The bush has really come alive over the last week. Generally speaking, we only experience two seasons here—rainy summers and dry winters; but this year has felt different, in that spring has truly made a statement for itself. Never before have I seen trees flower the way they have this month, with gorgeous hues of yellow, purple, and red scattered across the hills. The birdlife has been amazing, too, both in sight and, more so, in sound as the dawn chorus echoes through the riverbeds. A few light rains have also brought a flush of green to the grassy slopes, pleasing the grazers and bringing some much-needed colour into this week’s collection of photographs.
The wild dog den continues to steal the show for us as we watch these five young pups find their feet. Alongside that, it was a fantastic leopard week, with the Shingi Male featuring prominently, having had two different hoisted kills. A well-overdue sighting of the Xinkhova Female was a real highlight for me, having personally not seen her for a few weeks now. The Nkoveni Female was also seen a few times, occasionally with her one young cub in tow, although I didn’t manage to capture any standout images of them. On the lion front, we continue to see more of the Mhangeni pride as they shift their movements deeper into western Londolozi, while the Ntsevu pride has also been found most days this past week.
In addition to the above, several antelope and a mother warthog were rather obliging in having their portraits taken, along with a few birds, monkeys, and even a beautiful tree agama.
Let me know in the comments which ones you like the most.
Enjoy This Week in Pictures…
Two stallions rise to their back legs in a fight for dominance. These duels can be quite aggressive with lethal blows delivered by their sharp canine teeth and heavy kicks.
The bush is alive with flowers at the moment, more than ever seen in my time here. These Weeping Boerbeans are glowing in red and alive with activity from bees to birds and even Vervet Monkeys feeding on the flowers.
The Shingi Male has featured a lot over the last few weeks, exploring all corners of the south eastern regions of the reserve. Now entering a testing nomadic phase, it will be interesting to follow his story over the next year or so.
The young male from the Mhangeni pride scans the opens plains of the south west. With the Nkomati Males now having taken over the Mhangeni pride, this lion (who is fathered by the Plains Camp Males) has been forced to spend less time with his pride.
A mother warthog and one of her young rest at the entrance to their burrow. It’s not often you get a good, close-up view of a warthog like this, which gives us a chance to study some of the finer details of the animal. Take note of the tusks; the large upper ones are predominantly used for digging roots and feeding, while the small lower tusks are razor sharp and great defensive weapons.
A striking Blue-headed Tree Agama rests on lower trunk of a Weeping Boerbean. We had parked next to one of the hyena den sites and were waiting to see if any of the cubs would reveal themselves but ended up watching this beautiful reptile go about his business, feeding on ants and displaying for a nearby female that was higher in the tree.
A beautiful Nyala bull slowly browses on a White Berry Bush. The late afternoon light along with the lush, vibrant green vegetation made for a great bokeh, not to mention the regal profile of the Nyala.
The viewing around the Wild Dog den has been nothing short of phenomenal. Five strong and healthy pups are being raised by a hardworking group of four adults. Now reaching around 7 weeks old, the youngsters are getting more adventurous and curious every day.
One of the older lionesses of the Ntsevu pride crosses through the Sand River with an incredible backdrop of boulders and riverine trees. This was the closing moment of an action packed morning where this lioness had attacked a hyena after being drawn into the commotion of wild dogs being robbed by the same hyena!
A buffalo carcass was found one morning, largely still intact, indicating that it must have died of natural causes – possibly an injury sustained from another bull. The hyeans and vultures were quick to find it and devoured it in less than a day.
A Saddle Billed Stork, backlit from the rising sun. The yellow ‘saddle’ on the top of the base of the bill is where the bird gets its name from.
A recent guest I had was interested in photographing impala one afternoon which wasn’t something I had done for ages. Despite them being rather abundant, this isn’t an easy task given how much they move around. That being said, I was quite happy with this comical expression I captured from this ram as he was giving a rutting call.
A photographers dream sighting unfolded for us last week when the Shingi Male decided to use this dead Leadwood tree as a vantage point. Cloudy skies lent itself to a high-key edit and the end result is a nice clean finish that accentuates the textures of the tree and marking of the leopard.
A different edit of the same sighting where I decided to keep the moody skies a feature of the background.
A Grey Heron silhouetted against the golden evening sky.
A Kudu bull, the largest antelope species we see at Londolozi, stares us down.
The Shingi Male finishes up the last bits of an Impala ram that he caught a few days before. We had quite a few days of wind and dark cloud cover that made for great hunting conditions for the predators.
Four of the five wild dog pups gather for a moment at the entrance to their den. These pups are full of energy and always darting around making them rather difficult to capture.
Can you spot the Nkoveni Female here? A leopard’s camouflage is tough to beat – this photo is not edited at all and purely shows how easily these creatures blend into their environment.
Sometimes the best moments simply fall on to your lap. After a fantastic afternoon spent at the wild dog den, we were slowly making our way back to camp when tracker Ray Mabilane spotted the Xinkhova Female resting on a fallen Marula tree. Simply magical…
Your photos are always perfect, Chris.The wild dog pups are super cute.
It is really difficult to spot theNkoveni female in the high grass.
Hi LGR. Those photos for this week’s TWIP really do look interesting and extremely colourful there, so thank you so much for putting that up. Though there weren’t many lion sightings during the course of this week, do you know if any of the 2 fertile adult lionesses of the tiny Ntsevu pride are looking heavily pregnant with brand new cubs yet at all? The photo of one of the Ntsevu lionesses was a bit difficult to see her very clearly. They’ve been a small pride for quite a long while now unfortunately, with no new cubs having been born into it.
I hope it won’t be long before some new cubs are born into the pride, after quite a few matings with the 2 large Gajima males in fairly recent months there. I’m a bit surprised that the last seven days weren’t a lot more lion orientated.
Although the young sub adult male in the Mhangeni pride has been forced to spend time away from his birth pride a fair bit recently, but do you know if any of the other 2 adult lionesses in the pride are looking heavily pregnant with or are nursing some new young cubs yet at all? I know the 4 first new cubs of the pride are 3 boys and 1 girl, but as of yet, I don’t know if anymore are on their way. The one thing that is certain, is that the pride could do with boosting up a lot more to make it a good and ideal size.
Is it known if the 14 year old Nkoveni female has still got both of her 2 new tiny cubs there yet at all? I saw a brief clip of her yesterday with only one cub. I do hope the other cub is still alive and well, as I know that one cub is a lot more shy then it’s litter mate sibling currently. If so, then at roughly 12 weeks old, is it known what their genders are so far? I do hope one hasn’t been lost to the elements, rival predators and other leopards that others have been in the past. If their genders can be confirmed just out of interest, then do let me know as soon as possible please. If The other cub is still alive and well there, then I sure hope the oldest and most highly experienced, devoted, protective and caring mother there will raise them both all the way to independence and even harder adulthood ever so very successfully. The cub(s) might not know it yet, but their mother is a well seasoned veteran expert at raising cubs on your property. Plus she is also the oldest leopard in the Sabi Sands area as well currently. Even if she might have her work cut out for her, I’m so sure she enjoys been a mother and having her new cubs to feed, protect and look after there. Doesn’t she? I suppose it is her matings with the massive Maxims male 6 months ago back in March, that forced her son, the Shingi male, to go out and fend for himself eventually.
I don’t know it just yet, but I hope that at least one of the two cubs is a little male, as if that’s the case, then maybe in about eighteen months to two years time, he’ll hopefully set up territory on your land. The cubs are just so very cute indeed.
I do hope the mother is still moving the cubs to new ideal densites periodically so that they can avoid and escape detection by other predators and leopards that will kill them if they get a chance. The cubs are vital assets to their mum.
Whereabouts is the Nkoveni female denning her two new cubs there right now? If the cubs must be about 3 months old now, then I’d think that leaving them up in the trees when she’s out and away would be the best and safest place for them to be. And particularly at night, when the cubs will be at their most vulnerable to many other scavengers that roam the ground vigorously nonstop.
As the huge young Shingi male has been independent from his mum for about 6 months now, it’ll be so interesting to see where he will end up setting up his very own territory eventually one day. It couldn’t have felt very nice for the poor unlucky adult male impala who’s remains he was seen feeding on, to have the young make leopard’s long sharp teeth around his throat to suffocate him on the very night or day he was caught and killed, but nonetheless, he clearly made a good large meal for the big cat. I hope that in the next year or so, the big Shingi male will start mating with several females who’s territories he will overlap in order to sire his own very first cubs to kick of his own dynasty.
And though she yet again didn’t feature in this week’s TWIP, but when you saw the lovely Tsalala lioness from the deck at one of the camps there yesterday, was she seen and heard calling for a mate as she so calmly walked through the Sand River at all if possible? It’ll be so nice to think that she is and was possibly looking and calling for a mate or two to mate and sire some new and much needed cubs with over there eventually. Like you, I just want her to give birth to and raise some new cubs successfully, so that they can rebuild and continue her birth pride’s existence for many many years to come and go when in several years time, she is no longer around one day. But she will need a good stable coalition who’s territory they’ll overlap so that they can patrol it throughly on a regular basis to keep other lions and rival predators out & well away. It’s fingers crossed for her. I hope there will be a lot more updates on her to come in the months to come.
Hope to hear from you shortly.
Robert 25.9.26
Hi Chris, I’d give a merit to all pictures. The last one, the Xinkova female ‘s silhouette at the sunset. As you wrote, magical.
Can I just pick “ALL OF THE ABOVE” please? Stunning photos Chris! The Vervet in Red brought me in. Of course the Xinkhova in après glow is gorgeous, but The Kudu, Nyala and even the Agama are spectacular. Then there is something simple that smacks of very satisfying land with the lioness in she Sand River! I vote for all!!!
Hi Chris, a marvelous collection, great job. My three favourites are 1) the lioness walking in the sand river bed 2) the Shingi male in the dead leadwood tree (original pic) 3) the four wild dog pups playing at the den entrance.
I think i’m getting old because you have me with the Nkoveni female. She is too well camouflaged for me to spot.
Chris. Those hyena pups have grown so much since seeing them a few weeks back. ‘Mother’ nature is amazing. In the four days that I was at Londolozi, it was amazing to see the change in the tree/flower growth, the greening of the grass/bushes, and cacophony of bird calls. I have no doubt it would have happened with the season changing. The deluge of rain earlier in September likely accelerated all of the beauty!
Hi Chris, my favourites are of Shingi yawning and in the tree – we’ll all miss him when he finally moves further away!
You refer to Nkoveni “with her one young cub”. Does that mean she’s lost the other cub?
The Vervet Monkey shot is sooooo beautiful w/ the colors, lighting and the subject placement! If my walls weren’t already filled w/ my own safari shots, that would be on my wall! Love it! My second fave is he Shingi Male big yawn! And of course the wild dogs pups are just too cute. Lastly, love the find the Nkoveni Female pic…took me a bit to find her! But should do more of those! Cheers!
Excellent collection! May those wild dog pups thrive! And I did spot the Nkoveni Female
Wow! That Blue-headed Tree Agama – absolutely extraordinary!
Hi Chris. I loved the images of the Shingi male all of them and especially the low key ones. The Nyala bull is also a favourite of mine. Loved the image of the young male lion. Has Nkoveni lost her one cub, as you say you saw her with one cub in toe.
I finally found the Nkoveni Female. She is in the middle right of the photo in the grass. You are so right, she was well camouflaged in plain sight.
Fantastic images Chris! To answer “where’s Nkoveni “, it was fun to scan your photo and find her just right of center in the grasses. It is amazing how well they blend into their surroundings given their spots. Other favorites include the high key of Shingi, the pups in front of their den, Xinkhova at sunset and finally the Zebra stallions fighting.
All lovely photographs, Chris. Thank you.
I loved the variety this week, Chris. It’s always nice to see beautiful photos of some of the lesser flashy animals. The impala ram calling made me laugh.
The Xinkhova female will always be my favorite. We were fortunate to be there when she was a cub. I’ve spent the last 5 years watching her grow. And I hope the wild dog pups stay small for 7 more weeks so we can see them as puppies.