Many questions have been flying around the Rangers’ Room this week… Where is the Ntomi Male? Where will the young male cheetah be next? What is happening with the females in the Talamati pride?
This week the Ntomi Male has been seen with two different kills. Unfortunately for him, both had been robbed, but not only by hyena! One of his kills was robbed by the Tsalala Female. Nevertheless, he is still looking healthy and has been sticking close to his parent’s territories.
After one of the Talamati Females was seen mating with Ndzenga Male on our airstrip, we found two of the Talamati lionesses roaming nearby. The question still remains – where are the rest?
Elephants have started to migrate in their numbers towards the Sand River making for some spectacular photographic opportunities. Elephants are not the only animal drawn to the river of late…
The clouds have been floating in and out of Londolozi but when they do disappear, there is a spot along the river that every photographer must be patient enough to capture. When the sun sets in the evening there is a flush of colour and squeaks from the White-fronted bee-eater’s nesting site creating an aerial display that is magical to capture.
Without rambling on too much, here are This Week In Pictures…
Lately, we have been fortunate enough to watch this young male cheetah grow as we have been seeing him quite frequently. His hunting skills and dominance have developed significantly, in almost all the hunts we have watched he has been successful. Here we found him lying up on a termite mound and just before he started to move he stretched and looked straight at us, luckily we had time to capture that moment.
I took this opportunity to capture a profile shot of this young male cheetah while he was watching a herd of impala from the vantage of a termite mound. I really like to convert profiles into black and white if it works. I find that the black and white in this shot makes the spots and tear marks stand proud.
Just another shot of the young male cheetah on the same termite mound but this time I captured more of a portrait scenery. I love how his honey-colored eyes came out in this lighting.
The Nkoveni Female and one of her cubs. She had an impala stashed up in the canopy of this Marula tree. In this photo, she is joined by her young male cub at the fork of the tree to scan the surroundings for any potential danger.
A gorgeous female who is found to the east of camp. Easily recognised by her 2:2 spot pattern she is often to be found in Marula trees.
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A full-cropped White-backed Vulture perched in a dead Leadwood tree ingesting its recent meal. Vultures can feed extremely quickly on the ground around the carcass, not yet ingesting the food but rather storing the meal in their crop so they can fly away and ingest it elsewhere in a much safer position away from any potential danger.
The Ntsevu cubs cuddle in the cold. Watching the bonds develop between these cubs reminds me of the bonds their mothers had as cubs, resulting in the powerful pride they are today.
White-fronted bee-eaters soar in the sunset. After sitting all afternoon with the clan of White-fronted bee-eaters flocking into their nesting holes, we were treated to one last aerial display as the sun started to disappear.
Sitting in a spot along the Sand River patiently waiting for the family or so-called clan of White-fronted bee-eaters to arrive back to their roosting site after a day full of catching insects. We managed to capture a few shots of their evening dance back to their nesting holes on the banks of the river.
A male giraffe stares at us as he moves from one tree to the next. With smoke in the air from controlled burns, I managed to capture a belt of smoke creating an extra layer in this photo.
The herd of buffalo grazing as the sun drops below the horizon. What a scene. Spending a couple of minutes with a large herd of buffalo and watching a beautiful sunset is one of the best experiences in my opinion.
The Talamati lioness drinks from a small puddle of water after walking a distance in search of the rest of her pride. We found just two of the 5 females, where were the rest of the pride? Were they looking for the rest of their pride or in search of males?
I always take the opportunity to get a close-up of the eyes of the Ntomi Male (although here you can not see the brown spot in his iris). The untouched face of a young male leopard must always be captured before he begins his journey into fighting for dominance, scarring his face with scratches from rivalries.
A single cub of the Ximungwe Female’s second litter. Initially rather skittish but is very relaxed now. Birth mark in his left eye.
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The Ntomi Male quickly escapes to the safety of a Marula tree as a hyena runs in to see if he has any scraps left over from his kill.
The Senegal Bush Male walks Londolozi’s western boundary on his territorial patrol.
Initially seen as a young male in 2016, this leopard only properly established territory on Londolozi in mid-2019
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The Senegal Bush Male stops briefly as he hears something up ahead of him. At that moment the sun came through the clouds and made his eyes glisten.
The foot of a young elephant on a boulder. We spotted a young elephant bull climbing on a boulder to reach the top branches of a tree growing on top of the boulder. I just like this image as it is a different perspective of an elephant’s foot.
A large bull followed by a small breeding herd of elephants crosses the Sand River. It’s amazing that mid-way through July there is still so much water in the Sand River. It makes for some amazing sightings, where we can just switch the vehicle off and watch the magic unroll in front of us…
Jess Shillaw
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