Lion Skirmish?

We saw this pride of Lion from Nwanetsi Bridge on the H1-3. There were 12 in the pride 2 Males 5 Females and 5 Cubs. They had been fighting as 3 of the females were injured and limping 1 male also had a severe limp, the cubs were fine.

We wondered what it was about as some of the females had serious bite marks, ones eye was scratched and the other had a limp due to a shoulder bite, was it a territorial fight, or a fight to get to a kill, was it in defence of the cubs? Was it a new Male trying to take over the pride?

The cubs were well fed and had eaten recently as their stomachs were enlarged.

On Tuesday 17 May we drove to Mbombela (Nelspruit) to fetch Natasha our 8 year old granddaughter from the airport she is staying with us for a week. Quintin and Celeste are spending the weekend with us and taking her back to Cape Town on Monday 23^rd.

Breakfast at Nhlanguleni

  Some of our sightings with Natasha

Huge Male marking his territory on the S100

Nyala

On the S41 today we saw this Python digesting what we think was a Steenbok, It was spotted the day before by Verita and Tony who advised us of its exact location, while we were there it started moving very slowly to better cover.

Pythons Head

Hippo update

The hippo has been opened and the Vultures are finishing it off.

14 days after it died.

A further sighting of a Hippo death on the S100 4 Km from the S41.
We watched this Hippo trying to get up, but to weak to get to its feet, very sad.
2 days later we went back and the Vultures were on it.

This is the circle of life, sad as it may seem, only the strongest survive making sure that only the strongest genes are passed on, the next generation of Hippo will be more drought resistant.

weak but alive 18 May

20 May, dead