Autumn has arrived and one can see the seasons slowly changing. This has been offset by some very warm weather and some late rains which have kept the bush lush and green. Whilst the growth of the grass has diminished because of the reduction in daylight hours, the whole area is still remarkably green, compared to other years where we would have seen the grasses starting to go brown by this time.
Even though the bush is thick it has not affected the good game viewing. The four male lions, the Mapogo, have been on the property virtually for the whole month, so there has been no shortage of male lion viewing.
Having said in the previous newsletter how well the Ottowa pride was doing, they moved off the property to the east for a couple of days and unfortunately a hyena came in and killed one of the four cubs. What was interesting was the fact that, when the mother returned soon after the cub was killed and chased the hyena off, she picked up the dead cub, took it to the other cubs and they all ate the dead cub. Whilst there have been records of lion eating lion, this is not the norm. Since then, the other three cubs have been doing well and are growing vigorously, even though they have joined the rest of the pride and there is a lot of competition at the kills.
One of the females from the Ximungwe pride has brought out another litter of cubs. She has two tiny cubs that have already become so used to the vehicles that they ignore them whenever they are being viewed. The concern at present is that these cubs don’t seem to be as developed as they should be at eight weeks, which is an estimate of their age. Time will tell whether these two will survive. The one five-month old cub is still doing exceptionally well and is enjoying the fact that he now has two mates to play with and bully.
These Sightings have been Viewed at: Savanna Lodge
