Singita Grumeti: September 2022

September has been a wonderful month with some welcome early rainfall. The wildlife on the property has been incredible with thousands of topi and their newly born calves dotted across the grasslands. We have observed dazzling zebra numbers this month, and many giraffe, eland, gazelle and wildebeest too.

The Grumeti River has begun to flow steadily once again and, as always, the river provides excitement and adventure whilst on the quest for the ultimate nature experience! Crocodiles and hippos begin their movements further upstream and crossings for the plains wildlife can become a little more hazardous. Towards the end of the month, however, we have seen the river levels drop once again.

Here’s a sightings snapshot for September:

Lions:

There has been good viewing of the Nyasirori, Butamtam and West prides this month.

Many guest observations have included prides of up to 24 strong, making for some excellent viewing.

Lion activity on Sasakwa Hill has been intermittent with individuals reluctant to relax after last month’s raid. Two large male lions moved in from a neighbouring territory and took lionesses and youngsters by surprise, ultimately killing a young individual and wounding others before heading back south and disappearing into the Ridge Hills. Lionesses were hunting zebra once again on Sasakwa Hill towards the end of the month which was great to see, and confidence in their range has strengthened once more.

The Butamtam Pride have been spending much of their time in the central areas, predominantly hunting topi and zebras.

Leopards:

Great leopard interactions this month with some lovely sightings of a mother with cubs in the Faru Faru region and leopards hunting impala on the Grumeti River Road.

An incredible battle was witnessed by a handful of guests as our Grumeti North female gave it her all in an effort to bring down a large, powerful impala ram. She was successful in the end but what an incredible fight for survival!

Leopard sightings have been good in the Sasakwa Hill region with fleeting sightings in the valleys close to the RISE facility.

Regular sightings of the Sabora Drainage male this month as this individual begins to relax a little around the vehicles, which is lovely to see.

Cheetahs:

Fantastic sightings this month of the Sasakwa Plains male. A wonderfully powerful cheetah who is always impressive to observe. He has been hunting the plains in the central areas this month. A number of hunts were successful where he was able to bring down young wildebeest and impala.

Across the rest of the concession, sightings of cheetahs are here and there as there is much movement amongst the individuals with the ever growing lion population.

The Sabora mother and four youngsters were sighted again this month, however, much further west, on the Kawanga Plains. This highlights the distances this mother covers with her four young cubs. She utilizes a considerable range in order to feed herself and her young, always having to be vigilant of the larger, ever threatening lion and hyena populations.

Elephants:

The elephant herds have been steady this month with very good numbers on the property.

With the beginning of some reasonable rain, we have seen them dispersing widely as alternative food sources become readily available.

At the beginning of the month we observed incredible elephant activity on the Grumeti River during the dryer days.

There have been some great bull sightings out on the open grasslands. Such a pleasure watching them slowly breeze by over the green flush, in amongst great numbers of zebra, eland and Thomson’s gazelle.

Buffalos:

The buffalos on the property continue to do very well, with large herds observed throughout the Grumeti Reserve.

A herd of close to 800 was seen during our last wildlife survey, out on the western plains.

Rhinos:

All rhinos are in good condition and accounted for. There have been good sightings on the eastern boundary of the boma this month.