October 2024

Singita Sabi Sand

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Singita Sabi Sand: October 2024

October has been particularly dry, in comparison to the same time last year when we had already welcomed 51mm of rain. Everything then had significant greenery - a stark difference this year. Two dramatic thunder storms occurred, strong winds raced through the property, uprooting some trees. For the first time in a long time, we were not pointing any fingers at the elephants for the debris-packed roadblocks! Another storm had guides returning back to the lodges, ominous clouds grew and a lightning display of note was followed by some golf ball-size hail! The weather was almost as dramatic as the wildlife, and it certainly was rejuvenating. The Sand River continues to flow, albeit a trickle, and has a lot of the larger mammals coming to seek not only a drink, but also refuge from the heat. We look forward to what November has in store for us.

Here is a recap of our wildlife viewing for October:

Cheetahs

  • We continue to pinch ourselves on almost a daily basis with the occurrence of the female cheetah and her three cubs! This Makatini female continues to raise her three cubs in the southern parts of the reserve. She’s a phenomenal mother, hunting successfully most days and even twice a day on some occasions. On two occasions a male has been seen with her and the cubs. He is the same male cheetah we see every so often in a similar area in the south of the reserve.

Leopards

  • The Nkuwa female leopard has again been seen with the Thamba male leopard in the near proximity of the lodges. This would be the second time in almost a month that we’ve seen the two of them together mating. Fingers crossed in a couple of months we’ll have some new spotty faces on the reserve!
  • Thamba male leopard, shortly after having been seen with Nkuwa, was found having a territorial dispute with the Ravenscourt male leopard. Thamba was being pushed further east by Ravenscourt, perhaps a shift in dominance between the two?
  • We have been seeing Nkuwa’s 2:2 young male fairly regularly all over, his slightly bigger brother was last seen in the very far eastern parts of the Sabi Sands, perhaps a little braver venturing further afield into unchartered territory.
  • The Hlambela male leopard is seen more often by the staff at the lodges from the comfort of the overlooking decks as he patrols the northern bank of the Sand River.

Lions

  • The Tsalala lioness has been through a rough period. There have been occasions where she has been seen with her cubs retreating to safety from the Nkuhuma sub-adults. At one sighting there was a carcass that distracted the sub-adults and she managed to get the cubs to safety. Unfortunately, she was recently seen on her own contact calling, with no cubs. We don’t want to assume the worst but we hope all the little ones are alright.
  • The Ximungwe Pride have been seen again in the western parts as well as the far north-western reaches of the reserve. They, together with the Plains Camp male lions were in the Sand River feeding on a buffalo towards the end of the month.
  • The Mhangeni Pride have been scarce of late. They’ve been frequenting the western sector of the Sabi Sand and have had altercations with the Ximungwe Pride, resulting in them only having six youngsters between the three adult females.

African wild dogs

  • The Othawa Pack have been seen a lot of late, every so often encouraging a resident leopard into the nearest tree for safety! Their Beta female left the pack and has now joined a pack with two males who were previously denning in Dudley (several articles were written about them because their puppies were commandeered by the Toulon Pack earlier this year). There was a recent sighting of them interacting with a crash of seven white rhinos at one of the waterholes.

Elephants

  • The elephant herds have been cashing in on the debris that has fallen from the thunderstorms! We have been fortunate to observe particularly large of herds of elephants throughout the property over the month of October. The larger pachyderms provide us with endless entertainment on the warmer afternoons down at the river.

Buffalos

  • The large herd of buffalos continue to pass through the property, north and south of the river. Always quite the show when the 1 000+ buffalo come down to drink at one of the waterholes during morning game drive!

Birds

  • Two new birds for the month include the marsh owl and the yellow-bellied eremomela taking our tally to 290 birds for the year. The violet-backed starling, red-chested cuckoo and the Jacobin cuckoo have all once again been seen and heard back in the Sabi Sand.

Unusual sightings

  • We again had one pangolin sighting which the majority of the guests with us were fortunate to witness.
  • On drive in the south of the reserve, the Othawa Pack of wild dogs caught an impala, only to be chased off by elephants. The dogs, in turn, ran off flushing the Makatini female cheetah and her cubs off their kill not far from their position! When the dust settled, the large herd of over 1 000 buffalo chased the dogs off their stolen kill!