The Week in Pictures #627 – Londolozi Blog

This particular crocodile, a recent resident in one of the larger waterholes in central Londolozi has been very successful in his hunting exploits over the last couple of weeks. We saw him feeding on a tortoise a few weeks ago, he was seen finishing up a wildebeest a couple weeks after that and was then found with this impala yearling a few days ago! Nobody was there to witness the catch but watching him launch out of the water and thrash his head around to tear up the carcass into bite-size chunks was quite something!

An elephant herd of about 15 individuals joined us at a waterhole during our morning coffee stop. They were quite indifferent about us being off the vehicle and continued to go about their business as if we weren’t even there.

The Three Rivers Female had a very successful night of hunting in which she managed to stash two impala lambs in this small Jackelberry tree and an adult ewe under a thicket a few feet away. This was the first afternoon I had seen her since we established that she had given birth. However, she has since been seen mating with the Maxims Male.

A different angle and edit of the same sighting as above. The Three Rivers Female gazes up at her catch in the branches. There’s something so appealing about photographing a leopard (or any animal for that matter) as they look up.

A mother hippo and her young calf have been spending most of their days in a small waterhole close to the camps for the last couple of months. Hippo calves are one of the cutest baby animals to see, in my opinion and at the same time, fiercely protected by their mothers.

The Sand River is probably at its lowest point at the moment and therefore shallow enough to cross at just about any point. The Skorro Male, who seems to be confidently setting up a small territory for himself to the west of the camps, decided to cross the main channel in full view as we watched on.

A new leopard for me and most of the rangers at Londolozi; the Makomsava Young Female. Her mother, despite being raised for the most part on Londolozi has shifted her territory beyond our borders and isn’t seen nearly as often as we used to. However, she was recently found with a warthog kill where she and her relatively shy youngster were seen for two days as they finished off their meal.

Two young giraffe bulls put their training wheels on and get some ‘necking’ practice in. Once fully grown, these male giraffes with have to joust for breeding rights and dominance in the region, which is usually settled in a fight known as necking – essentially swinging their heads with full force into the competitor’s legs and torso until the one eventually submits.

A beautiful elephant bull marches his way through an open clearing in the late afternoon. I wish I had a wider lens for this photo as the entire scene was quite epic with another bull trailing behind him, a journey of giraffes off in the distance and an amazing pastel sky to top it all off. I snapped a couple of photos and then put my camera down to enjoy the moment.

The Plaque Rock Female, who we have subsequently found to have cubs, had a kudu calf kill stashed under a bushwillow one recent afternoon. We sat and waited for a while in the hopes that she would decide to hoist it into a tree, which she eventually did. While I didn’t manage to get any photos of the hoist we did watch her carry the kill for nearly 100 metres through the thicket.

Once the Plaque Rock Female had hoisted the kill, she descended the tree and continued to check on her hard-earned meal hanging in the branches. In actual fact, she ended up hoisting it twice after it fell from the tree after her first attempt! Maybe this was her making sure she had wedged it up there properly this time round. Again, the magic of a leopard looking up!

A silhouetted giraffe under the African sky.

The Skorro Male featured again on a different morning when he was in fact found to be mating with the Tsalala lioness (out of frame to the left). Let’s hope we see yet another resurrection of the Tsalala Pride in a few months!