August 2025

Sabi Sand

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Sabi Sand: August 2025

August has been a hot dry month! We have experienced temperatures just under 40˚C and it feels like summer is already back in full swing in the Lowveld. The Sand River continues to trickle along drawing in wildlife in all shapes and forms. Our environmental team have been busy with their ‘block burn’ fires to simulate natural fires by lightning and potential external sources. These trigger ecosystem renewal by clearing dead vegetation, releasing soil nutrients and enabling the growth of new, fire-adapted plants, leading to a process of long-term landscape rejuvenation. Ensuring these fires don’t run wild, firebreaks are put in place by the team months before. There’s already new growth in these areas that offer nutritious grazing for a lot of the mammals. Crisp, cooler mornings still offer guests the opportunity to grab their favourite warm drink and set off before the sunrise to sit, reflect and enjoy the sight and sounds of the bush as the sun creeps up over the horizon. There’s a distinct yellow and red starting to fill the canopy in the distant landscape, flowering knob-thorn and weeping boer-bean trees adding that splash of colour to the winter hues.
A snapshot of the sightings for August follows:
Elephants
  • Elephants can be seen throughout the day. Typically congregating in and around the Sand River now that the temperatures are as high as 38˚C! Fairly large groups of askaris and elephant bulls have been seen fairly frequently in the southern parts of the reserve, and there are some notably large tuskers in these groups.
Buffaloes
  • The large herd of buffalo frequent the permanent water sources both north and south of the Sand River. They create rather dramatic scenes in the dead of winter when they race to waterholes kicking up large clouds of dust.
Lions
  • The Mhangeni Pride have been moving throughout the property, mostly trying their best to avoid the Nkuhuma and Talamati males, but have also been seen together with them on two separate occasions feeding on buffalo bulls.
  • The Plains Camp males can be heard roaring most nights and early hours announcing their presence. It is physically challenging to try and find them because of how large their territory is but they have been seen on a handful of occasions. One memorable sighting of them was with their buffalo kill not far from the lodges, and the Othawa Pride with the two really small cubs were present!
  • The Othawa Pride have been a challenge to find, walking great distances at night and placing themselves in tremendously thick and inaccessible areas.
  • The Nkuhuma sub-adults were seen chasing the Mhangeni Pride off a buffalo kill, not before the Nkuhuma and Talamati males chased them away!
  • Other lion sightings for the month include the Ximungwe lionesses. They seemed to have ‘adopted’ one of the small Othawa cubs but have subsequently abandoned it.
Leopards
  • The Nkuwa female has sadly lost her female cub. The Ntomi male leopard found them all feeding on an impala, and he rushed in and killed her, sadly. The Nkuwa female continues to frequent the area around Castleton with her young male cub. Guides Matt and Dan witnessed her go from fast asleep to plucking an impala out of the air in a heartbeat!
  • The Thamba male has been sighted frequently. He had a face-off with the Hlambela male across the river, and he has also been seen sporadically around the reserve, highlighting just how big his home range is.
  • The Tisela female and her two sub-adult females have been seen more and more to the west of the lodges and we are hoping that either of them starts calling that area their home.
  • The Rivala female has also been seen west of the lodges, a leopard who enjoys the limelight and often shows off climbing trees and posing eloquently.
  • Other leopard sightings includes the Ntoma female mating with the Thamba male. The Nottens male and Xinzele female have also been seen.
Cheetah
  • The Makatini cheetah family made a cameo appearance in the south of the reserve for a number of days before disappearing again. All three sub-adults are looking strong and healthy.
  • The male cheetah has been hiding in plain sight. We often find tracks of him but he avoids being spotted!
African wild dogs
We have had two sighting of wild dogs for the month.
  • The first was a brief view of the Othawa pack of 11 wild dogs before they ran off into the western sector to their den. We hear the puppies are running with the adults so we hope the month of September brings more sightings of them.
  • The second sighting was of one wild dog that chased an impala into a waterhole. Upon exiting the waterhole the wild dog caught the impala!
Bird List
We have added four more species to the list this month, taking the total to 284 birds.
  • Lizard buzzard, white-breasted cormorant and secretarybird were the highlights for the month.
Unusual Sightings
  • A newborn giraffe! Guests sat in awe as a small calf found its feet for the very first time, albeit a bit wobbly!
  • Danelle had an amazing sighting of a relaxed civet on her way back to the lodge one evening.