Sometimes a bit of heights is needed to spot ones prey. This Thanda Safari male Cheetah was hunting when I caught him on camera moving in and out of a tree.
We had another enjoyable game drive this morning. Just as the sun was about to burn away the morning mist, I took this image of two Lionesses with their five cubs.
After three month of lockdown Thanda Safari Tracker Siboniso and I took four guests on game drive this afternoon! And what a drive it was. It started with a crash of Rhino, an Elephant drinking at sunset, a Spider catching a Grasshopper and ended with a brief sighting of a male Leopard.
We had a great time even if I had to talk to my guests through a face mask. 😷 It is great to be back on the job!
A picture from my archives: What an exciting sighting when a Black Rhino met a Lioness.
Rhinos do not like Lions. Lions are wary of Rhinos. So usually they stay away from one another but sometimes the Lions’ hunting instinct gets the better of them and they try to edge close to the Rhinos, or the two species just meet by accident. As soon as the Rhinos realize the proximity of cats they get very upset and start chasing their foe. That is usually the end of the encounter because at this stage the Lions move away. Due to the bad eyesight of all adult Rhinos the Lions sometimes get quite close.
In this particular case the Black Rhino bull appeared over the dam wall when it almost bumped into the Lioness. The large herbivore immediately went for the cat which made a hurried retreat.
The reason why Lions are interested in Rhinos is because on occasion they get to kill a young Rhino calf. And therefore Rhinos instinctively dislikes all cats and want to get rid of them!
Earlier this week I caught this family outing on camera. Six Egyptian Goslings were out and about for a midday walk with their parents on the Thanda Safari savanna.
I had not seen Lions for quite a while but last night I found a single male in the western part of the reserve. It was be quite unusual that he was by himself.
He is part of a male coalition, but I assume his brother is attending to some Lionesses in estrous and inflicted some temporary social distancing rules on his brother 😊
I love to take pictures of Giraffes at sunset 😊 Due to their heights it is not too difficult to get a good silhouette shots even if it is not always possible to leave the vehicle and lay on the ground to get the best angle.
Yesterday evening I was looking for a pride of Lions in the western parts of the reserve. The cats did not cooperate to be found so I decided to take a short drone video of the beautiful Thanda Safari scenery in the rolling hills of Zululand!