Safari updates from Kings Camp
Morné Hamlyn provides some interesting updates on the wildlife he sees on a daily basis in South Africa’s Timbavati Private Nature Reserve, adjacent to the Kruger National Park. Morné is one of the rangers at Kings Camp, one of our favorite destinations in the greater Kruger region.
Leopards
Two of the female leopards on our traversing area are bringing a lot of excitement to our game drives. ‘Ntombi’ is a 4-5 year-old female that is showing signs of readiness to give birth to her first litter of cubs! This is great news for us, as the area around the camp is the core of her territory. This means that she will probably have the cubs somewhere close by in the river bed.
Ntombi on 'lookout' from a Marula tree.
Following Ntombi on Game drive.
The second female is known as ‘Rockfig Junior’. She is about 6 years old now and her first litter of two cubs are growing up fast now. They are now 4 months old and are very entertaining to watch on our safaris. She has one male and one female cub. I’ll keep you posted on future sightings of them.
Rockfig Jr - The proud mother.
Rockfig Jr. dragging a kill to cover.
Mum cleaning one of the cubs.
Siblings playing.
Lions
The ‘Xakubasa’ (pronounced “shakubasa” – meaning “white ones”) pride has provided a lot of great viewing. Two youngsters in the pride are white lions and it is the first time in years that we are again seeing white lions, something that made the Timbavati safari region famous in the 1970’s. The effect is known as ‘leukism’ (recessive genes) and is not ‘albinism’, as one would perhaps think.
The Xakubasa pride resting at Hide dam.
One of the white lions next to a tawny cousin.
White lion.
The adult lionesses watching an injured Cape buffalo.
The kill. Light was bad at 7pm.
The youngsters are not keen on the water.
The ‘Timbavati Boys’, a three-male coalition in the south, are spending lots of time back with the remaining three lionesses of the ‘Machaton’ pride. We suspect that one female has given birth and I will update on this in a future post. The 6-year-old female did mate with one of ‘the Boys’ not long ago, so hopefully we’ll have a few cubs to report about in the next few months.
Timbavati male and Machaton lioness.
Mahlatini male from the northern coalition.
Sightings of Cape buffalo, White rhino and Elephants are prolific and the general game sightings have been good as well.
Cape buffalo.
White Rhino bull.
White Rhinos drinking water.
Elephant dust.
Elephant bull.
Zebra and wildebeests on the grasslands.
Spotted hyena cubs.
Looking forward to giving you many more updates from the Timbavati!
Kind Regards,
Morné Hamlyn – Kings Camp guide.
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Wow! its really great! I wish I could be there! Eyes on Africa rocks, this is how I want to spent my life. Let’s see where I end up.
Best wishes to Eyes on Africa!
Waiting for next post about Rockfig junior.