MANAGERS REPORT

Dear Friends

With the winter in full swing I can again see why Madikwe Hills is such a popular honeymooner’s paradise. With the shorter days and longer cold evenings, many a couple are having a cozy romantic dinner set up in the privacy of their room in front of the fire with a delicious food creation and a bottle of wine to compliment the meal and celebrate the moment.

Yes every season has its own special ambiance to remind us what a beautiful creation nature is and how spectacular each different season is in its own right.

Staff

With the full report of last month I did not have space to introduce the employee of the month for May, which is why we have made space for her this month. For May our selection was Esther Moote from housekeeping where she fulfills the function of guest room attendan 

For the Month of June we selected Irene Gaopelo our office admin assistant. Irene has been with Madikwe Hills since day one, starting as a room attendant and worked her way up to waitress, restaurant supervisor and now admin assistant.

We would like to thank these two ladies for their hard work and dedication as part of the team. 

From all at Madikwe Hills we would also like to congratulate Rose with the birth of her son. We hope she enjoys the time on maternity leave with her boy and wish them all the best for the future.

Ranger report

Jaco

 

 

Winter is well and truly here. Temperatures in the morning and evenings are absolutely freezing and are mainly due to several cold fronts that hit us the last couple of weeks. The rains has disappeared after the freak 100mm that fell at the beginning of June, and the bush is getting dryer by the day. We even had some of our first controlled fires not too long ago. I suspect several more to come as part of the managed burning program for the reserve. Even so, sightings remain of a very high quality and sometimes you need a little bit of luck, as you never know what might develop from any situation.

One afternoon on game drive we just randomly stopped for some zebra along the way. Funny enough though we saw plenty of zebra before, but never the less we stopped for these ones to have another look. We watched them cross the road and even stayed for a while to watch them walk off into the bush. It was just as we wanted to move off when we spotted the head of an enormous lion peering out the grass. The young male sat in the tall grass watching intently at the unsuspecting zebras and then dropped down out of sight as the zebra’s were walking straight towards him. That’s when I knew that we struck gold and got the camera ready.

Today is the day when we are going to see some action. The lion and his sister (whom we only saw later) was young and very inexperienced, this showed very quickly as well. The zebras were still approaching when the young male lion and his sister made their move. When the zebras realized what was going on they immediately sprung around and tried to flee. At full speed they charged away from the lions and headed straight towards us with the lions in hot pursuit. They ran for all their worth and soon got some distance between them and the lions as they shot past us like bullets from a riffle. AS they passed us the lions gave up the chase and stood in the tall grass watching their dinner disappear over the horizon. Where they more experienced we would definitely have seen a kill from start to finish. Better luck next time.

Talk about the right time at the right place. Sometimes the most spectacular thing can happen when it is the least that you would expect from any situation.

Nickolas

A lion’s roar!

Leaving the lodge on a cold winter morning drive we came across a pride of lions, 13 pride members to be exact including the two dominant males. The pride was relatively active with all the youngsters running around and playing. It’s always great to watch lions interacting, as this strengthens social bonds between pride members and hones the cubs hunting skills. We then focused our attention on the two males which were a slight distance from the pride as they both stood up and started emitting soft moans. These moans exploded into full-throated thunderous roaring and the rest of the prides adults joined in, increasing the volume. Humans can hear a lions roar up to 8km away, so been just a few meters from this vocalization is very exhilarating. When the choir stopped and our goose bumps faded we savored the moment and moved on. So why do lions roar? While apart from impressing us the roar does convey important messages to pride members as well as other lions in the area.

Male lions will roar to advertise territory to any potential males looking to take over their territory.

The roar is also used to locate pride members.

During aggressive encounters with rival males the roar is used to intimidate one another.

Like I mentioned above the roar is used to strengthen social bonds between pride members by roaring in chorus both males and females together. 

I and many of our guests have experienced this amazing spectacle but no matter how many times I’ve witnessed this it will still make the hair on my body stand on end. In my mind without any shadow of a doubt the lions roar is the most impressive of natural sound.

Jacques

Today I am bringing great news. The breakaway pack of Wild Dogs has six new puppies! If all of them survive they will be ten dogs in the pack. It is always good to get new Wild Dog puppies as these animals are highly endangered. There are only about 3000 left in the wild.

Here are some facts about Wild Dog pups

The female will keep the puppies inside the den until they can eat solid food, which is at about 3 to 4 weeks.

The den is normally an abandoned hole dug by another animal such as an aardvark and then just cleaned out and modified by the Alpha female Wild Dog.

Once the pups start roaming outside the immediate area of the den the mother will suckle them outside, usually for 2-3 minutes at a time.

Pups can be weaned as early as 5 weeks.

At around 7 weeks, pups change from clumsy babies into rangy adult shapes.

When the pack goes hunting, they will wonder behind the pack for up to 2 km from the den, until one adult will lead them back to the den for safety.

After about 8 to 10 weeks they will desert the den. After that pups will get most of their food straight from the kills made by the adult dogs. The adults allow them to eat from the fresh kill.

As yearlings the pups can finally start hunting and fending for themselves with the rest of the pack.

So as you have read, the pups will leave the den in about 5 to 7 weeks and would make it more difficult for as to find them. If you like Wild Dogs and want the chance to see some beautiful puppies, the best time is now.

 

 

Sam

The most exciting highlight of this month was when on one particular chilly morning we found a black rhino. We have been driving in the pouring rain for almost two and a half hours when all of a sudden the huge beast came out of the bush and started crossing the road not 80m in front of our vehicle. The Black Rhino is always very special to see since this animal is so highly endangered. The Rhino mates with the female and mounts her for several hours before copulating for up to 30min at a time which can contributed to the beliefs in the east that the horn of these animals posses magical and medicinal properties as an aphrodisiac. For that reason it has been mercilessly persecuted and poached to the brink of extinction. The horn is also used by Arabic kings to make dagger handles for their sons as a gift when they become of age. Luckily worldwide conservation efforts have been quite successful and hopefully this animal could be saved for the future generations.

The Rangers team