MANAGERS REPORT

Dear Friends

May has brought along quite a few transitions, one of which, colder mornings and evenings cannot be denied, but with that we also welcome the amazing winter sightings.

I am very happy to announce that the Molatedi School’s foundations were set out and building has started.  The children are so excited to see their new school taking shape in front of their eyes.  This would not have been possible without all the generous sponsors we have received.  We thank each and every one that helped in making this possible.

A warm welcome to Jaco Becker, our new Head  Ranger and Werner Dippenaar, also part of the Ranging department’s team, we at Madikwe Hills, trust you will enjoy your time with us.

Drienie Pieterse
Assistant Manager

RANGERS REPORT

With the setting sun, Sam decided to head for the eastern airstrip to admire splendor lighting up the western skies.  Whilst on the airstrip pride of 7 young lions made their introduction, the Mosela-Sela pride.  With the disappearing sun in the background the lions took the opportunity to ambush a warthog grazing nearby. Some of the lions waited next to Sam’s vehicle while the rest of the pride circled around the unsuspecting warthog.  As the ambush was sprung, the warthog finally saw them and ran directly towards Sam’s vehicle.  The male lion next to the vehicle waited patiently until the warthog got close enough to pounce. With blinding speed he launched himself forward and seized the warthog in his razor sharp claws. In no time at all, all the lions joined in the small fest and in only a short while nothing was left. Some still wandered around sniffing the blood stained earth.

At sunrise one morning we were already in the western part of the reserve on a mission to find Buffalo’s.  They are not so easy to track in the reserve and there are only a couple of places where you can see the animals clearly. As fate would have it I decided to drive a road close to one of the major watering holes in the west and as hoped, we caught a glimpse of the animals as they moved through an open clearing into the thick vegetation away from the dam.

The best elephant sighting of this month was not on a game drive as one would expect, but from the main deck of the lodge during lunch time.  Several different herds moved through the clearing in front of the lodge to come and quench their thirst at the watering hole.  In total about 50 elephants moved through the clearing, each herd moving off as the next herd arrives.

After an absence of about a week the wild dogs were located looking for food in the eastern section of the park again.  The dogs were found early one morning as they moved over a road and into a dense block of vegetation.  We waited on the opposite side of the block in order to see them should they come out again.  We waited at exactly the right spot in the road, as the dogs appeared in front of us on the road.  We followed them for a while and after disappearing a couple of times caught up with them in an open clearing.  They were tired of the nights traveling and with the sun getting higher in the sky, decided to seek some shade nearby.

For us mainly working and doing our game drives in the northern part of the reserve, the southern part is not as eventful as the north, but every part of the park has its own beauty!

For it is in the south that you find the Dwarsberg mountain range (the southern boundary of the park) and the unique vegetation with its big marula trees and open grass plains.

At sun set, we decided to stop and admire the glowing red ball disappearing on the horizon.  Just as we finished our sundowner drinks the announcement we were all waiting for came in over the radio.  A leopard was spotted not too far from us.  As we got closer to the location of the leopard she disappeared into the vegetation.  We waited for a couple of minutes and just as we hoped, she popped her head out of the long grass.  She was intensely focused as if stalking something in the long grass.  We could not make out what it was, but patiently waiting for her to make her move.  A couple of minutes later she pounced and came out of the grass with a snake clenched in her jaws!  Now just seeing a leopard was fortunate enough, but a leopard eating a snake was the cherry on the cake!

Finding Black Rhino in Madikwe is not a simple task at all.  These creatures are so skittish and with their excellent hearing usually run off into the thick vegetation as soon as you get close to them.  But on that day our luck changed!  It started with two sets of black rhino tracks on the road that led into some very thick vegetation.  We circled the block of vegetation and sure enough found the tracks on the other side again, but this time with fresh dung as well.  So fresh it was steaming!  We continued following the tracks with Johannes (our tracker) now off the vehicle to get a closer look at the fresh tracks and dung.  He followed the tracks off road and later returned, got back onto his seat and told us just to wait.  Patiently we waited and sure enough the bush became alive with movement.  Out of the bush not far from our vehicle two animals emerged, a female black rhino with her 3 year old calf.  We immediately identified her as Kwezi, because of her calm, curious nature.  They came closer and closer, actually so close as to sniff at the vehicle!

Sightings totals for the Month

Note: The above sightings totals reflect the number of individual sightings of animals, not populations of animals in the area. e.g. If we see a herd of 12 buffalo this is noted as one sighting. These sightings are then tallied to get the figure reflected above.