October 2024

Singita Kruger National Park

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Singita Kruger National Park: October 2024

After almost blowing away due to brief intense winds, we were blessed with the first rains that have transformed the bushveld overnight. The golden yellow mopane pomegranate trees stand out amongst the green and brown grass. Many migrant birds have returned and the fresh morning air is bursting with their sweet calls. In the hot afternoons the cicadas buzz in the background while the heavily pregnant impala graze on the new green grass. Even the elephants have an extra spring in their stride.

A Sightings Snapshot for October follows:

Lions

  • The Shish Pride was last seen at the end of September and then decided to go west out of our concession and into the Kruger National Park, where we occasionally see them on the H6 in the evenings. Due to the presence of unknown male lions exploring the now available territory of the late Trichardt males, the Shish Pride are not following their regular patterns and are spending a lot of time west of our concession. The one female with a limp was seen near Maputo pan, contact calling, most likely looking for the rest of the pride. Because of her limp, it is not uncommon to see her alone now and again. Fortunately, she always finds her sisters after a few days. At the end of the month they caught a female giraffe which they fed on for two days before heading back west.
  • The Mananga Pride have been see intermittently this month, averaging one sighting a week. The rest of their time seems to be spent west of our concession near where the N’wanetsi River flows over the S41 and into Singita. All 11 cubs are alive and well, and interestingly the old, “ousted” female is keeping up with the pride. Although some of the larger (and more dominant) females still growl, they are not chasing her away and we have even witnessed the cubs showing affection by rubbing their miniature faces against hers. Near the end of the month, after our first rains, they managed to steal an impala from a leopard. While an impala is more than enough to satisfy a solitary leopard, it is merely an appetiser for a large pride of lions with 11 growing cubs. The growling was intense, as even the smallest of the cubs fought for their share. The next day we found them west of the S41, less than a kilometre away from where the Sonop males and Chava Pride were resting for the day. Just after the sunset one of our guides saw the Mananga Pride heading back east, straight towards the Chava Pride. When they were only a few hundred metres away they managed to spot the other pride and quickly turned back around. If the Sonop males had seen the Mananga Pride with their cubs, it would have potentially been devastating as male lions are known to kill cubs they did not sire in order to get the females into oestrous sooner.
  • The shy Chava female and her two cubs caught a young zebra foal near Gudzane Dam. The cubs seem to be a lot more relaxed than their mother, who hopefully over time will get used to the presence of the game drive vehicles.
  • The Sonop males were hanging around the Gudzane Dam for first half of the month. One of them was mating with a Chava lioness, as another fed on a kudu while two of the other females waited patiently with the cubs. Later in the month the males caught a young waterbuck and lazed around for a few days before they were seen again on the S41 contact calling and heading west across our boundary.

Leopards

  • Once again, the urge to disperse returned to our young male leopard, Khalanga. He was last seen on our concession on September 23rd and was photographed on the 28th near Phelwana Bridge on the H7, one of the main roads in Kruger National Park, and about 40km away from his home base! Then on the 8th of this month he was back next to the N’wanetsi River near the large rock-fig. This will be the third time he has wandered such incredible distances and come straight back to his natal territory. He has since then dominated our leopard sightings.
  • Nhlanguleni female caught an impala in the first week of this month near her “old stomping grounds” just east of the area we named her after. Nhlanguleni translates to “place of guarri-bushes”. A few weeks later she was all the way in the western part of our concession near the boundary with Kruger, showing just how large and fluid a leopard’s territory can be, especially when it is so dry.
  • Nhlanguleni’s previous cub, Nungu, has been moving through her mother’s territory, but most sightings of her are around the last two water sources, Xinenene Poort and Pony Pan.
  • Masiya male was found resting in the burnt areas in the north, the first time he has been seen since August. Near the end of the month we found him on an impala carcass in the Xinkelegane drainage.
  • Mondzo male appears to have shifted his territory more west this month, being seen on the S41 near the sticky thorns and again heading west following the N’wanetsi River out of our concession.
  • Lebombo male caught an impala near the end of the month near the N’wanetsi. During the night a crocodile snuck in and grabbed a small piece and Lebombo quickly snatched it back and dragged the carcass across the river where he stashed the it in the sedges.
  • The Dumbana leap have been more elusive this month. They spent a few days around Xingwenyana crossing and then were seen again in the mountains around the Nstibitsane drainage, one of her favourite areas when she has cubs.
  • The Zamani male surprised us one morning while we were tracking lions. He came over a small ridge and strolled down the road, intermittently marking his territory by spraying urine on a few prominent guarri bushes. A few days later he managed to successfully hunt an impala which he hoisted in a tree.
  • A new young female was seen briefly near the Gudzane Dam with an impala carcass in a tree.

Cheetahs

  • A single female was found on the 9th feeding on an impala north of the sticky thorn thickets in the west. We were spoilt with many more sightings of her for just over a week before she headed back west into the Kruger Park.
  • A young female was spotted far in the north on the S41, drinking out of a puddle in the road from the recent rains. She was unfortunately chased off by an inquisitive hyena.

African wild dogs

  • A pack of five successfully brought down an impala in the northern areas known as “golf-course clearings” before returning north into the burnt areas.
  • Two individuals were seen running towards the mountains in the east. We know that some years the packs den in the game reserve neighbouring us so it might be two of them. They will often hunt on our concession and then run back east to feed their pups.
  • A pack of 15 including nine pups were found on golf course clearings. We believe it to be the same five adults seen at the beginning of the month but now with their pups. On first seeing them the pups were slightly nervous and one ran off with the remains of an impala leg, but after a while they settled down in the shade of a Delagoa thorn.

Spotted hyenas

  • At the beginning of the month a clan was seen finishing off the remains of a large buffalo bull that had been killed by the N’wanetsi, S90 and Chava male lions. They had fed on it for a few days, and once all three of their stomachs were almost bursting, they finally let the hyenas scavenge. All that was left afterwards was the skull, pelvis and a small portion of the ribcage, showcasing the essential clean up service provided by these predators.
  • A clan of four had a quick drink from Pony Pan before skulking off together. Another two were seen in the central depression later leaving us suspicious of their activities.
  • A clan of five, possibly the same group as the ones seen at Pony Pan, were found the next day resting near an old impala carcass that had been hoisted into the fork of a large apple-leaf tree.
  • The den-site on Nyokene is active with at least three to four members being seen lying around the small rocky outcrop.
  • A few individuals have been seen far in the north near golf course clearings.

Elephants

  • On the hottest afternoons, there have been hundreds of elephants along the N’wanetsi River all the way from the lodges in the south up to where the river bends west out of our concession. There are old, wise females and boisterous young males flaring their ears and challenging us with their bravado (until you get too close, then they lift their tail and run back to mom). Young infants scurry around underneath their moms’ bellies and many individuals are in the river itself, feeding on the last sedges.
  • There have been quite a few really large bulls with impressive tusks around the concession.

Buffalos

  • Due to the still very dry conditions, the large herds of buffalo need to move great distances in order to obtain sufficient water and nutrients from the grass they feed on. This means they are incredibly nomadic and this month a large herd was seen west of the S41 near the Gudzane Dam. The large herd spent about a week in our concession moving back and forth from Gudzane Dam to the grassy plains east of that.
  • Towards month-end a herd of about 1 000 moved across the central depression before splitting up into smaller groups, one moving east into the Lebombo mountains and the other going north.

Plains game

  • The impala ewes are really beginning to show as their pregnancy nears the end. We can expect the first impala lambs anywhere from the beginning of November.
  • After a few dry months, the browsers are enjoying the first green leaves on the knobthorns and a few other species as we’re coming into the middle of spring. The grazers will need to wait another week or two for the rain we had mid-month to cause the green flush of grass.

Rare animals and other sightings

  • A herd of eight sable antelope, including a few calves, were seen moving towards Xinenene Poort midway through the month and then again near sisal line.
  • An aardvark created a lot of excitement one late evening as staff going back to the staff village saw one on the H6.
  • The leucistic kudu is still around our concession. She is almost fully grown, which is impressive since the white colour on her coat stands out amongst the neutral colours in the bush.

Birds

  • A buff-spotted flufftail was seen on a hot afternoon at the staff village. A first for Singita Kruger National Park, and potentially only the fourth sighting in Kruger. They typically are found in more forested areas with think undergrowth for example up on the Drakensberg mountains around Mariepskop and in some of the forests in Kwa-Zulu Natal.
  • The long-legged and beautifully feathered secretarybird was seen on the basalt plains near the central and northern reaches of our concession.
  • One of the SKNP birding guides, found a black-throated wattle eye while on a walk near the permanent stream that trickles all year long into the N’wanetsi River near the border with Mozambique. This bird is typically found in Afromontane and coastal plain forests, with a small part of its distribution in the northern part of Kruger National Park, and on the north-eastern coast near Sodwana and Kosi Bay.
  • The Eurasian golden oriole was spotted along the N’wanetsi. They breed in Europe, northwest Africa and western Asia and then migrate south, arriving in South Africa by mid-October.
  • All the cuckoos are also back after spending the winter months in equatorial and western Africa.