WILDLIFE REPORT SINGITA PAMUSHANA, ZIMBABWE For the month of May, Two Thousand and Eighteen Temperature Rainfall Recorded Sunrise & Sunset Average minimum: 15,4 C (59,7 F) For the month: 40,5 mm Sunrise: 06:25 Minimum recorded: 12,9 C (55,2 F) For the year to date: 396,2 mm Sunset: 17:19 Average maximum: 27,5 C (81,5 F) Maximum recorded: 32,1 C (89,7 F) Our renovated, refurbished and restyled lodge welcomed its first new guests this month, and the consensus from all who ve seen it so far is that it's a resounding success. Its contemporary, authentic, inviting and so luxurious. Every single detail is meticulous. The colour scheme echoes the rocks and lichens and adds such a light uplifting atmosphere. Take a look at Singita s website, Facebook page and Instagram feed in the next few weeks for more images, then book your place, and meet us on the deck photographed above for predawn coffee before game-drive! Just as the bush was drying out we received some wonderful late rains, 40,5 mm, and this has resulted in a flush of greenery and dense vegetation. We should normally be seeing the golden hues of autumn now, but
instead it is lush and while the grazers are feasting, the predators are lurking Some guests have been lucky enough to see incredible sightings from their transfers to and from the lodge and airport. One guest, upon entering the reserve, saw a herd of about 25 elephants crossing the road, with their little ones in tow, and making their way to drink and bathe at Sosigi Dam. Then further along the access road to the lodge they spotted a leopard lying on a termite mound! Departing for the airport some days later they were delayed by a pride of lions lying in the middle of the main road to the gate, the lazing cats having just hunted and feasted on a warthog! Here s our wildlife overview for May: Lions The lions have been seen hunting and killing an array of prey - kudu, waterbuck, buffalo and wildebeest. The main culprits are the Chiredzi River Pride, who number up to 14 individuals when all together. Guide Mark Friend s guests were spellbound when they watched lions hunting a wildebeest which the predators were successful in bringing down right near the vehicle. Mark reports, The guests then enjoyed an incredible Nat Geo quality sighting of ten lions, including cubs, fighting over the prime parts of this catch, while being only metres from the entire action. Guide Japhet Diza found a solitary lioness near the dam with blood all over her face, but it seemed she didn t even have time to clean herself before heading for the hills. She was lactating and Japhet was sure she had cubs stashed away in a secret rocky outcrop. But it was Guide Tengwe Siabwanda and his guest who saw the little cubs for the first time he spotted a pride of five lionesses walking along a road one late afternoon, with three little bundles of about 12-week-old cubs tripping along among them.
Leopards Our leopard sightings can be fleeting, but here are extracts from our guides daily sightings reports that show we often have quality viewing: Alex Kadziyanike: Just after viewing the elephant, a few hundred metres on, there was a male leopard up a tree. He stayed a while until he decided to climb down and disappeared into the thicket. Dharmesh Daya: Later on we had a great view of a leopard across the Chiredzi River disappearing into the reeds, as well as a hyena in the same area. Japhet Diza: First day back on our way back we spotted a leopard up a tree, where it intently watched some impala. Tyme Mutema: North of Nyari Pan was an adult male leopard lying relaxed in a leadwood tree. Mark Friend: We located eight lions on the north-west side of Banyini where we spent the next five hours watching them go about their life. During this time we were rewarded with seeing two different leopards - one large male climbed a tree to try and get a better view of the lions, giving us a sighting of him lying on a branch. One of the lionesses saw him and went over to see him off. A bit later we heard a black-backed jackal calling towards the north-east side of Banyini, so we went to investigate and found a female leopard hunting an impala along the road. Just as the cat charged the ram and was about to pounce, a screeching spurfowl was flushed by the leopard. This gave the impala sufficient warning and allowing him to make his escape. Cheetahs It has been really difficult to see cheetahs with the grass being so unseasonably tall at the moment, but we did have an excellent sighting of two brothers drinking at a pan, and then relaxing on the short grass nearby for a couple of hours. Rhinos By our high standards the rhino viewing has been harder than normal, but as the ground began drying out towards the end of the month they were drawn into more open areas and permanent water sources. That said, all guests are guaranteed of rhino sightings during their stay, often multiple sightings a day. The largest crash seen this month was of 12 white rhinos at a pan. What has been especially delightful is the baby boom currently taking place we are seeing some newborns that look like cross between Shrek and piglets! A shy yet volatile black rhino peers at us from behind dense vegetation, compared to this more confident white rhino that steps forward to inspect us. Elephants Elephant sightings have been excellent especially of breeding herds with their young ones. A highlight of one of the boat cruises was watching about 15 elephants swimming in the mouth of the Nyamasikana River. Several bulls, either alone or with a couple of askaris, have been seen on a daily basis.
Buffalo There are some huge congregations of buffalo about, numbering well into the hundreds. Guests have been enjoying watching them as they feed, deal with herd politics, and nurse their young. The associated bird activity with a herd is also fascinating the oxpeckers combing through hairy hides and tick birds catching flushed insects as the beasts stir up the undergrowth. Wild dogs The wild dogs have been giving us the run around but the great news is that they are on the reserve and are busy denning. Guide Japhet Diza spent six days hunting every corner of the property for them until he eventually caught up with them chasing a leopard through thick bush. It seems that two females are pregnant, which is very rare, so we look forward to seeing the pups and what dynamic plays out. Hyenas Hyenas are most often encountered along the road, at dawn or dusk, as they set about their nocturnal activities. This one was seen eating scraps at the base of a tree. One can surmise that a leopard may have hoisted a small kill in the night, and small bits had fallen to the base of the tree trunk. An opportunistic hyena, with their incredible sense of smell would have made quick work of any leftovers. Plains game Common plains game sightings have been plentiful, while the more timid members such as sable, hartebeest and eland are enjoying their specialist diet deep within the thickets. Unusual sightings There have been quite a few unusual sightings since the reopening of the lodge this month. There was a great viewing of a Cape clawless otter fishing in the dam, a beautiful sighting of a serval cat - they look like small versions of cheetahs, and this distant sighting of an African wild cat - the long-legged common ancestor of all domestic cats around the world.
Fishing and boat cruises Even though the water is getting quite cold we ve been having some fairly good fishing, with quite a few bream and tigers being landed. The boat cruises are always abundant with natural beauty, hippos and birdlife. The highlight of one of them was seeing a black rhino drinking from the water s edge. Day trips Guests have enjoyed the option of a full day game viewing in the adjacent Gonarezhou National Park where sightings of kudu, nyala, zebra and big tusker elephants were abundant. Seeing an old friend again By Tengwe Siabwanda The 30 th of May was a great afternoon! We sat and watched two lions mating at Chimize Pan for some time, before driving past Whata Pan where we spotted a male leopard (Panthera pardus) sitting in the shade. He is a territorial male that is well known to us and easily identified by a tear through his one nostril. After not seeing him for months during the lodge renovation, and while my fellow guides and I were visiting Singita Grumeti, it was like seeing an old friend again. He was feeding on the remains of a kill. After a while he left that and rested, nearly invisible, in the tall grass. Being somewhat restless he got up, strolled along a track for a short while, and then melted back into the camouflaging terrain. After that we found a large herd of Cape buffalo feeding along Buffalo Fence Road.
Following lions on foot By Dharmesh Daya After a long shut down while Singita Pamushana was being renovated, it is absolutely awesome to be back in the field and guiding again. The bush is looking so good as a result of the controlled bush fire towards the end of last year and the late but good rains of this season, making the vegetation lush and beautiful. This has obviously made finding game a little more challenging, but still we have had some amazing game viewing. One morning, after leaving the lodge with the plan of finding fresh white rhino tracks for us to follow and hopefully locate the owner, we hadn t progressed very far before our plans were put on hold. Just by the old hyena den on West Valley Road that leads from the lodge there was a breeding herd of buffalo (Syncerus caffer) on one side of the road, and on the opposite side of the road, lying alert under the magnificent mountain acacias (Brachystegia tamerandoides) were the younger members of the Chiredzi River Pride of lions (Panthera leo). We sat and watched the play in front of us, expecting a mad stampede from the buffalo as the hiding pride adults came boiling out of their ambushing places to attack the bovids. Well, just as our plans to go and track the rhino early in the morning never happened, neither did the hunt. The youngest members of the pride could hardly believe their eyes, seeing their favourite food source so close, but not being able to have any of it. Leaning against a tree trunk was a young adult lioness, the most promising instigator of a hunt, but she seemed reluctant to get going and yawned extravagantly instead. At one point a cub got up, walked over to her, put a paw on her back, and seemingly directed her gaze towards the buffalo.
Without any sign of the older experienced hunters making a move the youngsters got up and headed quickly for the hills. We tried to anticipate their movements and where they were likely to pop out into a clearing, but after 30 minutes of no luck that plan too had to be changed. Curious as to what happened to the lions I decided the best plan would be to go back to where we last saw them walk into the bush and then track them from there, through the hills. There is something pretty exciting about tracking lions on foot and this walk was no different. The lions finally joined one of the major hippo trails leading from the dam. At the pace the lions took off when we saw them, Robert (my tracker) and I were certain we would have to track them for a long time before we would catch up to them. As always it s a great pleasure watching Robert at work reading the signs left by animals as they move through the bush. In the end we did not have to walk too far to find the entire pride fast asleep. The hills around them made for a great place for us to climb and watch them. We spied the lions for quite a while before one of the cubs saw us. It was kind of a funny moment as he did a double take when he noticed us.
It took a while before the whole pride moved off. It was a great change to watching lions from a vehicle and we all thoroughly enjoyed the experience of walking in the bush. Handsome wild beast By Mark Friend We had a great morning drive with half the morning being heavily fogged out, giving us a wonderful mystical bush adventure feeling. Our guests enjoyed some awesome photoshoots of various animals in the fog such as kudu, eland, impala and, my favourite, a hippo bull thrashing around in the spooky-looking waters of Sosigi Dam, where he tried to get a hammerkop bird, that was using him like a taxi, off his head. As the sun broke through later in the morning this glorious wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus), was revealed. He was incredibly handsome as far as wildebeest go. This is a dominant bull wildebeest, and the reason we know this is because dominant bulls hold a territory, and they defend it from all other bull wildebeest. The arrangement in the world of wildebeests is that if the females move through your territory they are yours for that time. Ideally a wildebeest would want to secure a desirable territory that draws the females in, one with abundant food and permanent water, and that is exactly what this bull had done his territory is around the biggest permanent pan on the reserve, surrounded by nutritious grassland. Best he keep a lookout for the lions that have culled quite a few of his competitors in recent months.
Cleaning out the cobwebs This endearing little creature is a dassie or rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) and it was relaxing in a cobweb-filled hole of an old dead tree. Don t you just love the way its mouth forms a smile as it tilts it whiskery face? Here are some interesting facts to know about dassies. They spend about 95% of their time sun-bathing and resting because of their poor thermoregulation. Hyraxes have threechambered stomachs. They re related to elephants, manatees and dugongs. Dassies have black, rubbery pads on their feet that are moistened by numerous sweat glands and lift up in the centre for a suction cup-like effect. They have a gland on their backs that produces a pungent scent for communication and territorial marking. Their testes change with the seasons and can grow 20 times larger than their non-breeding season size. Rock hyrax songs are complex and use syntax. Rock hyraxes have at least 21 different vocalizations. Males also sing complex songs that can last for several minutes and serve a territorial purpose, like bird song. Dassies have highly developed social interactions with other dassies. Positive interactions include physical contact, such as huddling, or coordinated activity, such as sitting together. Negative interactions include exposing large incisors, displacement, growling, and biting.
All a twitter By Tyme Mutema It s been a privilege to guide some keen birders this month, and the many species we ve seen include African hawk-eagles, bateleurs, African fish eagles, African crowned eagles, common mynas, goliath and striated herons, water thick-knees, marabou storks, sombre bulbuls, long-billed and red-faced crombecs, African barred owls, melba finches, Arnot s chats, thick-billed cuckoos, Retz and white crested helmet-shrikes, eastern nicators and scarlet-chested sunbirds. We have also started seeing a pair of secretary birds roosting on top of a thorn tree in the central Banyini area. A juvenile African crowned eagle awaits its parents return to the huge nest in the fork of a baobab tree. One of the many specials for our area, a male Arnot s chat. A goliath heron stands stock still waiting for a potential meal to swim by, and slowly stretches a leg every now and again. An Egyptian goose crash lands upon another, knocking him off his perch and sending him flying.
A mature bateleur shows off the striking black plumage of an adult bird, with bright orange and yellow facial markings. An immature bateleur has a good shake of its brown feathers, dislodging a few and making way for the new growth of darker feathers.
May moments A hillside where baobabs jostle for space. An elephant bull finds the water not quite to his liking, and squirts it away.
This lone male lion divides the grass as he goes in search of his coalition brothers. A slender mongoose, in an unusually gregarious mood, poses on the Z-twist of a contorted tree.
A male giraffe leaves the water after a drink, just as the sun throws its last rays of light across the land. Written and photographed by Jenny Hishin, unless otherwise indicated Singita Pamushana Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve Zimbabwe Thirty-first of May 2018