Another fantastic day has passed at Kapama Private nature reserve with fantastic sightings that would be hard to beat as well as fantastic weather. The afternoon drive was drawing to a close when Andrew, one of the Kapama rangers suggested that we head back to camp via Tamboti loop. So, Andrews advice was heeded and we headed back to camp via the sloot. As night fell we headed out and there lying on the side of the road was a majestic young male leopard, a sight that will always take your breath away. We watched the leopard for about 10minutes and then he slowly crept away and disappeared as they always do into the bush. Now this was a special sighting as leopards are very shy and secretive animals, which makes them difficult to find. Being solitary cats makes it even more difficult. Leopards will prey on any animal from kudu to francolin, they are extremely opportunistic, nocturnal animals. A sight like this is hard to forget. And there ends another day at Kapama.

Story written by Joshua, Kapama Ranger

This morning we set out a little early on a mission to find lions. The sunrise was spectacular and there was a layer of mist across the reserve which was quite eerie. As we moved south across the reserve my tracker noticed fresh tracks on the road. We could see that the lions had been lying in the road and it looked as though they had been chasing after a giraffe. As I was busy explaining the markings to my guests the lions came bounding one by one down the road towards us! We were very pleased to see that the older lioness whose sister unfortunately died due to labour complications just over a week ago has now joined up and is walking with four other young females. It also looks as though she herself may be expecting cubs……so watch this space!
We also had an enjoyable sighting of a small group of buffalos at a watering hole. They had disturbed 2 beautiful kingfishers which had retreated to a nearby tree! We saw a huge amount of general game this morning. On our way back to the lodge we were fortunate enough to see a number of different species together. It’s always interesting to see how different species interact. There was an adult female giraffe with two youngsters. The remains of the umbilical cord were still visible on one of the youngsters and we deduced that he was only 2 weeks old at most. The two youngsters were running around playfully and we laughed at them trying to keep their balance on their gangly legs! There were also more than 30 zebras, a herd of blue wildebeest, some impalas and some warthogs milling around in the same area.

Giraffe eggs?
I recently had guests visiting South Africa for the first time.
This was their first “safari” ever… we were driving down the road and bumped into a giraffe.
I was explaining to them all the bits and pieces… until I got a question…
“does a giraffe lay eggs”?
I was shocked, and I immediately told them, no they are mammals.
A question like that always makes me laugh….
Like the question I had about two weeks ago, “if leopards live in trees, how do you see their tracks?”
When you have been exposed to the bush and the wildlife, and had the opportunity to grow up in Africa, you take it for granted.
We laugh about silly questions like that.
But, when you actually think about it…. we had the opportunity and the exposure to most of these animals from a very young age.
We should be grateful to be living in such an awesome place, and that we have learned from a young age that giraffe doesn’t lay eggs…. that they are mammals. And that they give birth to live young. And while there are a few giraffe babies at the moment, that we should look at them with new eyes… and appreciate the fact that there isn’t two meter eggs lying around in the bush.

Another day has gone at Kapama, animal sightings have been excellent , but the most exciting moment was spotting an aardvark on game drive. Aardvarks live throughout Africa, south of the Sahara. Their name comes from South Africa’s Afrikaans language and means “earth pig.” A glimpse of the aardvark’s body and long snout brings the pig to mind. On closer inspection, the aardvark appears to include other animal features as well. It boasts rabbit like ears and a kangaroo tail—yet the aardvark is related to none of these animals.
Aardvarks are nocturnal. They spend the hot African afternoon holed up in cool underground burrows dug with their powerful feet and claws that resemble small spades. After sunset, aardvarks put those claws to good use in acquiring their favorite food—termites.
While foraging in grasslands and forests aardvarks, also called “antbears,” may travel several miles a night in search of large, earthen termite mounds. A hungry aardvark digs through the hard shell of a promising mound with its front claws and uses its long, sticky, wormlike tongue to feast on the insects within. It can close its nostrils to keep dust and insects from invading its snout, and its thick skin protects it from bites. It uses a similar technique to raid underground ant nests.
Female aardvarks typically give birth to one newborn each year. The young remain with their mother for about six months before moving out and digging their own burrows, which can be extensive dwellings with many different openings.
Fast Facts
Type:
Mammal
Diet:
Omnivore
Average life span in captivity:
23 years
Size:
Head and body, 43 to 53 in (109 to 135 cm); Tail, 21 to 26 in (53 to 66 cm)
Weight:
110 to 180 lbs (50 to 82 kg)
Did you know?
An aardvark’s tongue can be up to 12 in (30.5 cm) long and is sticky to help extract termites from the earthen mounds.

Today I had a game drive, without seeing one of the big 5. Its amazing when you actually have time to look for the little things. That you so easily miss when you chase after the big 5. We saw 3 different types of eagles, and the bonus was a goshawk with a spitting cobra in a knobthorn tree. It looked like the spitting cobra was too big for the goss hawk, so it was just watching it from a distance. Eventually the spitting cobra went into a hole. But we left the goshawk waiting for it to make an appearance. It just shows you, you can have an awesome drive without just focusing on the big things. And appreciate the little things that so easily get taken for granted.

This morning at the start of drive we had an extremely rare sighting of a honey badger fighting with a porcupine. Eventually the honey badger retreated into his hole with a couple of porcupine quills embedded in his head!!! Honey Badgers have a reputation for aggression and if they fee threatened they will attack - even much larger animals such as Spotted Hyena or Lions, or even humans! Because of this they don’t have much to fear themselves!

Four of our young lionesses killed a giraffe close to one of our dams. They were lying beside the kill with full stomachs when we arrived on the scene. Eventually they decided to go towards the dam for a drink when all of a sudden the vultures perched in the nearby trees waiting to scavenge swooped down towards the carcass and the lions changed their minds and went back o protect their kill.

Tonight we had a spectacular sighting of a female leopard and her two cubs. The cubs are not trained to hunt until they are about a year old so their mother killed an impala for them. The young male is cheeky and was clearly curious about us. Because we have respected these animals since they were first seen they are gradually becoming accustomed to the vehicles and are becoming relaxed in our presence.

Today one of our lionesses was found dead on the reserve. She was heavily pregnant and we can only presume that there were complications with the labour which caused her untimely death. She was around 8 years old and was the mother of some of the other young lions on the reserve. We are all extremely sad about her death but have to accept that nature takes its own course.
But where there is death there is new life and on a positive note our newly born elephant calf seems to be doing very well within the breeding herd. He is now 11 days old. We are having the opportunity to see him more and more as he occasionally emerges from the group. Infancy is a special and interesting time for all animals. A new-born elephant enters the world at an amazing weight of between 77 and 113 kg, with a height of about 91 cm tall. They can consume up to 12 litres of milk a day. For the first three months a young calf’s food intake is typically provided only by the mother. At the age of 2 years the young elephant will feed independently but milk remains an important part of the diet. Elephants are only fully weaned between 5 and 6 years old.
We are also having more sightings of the newest addition to our white rhino population who is now around 3 months old.

Youngsters at Kapama

About 3 weeks ago now one of our female rhinos gave birth to a calf. Every three years on average, after an 18-month pregnancy the female rhinoceros gives birth to only one young. It weighs about 30 to 40 kilograms and only 10 minutes after it emerges it can already stand upright, a couple of hours later it begins to suckle. He or she will suckle from its mother for about 18 months, but it also begins to graze long before it stops suckling. The young has no horn, it is unprotected and depends entirely on its mother. The mother protects the young carefully from each predator. From time to time the young stays with its mother even after the birth of the second young, although at the age of three years the young rhinoceros is already able to take care of itself alone

Also, it looks as though 2 of our adult lionesses are expecting. After a gestation period of 100-119 days, the pregnant females will leave the pride and find a place to deliver. lions will hide their newborn cubs in marshes or kopjes. The number of cubs born depends on the age and condition of the mother. The litter size is 1 to 4 offspring on average. The pride generally synchronizes its reproduction so they can rear their cubs together, each suckling the others’ cubs as well as their own. For example, if a lioness is away hunting, her cub will be suckled by another lactating female. Cubs are nursed at 6-7 months.

Unfortunately lion cub mortality rates are high. In the wild as many as 80% die before they are 2 years old. Because the cubs are not able to compete with larger ones during feeding, some of them starve. Even in times of abundance cubs may starve if all the kills are small. If a pride is taken over by a new male who has defeated the top resident male, he will most likely kill any existing cubs that are under 2 years old.  This rapidly brings the females into breeding condition, ensuring that the strongest male gets to breed and continue his genetic line.

There is also a young female leopard busy raising two young cubs of about 6 months old not too far from River Lodge. The little ones are beginning to learn from their mother how to swim, to climb, to hunt and how to protect themselves from other predators.

 As with all newborns and youngsters on Kapama , the rangers are very respectful and always maintain a distance to ensure that the youngsters are not frightened or intimidated by the game drive vehicles and to ensure that the mother/baby bonding is successful. We look forward to seeing more of the youngsters in the very near future.

Its not just young animals that add magic to safaris. Recently, an extremely spirited and clever young girl from Argentina called Daniella was on my game drive vehicle. We were lucky enough to find one of our dominant male lions and I was talking about lion cubs. Daniella asked me “Sarah, where do the lions get married?”. I glanced at her parents and was thinking of an appropriate response when she said “Because Sarah the lions HAVE to get married before they can have babies”. Just one of the many magic moments in the life of a ranger!!!!

This evening was yet another eventful evening on the reserve.  Four of our female lions were found on a zebra kill earlier in the day so we set off from the lodge to see if we could relocate them in the area. At the beginning of drive the lions were sleeping a short distance from the zebra kill. Their stomachs were full and unfortunately for us at that time we were only able to see the black backs of their ears in the short grass. So we decided to try our luck elsewhere and return a bit later to check up on them. As we drive away from the sighting we saw some wildebeest and warthogs. Then as we passed the next turning my tracker turned to me and told me to reverse as he thought he could see something lying in the road in the distance. Sure enough when we reversed and went to look there was a young female leopard in the road! With cameras at the ready and in total silence we approached slowly so as not to disturb her. Our plan worked and we were able to watch her and take some amazing photos. Soon afterwards she stood up and walked along the road, marking her territory as she went. Still maintaining a distance we followed her for another 10 minutes until she left the road and went into thick bush. Satisfied with our sighting we left her and went for a sundowner to celebrate our success. After a lovely drink in an open area with a herd of waterbuck grazing nearby and an African fish eagle perched on a nearby tree singing his famous song we decided to go back and see if there was any action at the lion kill. We couldn’t have been more fortunate with our timing. When we got there the 4 young females were lying in the road. As we approached the kill, an older female of 4 years old approached with her two youngsters. The 4 lionesses in the road promptly jumped up and ran back towards their kill. The older female chased them away into the bush. She seemed to have the upper hand – probably because the other 4 young lions were tired and bloated! She then patrolled the road whilst her youngsters fed hungrily on the carcass. Every now and then the mother would run into the bush and we would hear a commotion from the lions in the darkness! One of the other rangers had a fantastic hyena sighting and was also fortunate enough to see an aardwark. Never a dull moment at Kapama!!          

 Story by:Sarah Sangster-Kapama River Lodge Ranger

The events that unfolded on game drive this morning were truly incredible. It had rained last night and so the tracks left by the animals in the previous evening/early morning were very clear. We first found a big male rhino who was alone and mowing the grass around our honeymoon platform! After leaving him we drove to one of our dams and found a small herd of buffalo having a drink. We then went to the area where one of our male lions was last seen to try and relocate him. When we got to the area we found tracks for a number of lions and followed them round in circles!! Eventually we were rewarded when we found a young male lion in the bush close to the road. As we approached we could see that he was quite stressed and he was making contact calls to try and find his mother and sister. At only 1 year old he is unable to hunt for himself and still relies on his mother to provide food for him. He is unusually large for his age and as we had seen tracks for the dominant male in that pride we came to the conclusion that the older male had probably chased him away. After a while we left him to see if we could find his mother and sister in the area close by. 15 minutes later we found them and as we followed them it became clear that they were trying to find the young male. As they got closer to his position they picked up some speed and ran through the bush. Unfortunately we were unable to keep up and temporarily lost their visual. We decided to go back to the young male lion and when we got there we were delighted to discover that the young family had been happily reunited! The three of them walked slowly through the bush and we waited for them on the road for a good photo opportunity. Suddenly they stopped and all looked in one direction. From that direction we could hear alarm calls of impalas. So we drove slowly around to where they were looking and crossing the road in front of us was an older female lion….followed by her sister….and bringing up the rear was a beautiful adult male lion. What a treat!! They walked into the bush directly towards where the other 3 were standing and after some commotion the three younger lions came running at high speed out of the bush as fast as they could. The older lions were chasing them! The young lions got away fast and we watched as the older lions walked around slowly trying to pick up on their scent. After a while they gave up and went into the river – probably to sleep for the rest of the day! We were all so excited to see the two groups of lions interacting with each other and recounted the story all the way back to the lodge. A truly surprising and exciting morning all round!

By: Sarah Sangster- Kapama River Lodge Ranger