Already in March one can see the seasons changing, as the nights get longer and the days substantially shorter. This has been offset by some very warm weather and some late rains which have kept the bush incredibly green. Whilst the growth of the grass has diminished because of the reduction in daylight hours, the whole area is still remarkably green, compared to other years where we would have seen the grasses starting to go brown by this time.

    Although the bush is very thick, this has not detracted from the wonderful game viewing we are experiencing. The four male lions, the Mapogo, have been on our property virtually for the whole month, so there has been no shortage of male lion viewing.

    Having said in our last newsletter how well the Ottowa pride was doing, they moved off our property to the east for a couple of days and unfortunately a hyena came in and killed one of the four cubs. What was interesting was the fact that, when the mother returned soon after the cub was killed and chased the hyena off, she picked up the dead cub, took it to the other cubs and they all ate the dead cub. Whilst there have been records of lion eating lion, this is not the norm. Since then, the other three cubs have been doing well and are growing vigorously, even though they have joined the rest of the pride and there is a lot of competition at the kills.

    One of the females from the Ximungwe pride has brought out another litter of cubs. She has two tiny cubs that have already become so used to the vehicles that they ignore them whenever they are being viewed. I am a little worried about these cubs, as they don’t seem to be as developed as they should be at eight weeks, which is our estimate of their age. Time will tell whether these two will survive. The one five-month old cub is still doing exceptionally well and is enjoying the fact that he now has two mates to play with and bully.

    The leopards have not disappointed us this month and there has been one brief sighting of Makubela’s two cubs. These cubs are still very nervous and need to get accustomed to the Land Rovers. Unfortunately, she has been keeping them in an inaccessible area so we will have to wait for her to start bringing them to kills where they will be exposed to vehicle movement.

    Mambiri and her cub have given us the bulk of the viewing this month and it is always a delight to view this cub, as she is at an age where she is constantly into everything. Her antics range from chasing squirrels in trees to trying to catch guinea fowl and all are exceptionally amusing.

    Hlabankunzi has now brought her cubs out, but unfortunately we have not seen them yet; we have just followed the tracks to different den sites. They too should be starting to eat meat in the near future and this will make them accessible to viewing when the mother takes them to various kills. It is believed that Hlabankunzi has two cubs and we are all waiting in anticipation to see them.

    We have been fortunate that, for most of this month, we have had the wild dogs on Savanna’s traversing area. The alpha female is heavily pregnant and we are expecting her to have her pups within the next couple of weeks. The pack has been investigating den sites in our area and we are all hoping that they choose our traversing area to have their pups this time. Unfortunately, they crossed the river a few days ago and, as a result of the heavy rain on the escarpment, the river is flooding and it will be difficult for the dogs to cross the river and return to their den site until it subsides.

    The cheetah has been over a couple of times but hasn’t visited us as frequently as he normally does. This is probably due to the number of lions we have in our area. We know that, in the east of our traversing area, there has been a shortage of lion viewing and the cheetah has probably felt safer in these areas.

    We have been fortunate in having some large herds of zebra and wildebeest frequenting our open areas. Zebras are always a popular sighting for our overseas guests. Herds of up to thirty have been seen on a regular basis. As mentioned in the last newsletter, the buffalo have stayed on Savanna property and it is very impressive to see a herd of 600 - 700 buffalo coming down to the water to drink.

    The migratory birds have all started to go now and regular small groups of white stork are passing by daily on their way back to Europe. The European swallows are also congregating in preparation for their flight back and so too are the European bee-eaters. Only a few of the woodland kingfishers remain, but they have all stopped calling which is a sure sign that they too will be on their way back to Angola.

    With the onset of winter, our sunrises and sunsets have been quite spectacular.

    We are very lucky that Savanna has been extremely busy this month and it is wonderful to see so many of you coming back. As always, we look forward to welcoming a lot more of you back in the near future.

With warm wishes

Paddy and the Savanna Team