Well into the throes of winter, the mornings now arrive with a distinct chill, often accompanied by a veil of mist that hangs low over the open clearings before the sun slowly breaks through and begins to warm the day.
With the grasses thinning and visibility improving, the bush starts to reveal more. On the leopard front, excitingly, the Thamba Male has been seen a couple of times east of the boundary, and this week he had an impala kill in a Jackalberry. Not far from him, the Nkuwa Female also found safety nestled in the Jackalberry tree along the banks of the Sand River after scent marking along the banks of the Sand River.
After the sad loss of the Three Rivers Female, we are fortunate enough to still be seeing the remarkable Tinxiya Female. The Ximungwe Female remains elusive as ever, with a handful of sightings. The Makomsava Female is rumoured to have had cubs, but nothing has been confirmed yet. We have been seeing her and tracks of her more frequently south of our northern boundary.
The elephant viewings this last week have been nothing short of incredible. From playful contests between males, big impressive bulls scattered throughout the reserve and breeding herds taking full advantage of the lasting mud wallows, along with hippos enjoying the fuller waterholes for this time of year.
We have been extremely lucky with our sightings of the Wild Dogs this week – briefly, a pack of five individuals were playing along the banks of the Manyelethi River, trailed by the hyenas and another pack of 13 with suspected pregnant females. Let’s hope they hang around long enough and give birth.
The two Kambula Females with their six cubs have evaded the Gijima Males so far, and continue to thrive on the north eastern part of our reserve. However, we might have heard news that one youngster might have been killed by the Plains Camps Males just two days ago.
There is something particularly special about this time of year. As the bush strips away the abundance of summer, it reveals a different kind of beauty, one defined by texture, light, and the subtle earthy hues of the dry season. The changing conditions have made for a remarkable week of sightings and photographic opportunities. I used a 70-200mm lens this week, which made for a different perspective of animals within their environment.
Let us know your favourites in the comments section below.
Enjoy This Week In Pictures…
The Tinxiya Female framed by a Leadwood tree in the background with her tail curled.
A confident and curious young leopard, that is nearing independence after a remarkable start to life alongside her resilient mother.
This white zebra foal continues to defy the odds and seems to be thriving in the southern reaches of the reserve.
Seems there is a lot of these playful tussles between young elephant bulls at the moment
There is something alluring about the Ximungwe female as she was curled up at the bottom of a termite mound with the last light of the day dappled on her face.
Having been viewed by vehicles from an early age, this leopard is supremely relaxed around Land Rovers.
The waterholes still quite full after the rains this season. This hippo showed off his incisors before heading out the water to feed one evening.
There have been some impressive elephant bulls these last few weeks.
A very exciting male leopard to start seeing on Londolozi. With sightings of the Thamba Male still few and far between, he has little pressure from east of him so we can’t help but hope he continues to move more eastwards and establish himself more regularly.
He was found with the small remains of an impala kill which he picked up, paused for a moment, as he scanned where he was heading too, and took the remains of the kill out of the Jackalberry tree.
We found this pack early one misty morning as they ran past some giraffes. They then headed north towards the Manyelethi
They briefly ran through the pooled water in the Manyelethi River before playing with one another.
We were fortunate enough to be eye level with these two wild dogs as they were playing ahead of us on the bank. I just love how you can even see the spray of water from them
An unwelcome visitor arrived for a short period before being chased off.
A brief time spent with these two Kambula lionesses who continue to raise their 6 cubs sired by the Ndhzenga coalition and avoid the Gijima Males.
These cubs all seem to be in great condition and continue to thrive under the watchful eye of their mothers.
The Nkuwa Female continues to remain more west of the reserve as she has successfully raised her second litter (a young male). She has been seen mating recently with the Thamba male and we wait to see if she is ready to have another litter. With the Thamba male pushing eastwards, it will be interesting to see if she returns to her original territory.
Raised as an intact litter, first in 7 years, who has now made her own history by raising two males to independence as an intact litter.
The morning sunrise was screened by some cloud cover which created soft tones in the sky behind this elephant bull who was feeding in the open grasslands.
The most exciting news has been seeing this pack of thirteen with more than one female seemingly heavily pregnant. I can’t but help they hang around longer…
One of the heavily pregnant females.
A familiar leopard who we haven’t seen for some time has been seen a few times these last few weeks. The Makomsava Female, now 10 years old has been spending a little bit more time just south of our northern boundary.
The only surviving cub of the Nanga female, currently territorial northern Marthly. Currently denning north of boundary
This small breeding herd of elephants made the most of a mud wallow to cool themselves off one morning.
Hello Kirsten,
Thanks for the lovely share.
Is this the Thamba male from the western sector of the SS? He was well established there. Any idea why he is extending his waners so much further east?
Keep well
Fransje
Hi Kirst, some amazing images this week in TWIP. My favorite would be the Ximungwe female lying openly and secondly would be the two Kambula lionessess. Really hope the cubs will survive till adulthood. Very rare to see so many female wild dogs pregnant. Let’s hope a few of them den on Londolozi ground.
Kirsten, great variety of images this week! How far south is Makhomsava Female being seen? Have you seen any signs of her daughter, the Loloyiso Female? The Nkuwa Female’s success as a mother thus far in her life is quite contrasting to her own mother’s, hopefully she will bear and rear a female in her next litter to continue her lineage in the years to come!
Sadly, one of the Kambula sub-adult cubs was killed by the Plains Camp Males. It’s a shame because the two females have been doing such an amazing job at keeping them out of harm’s way.
Thanks Kirst for all the updates and your great pictures. My favourite is the Thamba male in the jackalberry tree. I saw him in October ’18 when he was newly independent- my notebook says he was from Ottawa, and born May ’16. Hope he stays around for when I’m back in November.
I see some of the wild dogs are collared- does this mean they’re from Kruger?
I loved reading this and seeing all of the recent sightings and photos! The wild dogs are so cute and it was wonderful to see an update on the white zebra, lion cubs, and so much more. Thank you and Cheers!
Kirst, Great to see a post from you. We love seeing the grasses subside and the great opportunities the open spaces provide for viewing. Your images are great and we especially love the two Kambula lionesses lined up. Just beautiful!
Hi LGR. The TWIPs are as usual, ever so very good and interesting when it comes to looking at the pictures taken there in the last 7 days since the last one. So, as usual, thank you so much for putting it up for me to see and read. I know everyone who knew the Three Rivers female all the way throughout her 10 years of life are still feeling her loss a lot to this very day just over a week after she was sadly killed, but it will be down to her only 2 surviving independent offspring the Nsuku male and Tinxiya female to carry on and continue her dynasty. But the pretty young Tinxiya female has got at least another 2 years to go before she is old enough to mate at the age of 4. I don’t think it’s very likely she’ll fall pregnant now at the age of just two years old.
As the old but beautiful Nkoveni female wasn’t seen and pictured during the course of this week, it’s left me wondering to myself if she’s gone into hiding to prepare herself for the up and coming birth of her 6th and final litter of cubs, as it’s possible that she can’t be far of from giving birth there right now. What do you think? I’m so sure this will be her last ever litter of cubs she’ll give birth to and raise before she’s infertile and to old. After all, we know that she’s raised the Stine Drift and Xinkhova females as well as the large young Shingi male. She did get to raise the Plauqe Rock female as well, but she sadly lost her life to lions three days over two years ago. Like you, I can’t wait to see the first ever photos of the Nkoveni female’s new cubs once she has given birth and introduced them to the cameras and to all of you. It will be so interesting to see how many cubs she has in her last ever and final litter.
Bearing in mind she’ll be fourteen years old in two months time, she still seems and looks to be so well, fit, strong and healthy there to this very day. As she’s just raised one male offspring to independence, it’ll be nice to see her raise another male cub or two to independence as well. Especially as she’ll want to leave as big and successful a legacy behind her as possible when she’s a couple of years older in about two or three years time. It is impossible for us to know how well and successfully she’ll be in raising her last litter of cubs there, but it’ll be nice to think that she’ll raise them very well. Even if she has a male cub or two in her new up and coming litter, let’s hope they don’t give her as much trouble as her older big young son, the Shingi male did, before he finally cut himself loose from his tired and exasperated aging mother’s apron strings a few months ago. She got so much gip from him before he left her.
Until she gives birth to her new cubs, we won’t know how many cubs she’ll have to feed, protect and look after for the last time, but I’d like to think she will have at least another two for three cubs, as they will keep her on her feet a lot of the time and also very busy indeed. It will be so nice and interesting to see her with new cubs, and how she copes and raises them all the way to hard independence. Once she has given birth to her cubs, it’ll be so fascinating to see whereabouts she’ll be denning them when she decides to lead you to the spot of their hiding place. It’s very clear and obvious that she won’t be getting any peace and quiet from her energetic little cubs, and especially when she needs to go out hunting for food. It will be clear the cubs will have very big and growing appetites as they grow bigger and much more confident in size and character as she’ll soon start be leading them to big kills she’s made successfully. If she stashes her kills well in the safety of trees, then at least they’ll be safe and won’t be taken by scavengers when she brings them back to the meal she got.
As for the Ximungwe female, well do we know if she’s still got one or both of her 2 small cubs there at all to this very day? I have got no idea where she’s hiding and denning them/it right now currently. I know she has got two single male cubs from her first and second litters to independence there so far, and didn’t have any luck with her third and fourth litters at all, but I’m so hoping that she’s still got at least one or both of her cubs with her.
As she obviously moves them from one place to another when you’re not looking there, it’s no wonder it’s impossible for you to know how and where they are right now at the moment currently. I’d like to think that she’ll raise a good few more litters of cubs to independence if and once she gets her current cub(s) all the way to hard independence as well.
But as she was seen a small handful of times during the course of this week, it is still a sure sign that she’s alive and well, but we’ve yet to see how and where her cub(s) will be waiting for her if she leads you to her new densite first of all. The cub just hasn’t been seen there for quite a long while now, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not still alive and well.
Though she hasn’t given birth to and raised as many cubs as everyone who knows her so well would have liked, but two handsome and fully independent male offspring is better then none at all. At just over eleven years old, I’m sure she’ll be able to mate and raise at least another couple of litters of cubs in the next three or four years or so over there.
I did also leave a comment under the blog of the update of the Tsalala lioness yesterday, and though we know that she has got a litter of 4 cute and tiny cubs in her third litter there, but do we know what gender her 4 cubs are yet at all? If they’re maybe two boys and two girls, that wouldn’t be a bad thing, as the male cubs will go of together and the female cubs will stay with their mother. That is just an example, but that sort of mixture in her litter would be nice and good.
As we know her four cubs are sired by the two large and formidable Gajima males, at least we know she won’t have anything to fear from them, as they’re the biological fathers of her cubs there. I expect she’s been a very good mother to her energetic four little cubs as well. As they will be about three months old by now, I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s just starting to lead them to kills by now.
I’ve got no idea how well and successful she’ll be at raising her four cubs, but it’ll be a absolute miracle if she gets all of them to over one year old and into big strong and healthy teenagers together. They’ve still got a very long way to go in front of them, but I’ll be amazed if she keeps up the good work, and beats and the odds stacked against her. I want her to have a nice, big and healthy pride.
While she is just over 7 years old, I think she’s got plenty of time to mate and give birth to several more litters of cubs there to rebuild her birth pride up a fair bit more back up to what it once was so many years ago. Her birth pride hasn’t been a big and stable pride since her late mother and her mum’s three litter mate brothers were all tiny cubs a good 13 long years ago. So though there’s no proromises, but if she can get her pride back up to that sort of number successfully, then that would be so very good indeed. If you’re ever able to confirm what gender her 4 cubs are there, then do let me know as soon as possible please, as I’m only very interested to know a.s.a.p.
Hope to hear from you shortly.
Robert 12.6.26
Sure hope you get to see some wild dog pups!!! Super impressive bulls roaming around are my faves this week”!
It leaves me curious,.. How are the Lions and Leopards known?,..as it seems they are named by the territories that they came from? –
Likewise, it leaves me curious as to “If” the rangers give particular Lioness’s and Leopard’s (such as the former Tsalala cub that is now full grown) a personal private name after all the years of seeing her live out her life).
I have never had the opportunity to be able to come to SA to venture a Safari, thus I tell myself that viewing the weekly pictures is my “Safari.” I so appreciate your generosity in sharing the daily life in the bush at Londolozi.
SO good to see the Week in Pictures again! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I enjoyed reading your foreword this week Kirsten, as it’s great to get some of the backstory. As usual, fantastic photos presented this week. For me, I am especially partial to watching elephants spar, play, bathe and wallow in the mud so well done in that department. It’s always fantastic to see the latest leopard photos. Other favorites are your wild dog series – the excitement over pending puppies and where they will be denned is evident. Finally, your image of the two Kambula lionesses is wonderful.
Thanks for the beautiful photos.
It’s always so nice to see my favourites.
The Photo of the elephant bull in front of the rolling hills and the colourful sky is especially impressive.