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The Week In Pictures #628 – Londolozi Blog

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The festive season has always been one of much excitement and fun in our household. We would always either be travelling to visit family or have family visiting us. Since working at Londolozi, only on the odd occasion have we been fortunate to get Christmas off whereby we can be with our blood family. However, it’s no doubt that all our friends and colleagues at Londolozi have become family too. So no matter where we are during this amazing time of the year we are always surrounded by the best, most loving and caring people.

This Festive Season our own small little family has someone new celebrating her first Christmas and her big brother now has to share some of the spoils as all the attention is not only going to be on him.

Anyway, it is very exciting and we cannot wait to celebrate in a few days. Now back to the task at hand, this week’s selection of images showcases the spectacular greenery and the abundance of life that we are seeing currently.

On the leopard front, we have a phenomenal time at the Plaque Rock Female’s den, and have a lovely sighting of the Xinkhova Female. The lions see us having our first sighting of the newest members of the Ntsevu Pride and sighting of the Nkuhuma Male on Ximpalapala crest. The rest is filled with great birdlife, elephants and some foam nest frogs.

Let me know your favourites in the comments section below.

Enjoy This Week In Pictures…

While waiting for the Plaque Rock Female to lead me back to her den, she eventually emerged from her shaded sanctuary to quench her thirst before settling in a sea of greenery. There was a ray of golden light breaking through and illuminating her face perfectly.

A pretty young playful female found along the river to the east of camp

While enjoying an afternoon drive along the Sand River, we found a large male elephant, too close to focus on the entire animal I chose to zoom in on the details and textures of the elephant’s ear that was covered in some dried mud.

After a recent deluge, all the ephemeral pans are filling up causing a frenzy amongst the foam nest frogs, I spent the morning filming the nest-building process of these frogs as each male jostles for the best position to fertilise the female’s eggs. Stay tuned for more on this early next year. The eye in focus is one of the males, and the creamy coloured round ball to the left is one of the frogs eggs.

One of the Ntsevu Females rests in the shade with the rest of the pride just out of view. The temperatures were soaring on this particular morning and although I was cooking away in the sun there was such a contrasting look on her face as she made everything seem perfectly fine and was not phased at all.

The mother of the three youngest cubs in the Ntsevu Pride gets collected from a thicket nearby and brought across to the rest of the pride.

On an afternoon bumble around seeing what we could find we settled here to watch the sun set and had such a stunning view across the Sand River.

Seeing this Tawny Eagle Land in a small dead tree, I sat waiting for it to take off hoping to capture it with its wings spread wide. It was all lined up to take off towards me and would have been perfect, but in the last minute it turned and took off the other way.

While sitting at the Plaque Rock Female’s den we had this large male giraffe come down to the water’s edge as though he wanted to have a drink, after much deliberation, he moved on. Possibly sensing that there was danger lurking close by.

Another visitor while we were watching the Plaque Rock Female and her cubs.

Late one afternoon, the Xinkhova Female was resting while digesting a recent meal of impala lamb. She is such a beautiful young female leopard that I felt I needed to include this image of her in post-meal contemplation.

A stunning young female with a very similar spot pattern to her mother, the Nkoveni Female. Litter still completely intact March 2022.

It is the season of new life, we stumbled across this young impala lamb, hiding away in a thicket gaining strength and energy to practice walking while its mother was out and about feeding.

Often hearing about the different species of vulture we try and describe the size difference and shape of the beaks to guests, here is a perfect example of the Lappet-faced Vulture’s enormous beak compared to that of a White-backed Vulture.

With all the new shoots of vegetation growing through now, this large elephant delicately plucked off a new branch from an Acacia and gently placed it in its mouth.

The Nkuhuma Male has been dealt his fair share of misfortune over the years and has still been roaming the crests of Londolozi alone. He spent a brief period with the Skorro Breakaway Male. I wonder if they will meet up again and form som slightly more permanent bonds?

The adorable Plaque Rock Female’s cubs tucked away in the shade at the first den.

Colours of the Yellow-fronted Canary and Blue Waxbills come through against the dark soil of the waterhole.

With the Nkhuma Male walking off to our left we looked across and had these kudus watching his every move, letting off their deep husky bark, warning all passers-by that there was danger in the area.

With the pans and wallows filled with the recent rainfall, elephants and the like have been enjoying repeated mud baths, here the mud had caked on this elephant’s wrinkly skin adding a further element of texture to what is already an interesting detail.

Sz 5255 Plaque Rock Female And Cub Under Chin

At the new den, we were patiently waiting for the cubs to join their mother, the Plaque Rock Female on top of the boulders. One cub came up and joined here there giving us this incredible photographic opportunity.

By far the most adventurous little cub I have seen, it came off to the side of the den and perched on this rock allowing me to snap some amazing footage and this shot.

Peak-a-boo! Apart from the mother on the top of the rocks, can you see the tiny little one in the shot somewhere?

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Sean Zeederberg

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The Week In Pictures #628 – Londolozi Blog