WILDLIFE REPORT SINGITA PAMUSHANA, ZIMBABWE For the month of March, Two Thousand and Seventeen

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1 WILDLIFE REPORT SINGITA PAMUSHANA, ZIMBABWE For the month of March, Two Thousand and Seventeen Temperature Rainfall Recorded Sunrise & Sunset Average minimum: 19,7 C (67,4 F) For the month: 75.6 mm Sunrise: 06:02 Minimum recorded: 15,1 C (59,1 F) For the year to date: mm Sunset: 17:51 Average maximum: 29,6 C (85,2 F) Maximum recorded: 34,1 C (93,3 F) Winter is reaching towards us with her cold pale fingers. We ve had some misty mornings, prevailing cold fronts and a few rainy days. That said, and despite the still lush vegetation, we ve had some superb sightings including a purple patch afternoon drive that resulted in seeing the Big Five in two hours. There ve been many visits to Kambako for bushcraft demonstrations and cultural insights and experiences, as well as visits to our bush school centre where school children learn all about their wildlife heritage. We also offer a day trip into the Gonarezhou National Park, and this report takes a closer look at what guests can look forward to one of the highlights being a steaming cup of morning coffee with home-made crunchies and rusks, while gazing at the Chilojo Cliffs (see photo).

2 Wildlife overview for March: Lions We ve had excellent lion sightings, and they seem to be enjoying a varied diet this month. We ve seen lions with zebra, wildebeest, impala and buffalo kills. The pride with the four cubs are still doing well. An interesting sighting was of an adult male lion at the river, who had no signs of any mane, despite being old enough to have one. Leopards This has been one of our best leopard-viewing month s to date. Highlights included a male leopard that had killed a baby zebra and stashed it under some thick foliage at the top of an acacia tree. A female leopard that we recognise has a young cub of about four months old. We listened to her calling her cub and the cub, nervous but curious with us, calling back. Funny in its fortuitousness was when guests were on their first drive and it started with a superb sighting of a black rhino. Then six white rhinos were seen mud-bathing, along with a bull wildebeest. From there the guide reversed the landcruiser and turned onto a side track, only to see a huge male leopard resting up on the road! Very interesting viewing was that of a male leopard chasing another male off a hoisted impala kill that it had made. Could this be a new male wanting to challenge the resident male for his territory? Elephants Bull elephants are here and there, with breeding herds harder to find in the thick bush. Great elephant viewing still abounds though, like the guests that first saw four bull elephants and then later a large herd of about 40 females and youngsters that surrounded the vehicle and calmly fed, rubbed themselves on trees and wallowed in the nearby mud. Rhinos Good viewing of rhinos the best was of 12 white rhinos all together. But stealing the show for the month was a newborn baby rhino gambolling about at its mother s side.

3 Buffalos We ve seen huge herds of about 600, as well as smaller herds of over 200 with newborn calves among them. A favourite that has quietly crept into everyone s heart without them noticing is an old bull that lives at the base of Pamushana Hill where he enjoys a daily mud spar treatment. Wild dogs They are still on the property and doing well! Here the alpha pair relaxes among the string-of-stars flowers. Hyenas We ve had several hyena sightings, and some of the sub-adults have approached the vehicle for a very curious and thorough inspection.

4 Cheetah This male made up the majority of our cheetah sightings for the month. He was seen hunting on the grass plains that swathe his golden coat in emerald green. Plains game There are plenty of giraffe, impala, wildebeest and zebra to see, as well as shyer kudu and herds of eland. Rare sightings Rare sightings have included a serval, and a python sleeping in a tree. Far from rare but often overlooked are little beauties like this grasshopper.

5 Birds There ve been some very big ticks in March, including blue-cheeked bee-eaters, a narina trogan, a barn owl and a breeding pair of martial eagles on their nest. We spotted this little jewel fishing on the banks of the river a malachite kingfisher (Alcedo cristata). It dived into the water and speared a tiny fish, but it speared it through its dorsal fin. Kingfishers need to swallow their prey head first so that the scales, fins and tail slip down the throat without getting stuck. In trying to manoeuvre the fish into a head first position it dropped it, then dived straight back in to try and catch it again. Fishing There has been excellent fishing on offer one group of guests landed twelve tilapia and ten tigerfish in one fishing trip! The problem with this is that it becomes addictive and some guests end up choosing to go fishing instead of out on safari! Boat cruises Far calmer and less adrenalin-filled are our boat cruises out on the lake. Here you are guaranteed to see hippos and a host of birds, as well as breath-taking scenery. Water lilies grow on the edges of the lake with their round leaves floating on the surface and glorious star-shaped flowers reaching up to the sky. It s wonderful to float by and appreciate these moments, and watch for the little fish or frogs hiding among the lilies.

6 Pecking order This pride killed a zebra in the night, and when we found them the next morning in the rain the male was feeding at his own leisurely pace, while the lionesses and cubs looked on hungrily from the backline. Eventually a lioness slunk in and managed to take a leg without incurring the lion s wrath, but the youngsters had learnt the pecking order and hung back, finding it all a big frustrating yawn.

7 Leaps of joy Both these wild dogs and zebras were having great fun playing, and all the better if you can land a little nip in here and there. Young animals mimic actions from aggression, hunting, foraging, or sexual behaviours, and play is the practice ground for these.

8 A day trip to Gonarezhou National Park Gonarezhou National Park neighbours the Malilangwe Reserve to the south and is a vast scenic park full of rugged and beautiful landscapes that stretch over square kilometres. Gonarezhou means "Place of Many Elephants" and it is here that you ll find some of the largest-tusked elephants that remain in the world. We set off on our day trip, armed with a packed lunch, and headed south through our reserve to an entrance point of the national park at Chipinda Pools. It was overcast with a slight drizzle, and we stopped off to watch the Runde in full flow as it thoroughly washed its widest banks and jettisoned debris it no longer wanted. From there we followed the Runde to Chilojo Cliffs stopping for some excellent birding and to spot wildlife here and there. The park is home to most of the wildlife we see on our reserve, and has several packs of wild dogs roaming its expansive area. Its rivers are also home to aquatic wildlife such as the Zambezi shark, freshwater goby, black bream and the unique turquoise killifish. This landmark baobab has a hole right through its trunk, caused by elephants.

9 We were concerned that this baby croc found in a water-filled furrow on the side of the road had wandered too far from its home dam, but upon closer inspection we noticed these thick black knots of toad tadpoles in the furrow too, and knew that this young snapper would be snacking on these for all its nutritional needs.

10 This is one of the famed tuskers that roam the area. You can see a lump on the top of his neck - this is a radio collar. Excellent conservation initiatives are undertaken in the park by organisations that include the Frankfurt Zoological Society and African Wildlife Conservation Fund, and the monitoring of emerging and large tuskers is one of these initiatives. The cow elephant below gave us a clear message that she wanted to be left alone, and when we noticed how full her teats were it became clear she had a very young calf hidden in the bushes behind her.

11 We caught these naughty baboons raiding a baobab for fruit of course they were doing nothing wrong but they seemed to have such a guilty complex! They scrambled down the tree using the natural holes and scars of the tree as hand grips and, when these ran out, took giant leaps of faith into the thick foliage below. Some baobabs have consistent scars up their trunks, and these have been made by human honey collectors. The collector would have chopped into the trunk, sometimes even hammering a peg into it, and these would have formed a type of climbing ladder to reach the honey each season. Later on we came across these three baboons that were just hanging out, looking as if butter wouldn t melt in their mouths. Baboons never disappoint with their behaviour you just have to laugh at their gross misconduct, mischievousness, pranks and pure devilry!

12 During our exploration of the park we came across these beautiful antelope species. This pair of klipspringers staked their territory from a rocky outcrop. The male was on the highest point, lying down resting but still keeping a good lookout for potential danger, and the female stood poised on her ballerina hooves, chewing the cud. The female kudu strolled through a meadow dotted with mauve flowers. The green season is such a beautiful time to visit the park or any safari destination. The skies are dramatic, the animals are well-fed and gathered in herds, the vegetation is lush, bright and especially intense after it s rained and droplets still cling to the leaves and petals. These docile impalas and their lambs stood to attention as we passed, making sure we were no threat. Gonarezhou s wildlife is not as concentrated or diverse as Malilangwe s, and it is still wild in every sense of the word. The remoteness and ruggedness of the area means the animals are not used to seeing humans regularly and it s possible that you may be one of the few people that some of the youngsters have ever seen.

13 One of the most prominent and enduring natural features of Gonarezhou are these majestic Chilojo Cliffs. The striated red Jurassic/Cretaceous sandstone cliffs have been formed through eons of erosion and overlook the Runde valley. The cliffs rise 180 metres above the river course. This was where we stopped for brunch. There s a simple picnic site and it s the ideal place to contemplate the fragile beauty of life. The Runde was in full flow and such a contrast to winter when it s no more than a dry trickle in a sandy river bed. Thanks to the rain the strata of the cliffs looked saturated and clear and features like The Pinnacle stood out more than ever. It is possible to camp in the Gonarezhou National Park, and with time on your hands and enough air in your lungs you can hike to the upper viewpoint of the Chilojo Cliffs. From up there you ll have endless views over the reserve. At square kilometres it's bigger than the Grand Canyon National Park.

14 One of the highlights of our day trip was to see a large number of lesser spotted eagles (Aquila pomarina) gathered in one area and perching in the trees. They would have arrived here from their Baltic breeding grounds from mid-october. Their southward flight takes approximately 50 days, while their return migration in March takes twice as long. They follow the rain fronts as these induce termite eruptions, which are their main source of food. In the second photo a lesser spotted eagle occupies the same tree as a Meves s starling (lamprotornis mevesii), two fork-tailed drongos (Dicrurus adsimilis) and a southern grey-headed sparrow (Passer diffuses). Gonarezhou is a birder s paradise. Some of the more colourful species we saw (see the following page) included the white-fronted bee-eater (Merops bullockoides), European bee-eater (Merops apiaster) and Diderick cuckoo (Chrysococcyx caprius). If you are spending some time at Singita Pamushana I strongly recommend a day trip to Gonarezhou. It is essentially an all-day game drive to an pristine wilderness paradise.

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16 Photo tips The advice you ll normally get for giraffes is to photograph them from as low an angle as possible, to accentuate their height. I found the opportunity to turn this tip on its head when I crossed a bridge and saw a bull giraffe feeding in the riverbed below. Being above his eye-level gave a whole new pleasing perspective to his statuesque form. For an artistic effect you can consider the following treatment in post-production, that I ve given to this old kudu bull. I ve desaturated the image, isolated the disruptive background and desaturated it further and burnt out the edges. It gives the image a very tranquil soft feel while further glorifying the wildlife subject. Bur remember always focus on the eye. Our attention is always drawn to the eye of the subject. It s the element that gives life to the subject and connects us to it via eye contact. The closer you are to an animal the more important this becomes. Use a single autofocus point and move it to eye of the subject while maintaining your composition. Written and photographed by Jenny Hishin Singita Pamushana Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve Zimbabwe Thirty-first of March 2017