The Week in Pictures #670 – Londolozi Blog

While following the Kambula Pride walking through the grasslands, we suddenly caught sight of a leopard as it leapt up onto some boulders in the distance. It was the Nottens Male. Clearly very aware of the danger approaching, he decided to position himself where he would have an escape route, should the lions have seen him.

Elephants will almost always be found around water sources on a hot day. We spent about half an hour with this particular herd as they wallowed and sprayed themselves with mud to try and keep cool in the late afternoon heat.

An incredible start to the morning coming across this mother cheetah and her three cubs. Here she surveys her surroundings for any danger that could be approaching from a distance. Cheetah are incredibly vigilant animals and even at a young age their eyesight is exceptional. If the cubs happen to spot something that could be a threat, they will alert their mother.

Cheetah cubs are very attached to their mothers and will spend almost all day with her. This allows them to learn and gain experience much faster than lion or leopard cubs.

Two young elephant bulls entertain one another with a bit of a tussle at a large waterhole. Very often, it is this type of behaviour from the young males that the older females within the herd become less and less tolerant of. Until such time as they are pushed out of the herd into a nomadic existence.

While the rest of the Kambula Pride lay around fast asleep, one of the young female cubs decided to walk up to a large termite mound, where she could have a better look at a herd of wildebeest that were approaching in the distance.

This is the mother of the youngest three cubs of the Kambula Pride. As her cubs played about, urging her to join them, she kept them entertained by leaping up onto a fallen marula tree.

One of my favourite places along the Sand River is where there is a colony of White-Fronted Bee-eaters nesting along a steep bank. They provide beautiful photographic opportunities in the mornings or late afternoons.

The Ngungwe Female Leopard looks on into the distance where a large elephant bull was having a drink at a pan that was nearby.

A dazzle of zebra come down for a morning drink at a large pan in the southwestern reaches of the reserve. Some of them constantly lift their heads to look around and maintain awareness of their surroundings. This tells us that they have been ambushed by lions in the past whilst going down for a drink.

The young female cub of the Nkoveni Female is one of the most confident leopard cubs I have seen. Here she wandered off far from her brother, where their mother had left them. She attempts to get right up close to a herd of elephants that were in the area.

The cub of the Three Rivers Female. Here she rests on a fallen Knobthorn tree, while looking off into the distance where a White-browed Scrub-Robin was alarm calling. It is a very soft “churring” sound that can easily be overlooked. It’s incredible to see how fast young leopard cubs learn to associate certain sounds with certain situations that may be of great significance to them. Knowing the signs, out in the wild, can sometimes be the difference between life and death.

A crowned lapwing returns to her nest where she has laid three very camouflaged eggs. It will take about 1 month for her chicks to hatch. Their success will rely very much on the ability of the adults to lure predators away from the nest.

One of my favourite leopards – the Xinkhova Female. Only 15 minutes into our morning game drive, we were very lucky to have pulled off a long-distance spot. Posing beautifully, she rests high up at the top of an ancient termite mound.