Beaumont and tracker James Siwela found him down in the grasslands on Wednesday. Let’s hope he sticks around this time! f2.8, 1/6400, ISO 160

One can see that the tusks of this young elephant are not well developed. It had in fact been its mother that had been tearing the bark of this marula tree, and she had moved off to let the young one feed. The cambium layer (which is what the elephants are really after) can be seen as the red layer in the photo. f5.6, 1/1250, ISO 320

Two of Africa’s iconic animals, the elephant and the crocodile, pass the time of day a few metres from each other at Shingalana Dam. This scene reminds me of the book “The Enormous Crocodile” by Roald Dahl, in which Trunky the Elephant thwarts the crocodile’s plans to eat children by hurling him into the sun! f3.5, 1/3200, IS0 400

Notoriously shy creatures when out in the bush, it is seldom that a genet will sit still long enough for you to get a photograph of it. This one obliged by sitting on this rock for a good minute or so before scuttling off to look for a nice grub to eat. f2.8, 1/320, ISO 1000

The heronry at Vomba Dam is still fantastic value. All the young Grey Herons are learning to fly at the moment, and can be seen scattered around the bank of the waterhole. One of them stretches a leg and a wing in the morning sun here. f7.1, 1/1600, ISO 320

More exciting news is that the spotted hyena den site in the deep south is active once more. Both this Den and another nearby were flooded during heavy rains in January, and despite going through occasional periods of activity through the winter, have not been consistently used this year. Taking a gamble, we headed down there a few days ago and to our delight, two adult females were resting outside. Bare soil and many tracks in the area told us that the den is in heavy use, so I’m sure we will be heading down south more regularly to see how many cubs are being kept there. f2.8, 1/500, ISO 640

A young martial eagle glares down at us from a dead knobthorn tree. Just look at those talons, and you begin to understand why these formidable eagles have no trouble in catching and killing small antelope! f2.8, 1/640, ISO 160

One of the Mhangeni cubs explores the branches of a Gardenia Tree. The local name for this tree is the Tsalala, which is where the Tsalala pride, from which the Mhangeni lionesses broke away, got their name. f2.8, 1/800, ISO 640

The Nanga female ends a yawn while her cub grooms her. This female has incredibly striking eyes, rendering her very photogenic. As if she wasn’t photogenic enough already! f3.2, 1/5000, ISO 800

The Tu-tones male laps up water from Serengeti Pan. He had an impala kill stashed up a nearby tree, and with his full belly was quite thirsty. In retrospect I probably should have zoomed out a bit to capture more of his reflection. f2.8, 1/50, ISO 3200

A crash of White Rhino drinks at Circuit Pan. This small waterhole had been very productive of late, with all of the big 5 being seen there within the last few days, as well as a myriad of bird species. f5, 1/1600, ISO 200

Warthogs are pretty much the smallest animals on which oxpeckers will alight. Two of them provide a cleaning service for this hog who was wandering around near the airstrip. f6.3, 1/640, ISO 400

The Dark Maned Majingilane and the male with the missing canine gaze in the direction of the Mhangeni females. As Kate Neill mentioned in her post yesterday, it adds enormous value to a photo to be on eye level with the subject, and lucky for us the lions were lying at the top of a bank. We could therefore park further down the slope to shoot across at eye level towards the pair. f2.8, 1/1250, ISO 640