Hi all…

 

These last two weeks have been extremely productive and game viewing on a high.

Some of the highlights,

After spending some time tracking the lions one morning we came across them in a lovely area with shade, water and noticed they had full belly’s. The next couple of days lead to some close sightings and watched them become more and more active as they digested there meal with this in mind we knew the next hunt was close approaching.

 

One evening as the sun was setting we brought out the spotlights and were looking forward to finding some nocturnal species, after some time we heard the alarm calls of some wildebeest and to any guide these calls are all ways of interest.

On approaching the area one of the males was crouched as low to the ground as possible and we realised we were in the middle of the hunt we switched the lights off as to not interrupt them and after a few minutes we heard the lions had managed to get hold of a sub adult, lights back on to watch the rest of the hunt it is quite rare to be able to witness such an event, an exciting one at that.

 

The wild dogs have made there way onto the reserve and we are hoping they make themselves at home they were spotted from the deck of the lodge while our guests were having breakfast what a pleasure. We look forward to finding them soon.

 

A hyena was spotted merely 400m from the lodge feeding on an impala carcass these amazing animals play an important role in the ecosystem.

 

On the bird side of things a Spotted Eagle Owl was seen taking a bat in mid air as a meal for the evening.

Secretary bird, Brown Snake –Eagle, Bateleur, Broadbilled Rollers, Ostrich babies have all been seen on drive and many more.

 

We look forward to this coming week .

Keep well all

Regards

The Guides

Good morning all,

 

This week has had some fantastic viewing, with several being truly unforgettable.

 

Early this week we watched a male leopard for over an hour as he casually spent the evening relaxing as the sun went down before he moved off into the bush to prepare for the nights actives.

 

One of the other big cat sightings this week was a female cheetah and her three cubs which have been adventurous and bold as they have been seen a number of times this week in a variety of locations in the southern section of the reserve we hope to be seeing more of the cubs as they explore more of the area.

 

We’ve had some very rare birds this week including two palmnut vultures at one of the dams and we’ve seen the beautiful redheaded weavers nesting on the reserve this is incredible as we are 100km outside of there normal distribution, we look forward to seeing if they continue to settle down here.

 

Enjoy the next week.

 

The ranger team.

Good morning all.

 

We’ve had 2 busy weeks pass, and special animal sightings all over the show.

 

The 3 lion brothers are growing up and are exploring vigorously. They seem to be slowly defining a territory as they’ve been hanging in and around a certain area for the past week. On a couple of occasions the dominant male has been heard vocalising, a new ‘truly African’ sound to Leopard Mountain. The brothers have certainly been eating well… They were found, having fed on a massive warthog boar, lying on their backs with legs in the air happily digesting one afternoon.

 

One beautiful dark evening, with a gentle breeze, we found them in the road stretching, getting ready for a hunt. We followed them sneaking their way through the thicket and onto an open plain. In the distance there were 2 buffalo bulls happily bathing in a mud wallow. We moved across the grass plain and parked the vehicle into a position as not to disturb them. The 2 more dominant lions trapped the one buffalo up against a thorn bush from either side, and were moving in for the kill. All of a sudden the buffalo had enough of this and charged at the lions, chasing them both off with their tails between their legs.

The 2 year old lions are still inexperienced, but taking chances is the best way to learn.

 

On the birding side of things we’ve noticed a new immature female bateleur taking to the skies and a male spotted eagle owl perching in the area. One morning we had a small flock of white fronted bee-eaters flying back and forth over our heads. It was very nice to see them as according to their distribution map Leopard Mountain is on the fringes of the regions they occur in.

 

Have a great week.

Hope to see you all soon

 

Dylan

Good morning and happy new year everybody.

The new year has brought an array of sightings with it.

A couple of drives have produced leopard shortly after sunset.
A large male leopard has been seen twice in an area that he hasnt been seen in before. This is a great sign as it may mean we have a new comer to the area and some new jeans.
The female with two cubs of about one year of age has finally showed her cubs off.

She and her two sub adults were spotted only 400 meters from the lodge, crossing the road and making their way up to the rocky outcrop just above the lodge.

The cheetah has been spending the heat of nearly every day on a dam wall which is very well shaded and full of water after the last rains.
It seems he never looks to be hungry, he rather looks full and content and even proud of himself as he lies and enjoys his afternoon naps.

Buffalo sightings have been plentyful too. Two herds have been viewed on a number of occasions here at leopard mountain.

The elephant breeding herd along with the dominant bull have decided to come back to the leopard mountain area from up north. after finding tracks and signs in the form of broken marula branches it was very simple to catch up with the herd.

Elephants, although large, can simply melt into the thicket right beside you leaving nothing but dust and tracks in their paths. The most effective way to find elephants in thick cover is simply to switch off the vehicle and listen out for the sounds of cracking branches and deep rumbles that elephants produce when communicating.

The coalition of lion brothers have also made a strong presence in the last week.
with bellies even fuller than the cheetah, viewing has been a pleasure.
The three brothers even splayed themselves out in the middle of the road on one occasion, surprising every vehicle full of guests as they turned a corner and happened upon these large felids.

Have a great week all.

The ranger team.

Hi all and Merry Christmas.....

The last week has been festive and the animals have spoilt us with some really amazing sightings and specail christmas meals. On christmas eve everyone was treated to a full six course meal our chef Ashton spoilt everyone with a homemade christmas cake ice cream and then in the morning after game drive we stopped for a bush breakfast.

Sighting this week included three female leopards on separate occasions, one of the females was spotted merely 300m from the lodge with two beautiful cubs, we had seen there tracks alot over the last two months but only now they are starting to venture out with their mother.
Another female leopard is a young individual that has not been seen in the area before and we are hoping she settles to eventually have her own cubs.

The coalition of our lion brothers are keeping fit and fat with there manes getting bigger by the day, we had picked up on there tracks one afternoon after a slight morning rain, the tracks lead us into the dry manyoni river where we came across a small herd of buffalo bulls who were relaxing and cooling themselves off by a small mud wallow, they slowly moved off into the thickets so we followed and found our male lions just around the corner much to the buffalo's surprise the lions gave a short chase and gave up only to retire in the shaded area along the roadside with there belly's full from the previous days meal.
All in all an amazing sighting yet again.

Good news our female lion have arrived and will be released shortly once they have settled we look forward to the release and for them to join our males.

Our bird for the week is the Greater Spotted Cuckoo which has been viewed on a number of drives, the male has been flying to and from the female with caterpillars to impress her and prove he can look after her fledglings.

We are looking forward to the new year and from everyone at Leopard Mountain we wish you all the best for the new year.

Chat soon
The Ranger Team

Good morning all.

There have been a number of leopard sightings over the last week, with two being of particular excitement.

A large male leopard was viewed drinking water at close range. When the leopard was approached,he merely moved about 10 meters away from where he was drinking, clawed away at a weeping boerbean tree and slowly moved off into the Msunduze riverbed.
This particular male leopard is believed to be the largest of the leopards on the reserve, possibly explaining his relaxed manner.

The second encounter was also rather close, with a well known female lying in the middle of the road, enjoying the early hours of the evening darkness.
Even when approached, the leopard seemed quite relaxed. After a few minutes of her lying about 3 meters off of the road, she slowly moved off into the darkness to assume her nightly duties.

The buffalo herds have also been ever present, a particular herd of 40 have been spending most of their time very close to the lodge. With the summer heat beating down and the absence of rain over the last week, the animals seem to be making good use of the shaded riverbed again.

The tortoises have also been very active of late. Now that summer is here there is alot of mating and egg laying taking place too. Leopard tortoises are the more common species in the area, yet there have been excellent natal hinged tortoise sightings too.
Natal hinged tortoises are a protected species and this particular species is one of the reasons Zululand Rhino Reserve is proclaimed to be a Protected Area.

Bush babies have been at the top of the nocturnal species sightings over the last week too.
The thick tailed bush baby is the more common of the two species found in this area and only shows signs of activity once the sun has set completely and the stars are out above. A small family of three have become quite relaxed with our presence on game drives. we have had the opportunity to view them vocalising, interacting with one another through grooming and even viewed them feeding on tree sap.

Large spotted genet have been out in large numbers too. It seems there is a lot of pairing up between male and female genets of late due to breeding beeing very present. more than just a few pairs of genets were viewed this week, scuffeling about at ground level under the cover of nightfall.

A rather rare sighting of red headed weaver birds was shared this week too. The last time one of these beautifully coloured weavers was viewed anywhere close to this area was four years ago, not to mention the fact that the sighting was some 40 kilometers from leopard mountain. A definite rare speciality.

A male cheetah was also ever present this last week, with most of his time being spent relaxing under a shady patch, generously provided by an overhanging acacia on a dam wall. this dam wall also seems to give the cheetah a great vantage point to overlook the open plains surrounding him.

Have a great week all.

The ranger team. 

Good evening all.

So much has been going on over the last week, its been a really busy and productive one.

Buffalo sightings have been shared amongst the guides very often this week with a number of the sightings being around the leopard mountain area in specific. A couple of very relaxed old buffalo bulls were viewed wallowing on numerous occasions. Something buffalo favour once they start loosing their hair as the summer sun beats down in the heat of the day.
There is also an abundance of buffalo calves amongst the larger herds that seemed somewhat intrigued by our presence as we viewed the herd wallowing and drinking in the late afternoon.

A nesting pair of tawny eagles have been very obliging this last week.
Tawny eagles are one of the true eagles which are generally shy raptors, however this particular pair allowed for some great photography opportunities and excellent insight into their daily activities.
Sightings of paradise whydahs and pin tailed whydahs in their full breeding colours and plumage have also been abundant this week.
We have also noticed the arrow marked babblers are teaming up and calling in large groups along the rocky outcrops just below the lodge lounge area.

The vervet monkeys have been amongst the most entertaining over the last couple of drives with the large amounts of youngsters playfully interacting with eachother at ground level.
Although amongst the most intelligent of the animals in the african bush, these young vervets seem to be completely oblivious of what is going on around them whilst playing together.

One of the male cheetahs on the reserve managed to get himself into a bit of a tangle with a journey of giraffe earlier this week. Whilst happily minding his own business, the cheetah seemed more focused on marking his territory than anything else, however the giraffe felt otherwise about the whole debacle.
A couple of giraffe cows wondered over to investigate what the cheetah was up to and seemed to scare the cheetah right out of its spots. At a speed of what seemed to be the equivalent of light, the cheetah jumped and turned to face the giraffe, hissing and spitting at them and then almost at the same time, ran off!! The disgrunteled giraffe stood very confused and eventually lost interest before tucking into some fresh acacia shoots and carrying on normally as if nothing had happened!!

Have a great week.

The ranger team.

Good afternoon all.

This weeks drives have been extremely productive.
A really close leopard encounter is right at the top of the BRILLIANT sightings list. It seems a particular female leopard is roaming and hunting in a very small area, not moving very far at all. This gives us good reason to suspect the possible birth of a leopard cub or maybe even two.
This leopardess allows us to look closely into her daily activities shortly after sunset. She is also very relaxed and never seems to move too far whilst we view her.

The elephant bulls have been seen on a number of occasions too. The large one tusker bull has returned to the south of the reserve which has allowed for some excellent viewing. The bulls still seem to be pushing large acacias down for the nutritious roots below ground level.
The two tusker bull is always following very closely behind the breeding herd, never allowing the herd to stray too far out of reach.

With the recent rains there is a large amount of water all over the reserve. This provides for good mud wallows for the older buffalo bulls, also known as 'dagga boys'. The old buffalo bulls also have copius amounts of grass available to them after the rains and never have to stray too far from the wallows which they appreciate on the warmer days.

Bird life is booming at the moment. Sightings of narina trogon have been shared amongst the guides. It seems there is a lot of competition between the male trogons at present as they chase eachother through the thick forrest canopies fighting for territory and females.
A great sighting of black cuckoo shrike also added to the birding list this week, aswel as a great sighting of a scaly throated honeyguide in the forrests just above the msunduze river banks.

Have a great week all.

The ranger team. 

Good evening all.

Last nights drive was yet again a definite one to remember.
Shortly after sunset i decided to head up to a hill top that hosts two large old reservoir tanks which are often filled to supply certain areas on the reserve with water.
These tanks also supply animals such as elephant, giraffe and even leopard with water.

Just before the tanks were in sight, i caught a pair of golden eyes reflectiong the light from my spotlight back in our direction. There it lay, a beautiful female leopard. She again was so relaxed and unphased by our presence that she merely moved 20 meters off of the beaten track and came to a lying position facing in our direction.
The bonus was definately seeing a large male arrive into the sighting shortly after we discovered the female.

The moths are also out in numbers at the moment. Shortly after the rain had stopped, we noticed that species including lunar moths, atlas emperor moths, owl moths and the very glossy peach moths have been very active.
These species all make for great photo oppertunities.

Have a great evening all.

Wez.

Good morning all.
Yesterdays drive was another to remember.

The plan was to head out and enjoy some birding and also to do a bit on trees.
myself and my guests did just that.
The definite highlight with regards to the birds was the incredibly relaxed Narina Trogon that we spent a good ten minutes viewing.
This particular Narina Trogon was so relaxed with our presence that he sat right above us and was more concerned with the babboons milling about a few trees down than anything else.

Besides the fact that we spent some time viewing a nice group of old buffalo bulls, lying fast asleep right beside the road and an equally good amount of time with a very relaxed breeding herd of elephant, we also saw a LEOPARD!!!!

This particular female leopard was as relaxed as the trogon was earlier the same afternoon. She lay right beside the road, looking over at the vehice, almost as if to say: "WHO ARE YOU AND WHY ARE YOU STARING AT ME LIKE THAT"?

The more we see of this female leopard, the more we are starting to understand her and how she moves through her territory.

Stay alert for more updates.

Wez.