Weekly Cyberdiary

Mashatu Game Sightings 10 - 16 February 2008

10 February

On our morning drive we saw a big male leopard resting along a riverbed. As soon as we arrived he moved into tall grass and we lost sight of him. Driving through the beautiful landscape we also saw herds of impala, zebra, wildebeest and giraffe. By the time we came back to camp we had also seen a total of 100 elephants.

Our evening drive was filled with a wide variety of game such as wildebeest, zebra and lots of impala. We went back to the area where we found the leopard, and instead of finding the same male, we found a beautiful female. She too walked into tall riverine grass and we lost sight of her. We spent a long time with a big herd of elephants playing in a mud pool.

11 February

The morning dive was started with a great sighting of a young lioness. We found her tracks crossing a road and proceeded to follow her. Not long after we found her resting in the shade. She looked to be around 2 years old and our ranger said that it is unusual to find such a young lioness all by her self. Apart from seeing a big troop of baboons, we also saw zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, impala and plenty of bird species.

Our evening drive was fairly quite compared to other nights. Our ranger and tracker found it very difficult to spot the ever elusive leopard in such dense vegetation, although they did find the tracks of some individuals. We saw an amazing sighting of a large herd of elephants drinking at a water pool in the riverbed; with the setting sun behind them.

12 February

Early on our morning drive we found the young lioness again. She looked to be in great condition, but it was apparent that she hadn’t eaten for a few days. Hopefully she will find a good meal soon. We were taught a lot about birds by our ranger and soon we were more interested in searching for ‘new’ bird species than looking for big animals. A sighting of a big herd of elephants ended our morning drive and we sat and watched as they interacted.

On our evening drive we found 3 lions. It was an adult female with her 2 sub adult male offspring. They were very relaxed and we were able to take some stunning pictures of them as they were starting to stretch and move off to go hunting. We also found 3 herds of elephants followed by zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, impala, kudu, warthog and even an albino porcupine!

13 February

For the first time this week we found hyenas. They were resting along a riverbed and it looked like they had a large meal the night before, since they had very large bellies. Black backed jackals were seen close to the clan of hyenas. They were more skittish and ran off. We later found another big herd of elephants followed by giraffe, monkeys, baboons, kudu and warthogs.

On our evening drive we were lucky to see a female leopard with her small cub. The adult female quickly disappeared into the dense vegetation, but the cub continued playing around and we could take some great pictures. Zebra, giraffe, wildebeest and various other game species were seen later in the evening.

14 February

This morning’s drive was filled with plenty of game species, but what made it special was the big herd of elephants we saw moving towards a water pool. We sat and watched as the elephants quenched their thirst and played in the mud.

15 February

On our morning drive we saw yet another big herd of elephants followed by kudu, warthogs, jackal, baboons, monkeys, impala, wildebeest and zebra. We did not see any cats on this drive, but all the other sightings this morning made up for that.

We found a pride of 5 lions on our evening drive, but what made this sighting even more special was the fact that 2 of the lions were mating! They were not bothered by our presence and we could take some stunning pictures. Later we found a few hyenas walking along the road.

16 February

Early in our morning drive we again found the 5 lions and it looked like they had caught a baby zebra the previous night. We could only see a part of the carcass. The female leopard with her cub was also seen again, and this time we got a better look at them since the bush wasn’t so dense. After the 2 amazing cat sightings, we found 2 cheetahs! They were merely resting in the shade and hopefully we will see them later on our evening drive.

As was predicted, but with luck, we found the 2 cheetahs walking across a large open area. They were fairly skittish and soon moved into an area that made it hard for us to follow and we lost sight of them. The lions were also found again and they were very relaxed towards our presence - making it wonderful to take pictures of these magnificent cats.

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