WILDLIFE REPORT SINGITA PAMUSHANA, ZIMBABWE For the month of February, Two Thousand and Sixteen Temperature Rainfall Recorded Sunrise & Sunset Average minimum: 23,5 C (74,3 F) For the month: 14 mm Sunrise: 05:50 Minimum recorded: 20,2 C (68,3 F) For the year to date: 209 mm Sunset: 18:21 Average maximum: 34,9 C (94,8 F) Maximum recorded: 42,3 C (108,1 F) The rain in February has been sporadic and sparse, yet the reserve looks deceptively lush. With Singita Pamushana Lodge closed from mid February to mid March for refurbishment, the guides have been putting this period to good use by doing a refresher first-aid course, spending time at the shooting range, and going on a team-building day drive to our neighbouring Gonarezhou National Park, where 67 plants species, 70 birds and countless animals were spotted and identified. The highlights were being amongst 100 elephants and seeing two different African wild dog packs. Wildlife overview for February Lions All the guests that we had in the first part of February saw lions, so our system of a dedicated lion tracking team is working perfectly.
Cheetahs Cheetah sightings have been very good too, with all guests seeing these spotted beauties during their stay. Leopards Leopard sightings are rare and fleeting here. However, no sooner do you make a statement like that and you are proved completely wrong. One of our guides, Mark, had an excellent and lengthy sighting of a large male leopard, with the most unusual light blue-green eyes. It had caught, killed and was feeding on a zebra foal. Then one of the couples that work on the reserve spotted this gorgeous creature on the side of a main access road - perfectly relaxed in her cloak of darkness. Emily Capon, our lodge manager, was driving up the hill to Pamushana late one afternoon when, lo and behold, a leopard came trotting down the cobbled path towards her, before jumping on to the rocks, casting a goodbye glance over her shoulder, and disappearing! You can see the side view mirror of Emily's vehicle as she snapped this beautiful photo using her cell phone. Photo by Grant Nolan-Evans Photo by Emily Capon Rhinos Rhino sightings have been excellent as always. It is encouraging to see the population - especially the white rhinos, gain condition now that there is new green grazing material.
Elephants As long as you know where to look, you'll find plenty of elephants on this reserve. This lovely bull was on his own, feeding on the new green shoots. It's wonderful to watch them and start identifying individual character traits. This bull was a great tail-swisher! Buffalo & Plains Game There are many new-borns about at the moment. One of the stories that follow tells of the birth of a baby buffalo. Below are photos of a young nyala calf, resplendent in its chestnut and white-striped coat. Alongside is a very young zebra foal. You can see her coat is still fluffy and although her legs are almost as long as her mother's, her body is tiny. (Many plains game young have long legs, and it is thought that this is a survival adaptation so that they can hide behind the adults and not be singled out by predators.) Activities We've been taking our guests on some good long walks recently - but more about that in one of the stories that follow...
The perfect storm It's pitch black when I set out alone at 4am, with a needle in a haystack hope of finding African wild dogs in one of their many preferred hunting areas. I'm bumbling along at a snail's pace, drive around a gentle bend and am faced with an airborne impala flying through the air directly toward me in the vehicle - and a wild dog snapping at its hocks. I reflex brake, swerve and brace myself as the impala lands in front of the vehicle and clips the edge of the tracker seat. It falls and is stunned by the impact, I'm stunned by the horror, and the wild dog is standing there in the road stunned by its good luck. All three of us look at each other in confusion. Then we remember out roles of predator, prey and photographer. The impala gets up again and trots off into the thickets. The wild dog, that was a second away from catching it, gives chase. Its hunting partner appears and closes in on the scene and together they catch it in thick bush about 5 metres in from the road. I wait on the road till I'm sure they've killed, then go in to the thickets and watch them rip it to shreds.
A few minutes later the rest of the pack arrives and the commotion is awesome. A hyena materialises, tries its luck and is severely reprimanded. My heart is racing, I'm frantically photographing this whole scene in minimal pre-dawn light. Now I can hear a strange crashing about behind me and think there's possibly an elephant in the area. I'm standing straddled between the foot well and passenger seat, so lift my eye from the viewfinder and turn to look over my shoulder at what on earth could possibly be going on now - and am faced with the horn of a black rhino closing in on my bumper! It's clear that the black rhino would like to know what this large 'beast' is that has crashed into its territory. The hyena is bouncing around irritating the rhino, so the black rhino starts galloping after it in a circle around the
vehicle! Then once it has seen off the hyena it returns four times to investigate me - coming right up to the vehicle - only a few metres away, before galloping off in disgust each time. Finally it settles down, and seems to listen to the sounds I make as I speak to it in calm soothing tones. In the final photo you can see the front bumper of my vehicle with the attentive rhino in front of it and a couple of the wild dogs resting in the sand after eating their fill. Fortunately I was able to radio one of the other guides who had guests, as they left the lodge after sunrise, and they too were able to witness the last few minutes of the wild dog pack finishing the kill. A hidden treasure revealed Another 'concentration of sightings' scene occurred one afternoon, after we'd covered quite some distance without seeing much in the way of wildlife. All grouped together were some buffalo, zebra and a white rhino. We stopped in the shade and watched them for a while, then noticed that one buffalo cow's behaviour seemed restless and anxious. What we saw lying at her hooves, was a new-born calf. It was still wet and was yet to stand and suckle.
She must have given birth as we arrived and now wanted her baby to get up and away from what she perceived as potential danger. We soon left - but not before we witnessed these tender moments of the mother nuzzling her newborn, licking it, and trying to help it to its feet. As we slipped away rejoicing in the birth of this baby we saw it up on all four wobbly legs and tottering after its mother. It had achieved this milestone at only about 20 minutes into its life.
At El Niño's mercy El Niño is a climate cycle in the Pacific Ocean that has a global impact on weather patterns. We are satisfied when the summer rains begin soaking in during November, but because of the El Niño effect we only received a significant amount three months later in January. We hoped for more in February, but only a sprinkling came our way. While most of southern Africa is experiencing a severe shortage of life-sustaining rain our neighbours in central Africa are receiving a deluge. Above, a herd of eland head for the umbrella trees as the rain falls. Below left, a young white rhino, before the rains fell, shows signs of lowered body mass due to the lack of grazing. But now, below right, you can see another's much better condition, thanks to the improved grazing. This rhino even appears to be wearing lipstick because of the mud smearing on its lips!
A walk on the wild side One of the activities we really encourage here at Singita Pamushana is walking. Walking gives a different perspective and appreciation that you'll never get from a vehicle. Because of the late rains and resultant low grass, now is still a good time to take a walk on the wild side. There are also many sandstone outcrops that are suitable for hiking, offer vistas that no vehicle can, and have the most extraordinary rock art adorning their cave walls. Of course you don't want to do any unnecessarily close dangerous game encounters when on foot, but one morning we spent about an hour tracking this young male lion that had seemingly got separated from his pride the night before. Eventually we glimpsed him from a safe distance, sitting down among some Mopane Trees, before we left him to continue his search in peace. On a walk you have the opportunity to study tiny details - such as the tooth structure on a buffalo skull, the patterns of a leopard tortoise's shell, and the fleeting fluttering moment of butterflies mating.
All these little flowers, seed pods and lichen can get admired and studied in detail when you're on foot. It's ideal to walk just after a soft rain when all of Nature's colours are wet and saturated, and raindrops cling to 'paper-maché' petals.
It's humbling and fascinating to see the rock art paintings for yourself, or find a shard of ancient pottery like I did (see above). Although there was conflict between the San hunter-gatherers and settled farming communities, the San were acknowledged to have supernatural rainmaking powers and were tasked with making rain for the farming communities.
February moments With only 14 mm of rain and some scorching days the animals have displayed some wonderful ways of soothing the skin and cooling down. Powdering by nose: We might use talcum powder to make our skin feel soft and smooth, but this elephant demonstrated how they use dust, picked up in their trunks and blown onto their bodies to do the same. Belly of pork: How fantastic are these two warthogs having a jolly good mud bath and uninhibited wallow? They were 'snorking' and grunting with delight as they did so. Such admirable and enviable inhibition! All a twitter It certainly was a case of 'all a twitter' when we came across this colony of male weaver birds frantically and fastidiously knitting and weaving together nests for breeding females. They build their nests over a pool of water (preferably) and at the end of long thorny branches - this way no terrestrial animals can leap up and grab the eggs or the nestlings, and snakes are deterred from slithering up the branches.
This woodland kingfisher was displaying his desirable breeding status by calling loudly and spreading his bright turquoise-feathered wings. Written and photographed by Jenny Hishin, unless otherwise indicated Singita Pamushana Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve Zimbabwe Twenty-ninth of February 2016