Kruger in April and half a leopard kill.....

A young leopard pouncing

Kruger in April:

I got to enjoy a wonderful few days traveling SA at the begining of April, with my two guests Jennifer and Louise of the USA. Namely From JHB - Kruger - St. Lucia - Durban.

It was a fantastic trip and a great time of the year to travel the east coast. We were blessed with amazing weather and great sight-seeing, with wonderful wildlife encounters. We were lucky enough to see the Big 5 in one day and the young leopard above within the first hour of entering Kruger. As usual prolific birdlife was seen both in Kruger and the St. Lucia estuary. The animals we saw from Kruger to Phinda to Cape Vidal were healthy and in great condition. We also witnessed a hyena trying to run down an impala, unfortunately the chase continued off into the bush and so the outcome of the hunt will never be known. 

We in fact saw this young leopard twice in the 3 days we were in the Skukuza area, at N'waswitshaka dam on the S65, to be exact. A dam, river and trough combination well know to the regular Kruger visitor. The first encounter he was in the dam area, before walking up the dam wall and right into the parking lot where some 10 vehicles were parked. He nosed around, quite unsure of where or what he wanted to go/do. I suggested to my guests that he was young and had most probably recently left his mother and would be spending the next few years building his strength and avoiding the resident males, before he could challenge for a territory of his own.

My views were confirmed when 2 days later he once again was hanging around the dam, this time pacing up and down trying to figure out a way to catch the African Jacana (in foreground of photo). He kept putting his front paw in the water before shaking it off vigorously when he realised it was too deep and the Jacana was safely out of reach on the lillies. Just as he lay down on the edge of the dam an unsuspecting wagtail landed a few meters off. After a stalk and pounce, he caught the poor little thing, but then had an even harder time trying to figure out where the meat was.

The 2 encounters with this unsure yet at the same time seemingly comfortable young leopard,  got me thinking about a conversation I had a few years back with a friend of mine, who was working in a private reserve bordering Kruger. He told me of a theory amongst his peers that the leopard sightings were improving each year because of how the young leopards in these reserves are practically brought up in the presence of landrovers. Then when they leave to find there own way, they wonder into Kruger, and after a small adjustment to the quantity of vehicles, become comfortable to the extend that they pay hardly any attention at all. To me here is proof, Facebook fan page (for the whole gallery), of an exact case. This young guy walked up the dam wall towards the vehicles, heading directly past the open vehicles parked there and if anything only showed a little concern only when he saw my big silver bus. Maybe he even felt a little safe by the vehicles after being left in the 'big bad bush' all by himself........

As usual, would love to hear your comments? Do you think the leopard sightings are improving? Becoming more frequent? Does this theory hold true for you?

   

                                     He came within a meter of the familiar green landy......  

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Leopard (panthera pardus)

This young lady sat in this tree right next to the road in Kruger. Giving us an excellent view and photo opportunity.

• Leopards hold territories and will defend them against others. However only against members of the opposite sex. A males territory can overlap with 3 - 4 female territories.
• Occupation of a territory is shown using urine and faeces, clawing trees and vocally.
• They eat almost any animal, fish, reptiles, amphibians and eat more other carnivores than other predators. They are especially prone to eating jackals.
  
• Its hunting methods are classically feline, stalking to within 10m of its prey. They will stalk prey that is slowly moving away over a couple of 100m, or wait in ambush if prey is moving toward it.
• Leopard cubs are bought solid food within 6 weeks of birth and at 4 months will leave the den to hunt with the mother. A month later they make their first kill, but still remain with their mother for another 18 months.
  

Who has had enough of the 'Jeep Jockeys'?

Well I just returned from another very pleasant trip to the Kruger. The weather was great, sightings fantastic and the joy of the bush soothing.

What is really troubling though is the number of open game-viewing vehicles that are tearing up the south of the park these days. Racing from one road to the next on their quest to find 'The BIG 5!' Over the two days it became quite a talking point for us as we went about photographing the abundance of birds, studying the trees and viewing animals from the tiny tortoise to the common impala.

It felt a bit like the child's tale of 'The Hare and The Tortoise', we were plodding along doing our thing, whilst they were constantly flying past us! We'd catch up when they stopped for the mandatory half a minute to view the 'common game', and then speed off in a cloud of dust. The thing is, if they took just a second to look around they'd realise their clients are sitting there with the longest faces, enjoying themselves only because they have waited so long to travel to Africa.

The prize goes to that so called 'guide' who on our final afternoon we had the pleasure of speaking to. As he approached I waved him down, and then politely asked how his morning had been. His response was fairly direct, "fine, but the kitty cats don't want to come out and play." I then told him that 500m back there was rhino and elephant, and a kilometer after that a huge herd of buffalo, as well as some other nice game. His child like response was, "That's cool, but I want kitty cats!"

I do need to thank the 'Jeep Jockeys' for one thing though, with all your antics you guys made my job very easy, and I ended up looking like a king! As from the photos you can see we had some great sightings of cats. Funny thing was that at all of our 4 cat sightings, we only witnessed one Jeep. Wonder if that jockey ever did find his Kitty Cats????

Well, looks like the tortoise triumphed again!!

Visit Face Book to see more photos of our Kitty Cats........

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=191395&id=159541836718&saved#!/pages/Endless-Summer-Tours/159541836718