Hyena Highlights (and more!) in Sabi Sands & Kruger

[Hads]

Great video thanks @LarsS - what a great day you had.

Looking forward to your next installment.

[Atravelynn]

The leopard looks very muscular and stocky.  The body almost reminds me of a jaguar. 

Hyenas still hiding.

[LarsS]

Tomorrow I'll update this TR again and I'm going to tease a little bit, because this 3rd day at Arathusa was beyond imagination!

 

I can give away it finally will be about hyenas! Here's already four of them for the waiting  

 

 

 

[Hads]

Bring on the Hyena show  

[LarsS]

Sorry to keep you waiting till now. First I was in a fight with my laptop and then struggled to publish my video to YT for unclear reasons. Therefore the update today consists of 'only' a video. But I'm sure it's worth it!

 

 

This 3rd day at Arathusa might be my best day on safari ever! It was really a crazy day.

 

We started with visiting the hyena den. We were lucky as the hyena pups/cubs were out and in a playful mood. Suddenly the mood changed. One of the baby hyenas got stuck and was attacked by his fellow babys. The panic made him behave like prey and the others all of sudden turned against him. The adults protected him and a little later he escaped and ran straight back in to the safety of the den.

Gameviewing afterwards was beyond expectation as well, with cheetahs and a leopard among the wildlife.

 

Back at the lodge I was enjoying the views when all of a sudden a herd of elephants walked past camp. It was a big herd, over 40 elephants. I followed them through camp to meet them at our private swimming pool. How amazing is that? The elephants were all around our bush chalet. Such a special moment to watch the elephants drink from our pool. We were only sitting/standing 5 meters away from them.

 

The day wasn't even over yet, because we still had to go on an afternoon gamedrive. Some common wildlife, the almost usual leopard on our drive and then... a hyena on a kill. This turned out to be a very special sighting. The hyena was chased away by a group of vultures. The vultures however couldn't enjoy their price very long. Shortly after the vultures took over, another scavenger made his appearance: a vicious honeybadger. As honeybadgers can be very aggressive, the vultures gave up the kill quite easily. The first time ever for me to spot a honeybadger and what a sighting it was!

 

Such an amazing day out in the bush!

 

 

[Pamshelton3932]

Wow!  That video was full of thrilling sightings.  The honey badger was the icing on the cake.

[LarsS]

I felt we were so lucky to be in Sabi Sands at the time there was a hyena den. As I've said before, I really like hyenas because of their curiosity and think they are beautiful creatures with often a sort of funny expression on their faces. Baby animals are always interesting, no matter what species actually. I'm grateful all hyenas were out of the den and in a very playful mood when we visited them. I'm not sure how long we stayed there, but it felt ages in a good way. (Btw, they had a one car at a time policy at the den to not disturb them too much)

 

Some of the hyenas were really young and suckling at the females. There were also a few youngsters a little bit older with already a more yellowish skin with black dots, whereas the pups/cubs were almost completely blackish.

 

Why are you rubbing against that three?

 

I know a funnier game to play!

 

 

 

Some cubs suckling just out of our sight.

 

 

Let's go out and explore!

 

 

 

How does a tree taste?

 

 

I don't know yet, but this is my tree! Stay away!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I grow up, I wanna be just like you!

 

 

 

As you might have seen in the video, one of the babies got stuck in a tree. After he managed to escape he flew into the den with all the other youngsters. The adults stood up and went into defensive mode to preotect the den from more dangerous trees.

 

 

[LarsS]

After spending a good amount of time at the hyena den, there still was plenty of time left on our gamedrive to find some good wildlife sightings. So we continued and soon found a giraf hiding in the bush. The giraf was a bit shy and kept hiding.

 

 

A little later we found a very nice male kudu with his curly horns.

 

 

 

 

When we were looking for a good spot to have our coffee&tea break, we discovered three cheetahs instead. They were on the move, so we followed them for a while. There were three of them, a mother and her two children. The mother was clearly in the lead. She decided which way to go and the children followed her lead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sad thing for the mother was that she's blind at one eye. On these photos you can see the difference between her blind right en left eye.

 

 

 

One last sight of them before we decided to say goodbye (for now).

 

 

We didn't waste time driving to a good spot for our break, but decided to have it closeby. Turned out to be a good choice, because there were a few ellies feeding there. There was a dry river between us with a steep slope to where we were standing. Safe for us and safe for the ellies. So they kept feeding and we had a nice view with our coffee and tea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We talked a bit about story of a ranger who shot an elephant in order to protect himself and guests. Our guide Jamie explained incidents like these are followed up with some investigation before returning to work into the bush again. We then asked if they have ever been in a situation like that. That's when our tracker (Norman if I remember correctly) told vividly about how he once encountered an elephant and how he managed to escape from it. Great storyteller and great setting with ellies within 20 metres  

 

 

It was time to head back to the lodge and only stop for something special. That didn't take long. By coincidence we stumbled upon a leopard. Another car was watching it but about the leave and make room for us. Managed to take a quick photo of the tracker sitting almost next to the leopard.

 

 

Then it was our turn to have a closer look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A very productive gamedrive to say the least. And it was only the start of a what turned out to be a very special day.

[LarsS]

The afternoon I spend some time sitting between wildlife watching wildlife.

 

 

There was a lot of wildlife passing on the plain in the front of the lodge. Some closer than others, hence some pictures which are a bit less sharp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice to see such a variety of animals when you just sit down on a bench to relax a little. I was already very satisfied with everything I had seen walk by when this happened.

 

[LarsS]

A herd of over 40 elephants made their entrance from to bush to the open plains. A lot of youngsters in the herd as well. They walked halfway the plains, stopped for a while and the continued walking.

 

 

 

When we were taken to our room at check-in, they explained to us elephants sometimes drink from the pool. When the ellies left the plains in the direction of our chalet, we hurried down there as well. Apparantly the route of the ellies was way shorter, walking to our room we already saw them standing at our pool. OMG! Elephants are drinking from our pool! Luckily the chalet is big and the entrance on the opposite of the pool, so no problem walking inside and watching them from only 5 metres.

 

 

 

 

 

Life is hard when you're little. This baby ellie was too little to drink from the pool. The other elephants were splashing the water, so this little fellow turned his trunk into a water vacuum cleaner and sucked up all the water on the edge of the pool.

 

 

 

 

 

It was a come and go of elephants. When the first ones had enough to drink, the youngsters started playing in the sand on the other side of the chalet. We were almost surrounded by elephants!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just couldn't believe we had the fortune to experience this! I felt so lucky and still get goosebumps looking back at the photos. I felt high of adrenaline. For me, it just doesn't get much better than this.

[LarsS]

We arrived a little late for our afternoon gamedrive, we didn't want to miss a second of our elephant experience. Luckily the elephants left just at the same time we had to leave. We came running to the car, the other guests and guide were really understanding when we explained why we were a bit late.

 

There was a lot of wildlife in the area around the lodge.

 

Male kudus

 

 

A five legged bull elephant, probably following the herd for the females.

 

 

A waterbuck which we hadn't seen so far.

 

 

A giraf

 

An impala just before he walked out of sight

 

And is this a green pigeon?

 

 

It was almost getting dark, but not before we found an hyena on a kill.

 

 

He was feeding himself on an impala.

 

 

 

 

 

However, soon this wasn't a private dinner anymore. First vultures came to the scene.

 

 

 

The hyena dragged the carcass away in the hope to lose the vultures.

 

 

The vultures didn't give up though. The hyena started to get nervous and decided to give up his dinner and ran away. Much to the joy of the vultures.

 

 

Just when the first two vultures started feeding, a honeybadger showed up. I was so happy to see my first honeybadger ever. I'm pretty sure I heard one in Botswana when it was night and we were up in our tent. But now in the last minutes of daylight we could see him clearly walking through the grass in the direction of the vultures and impala remainings.

 

 

 

Without a fight he took the impala from the vultures, despite a lot of vultures being around. Only two vultures had a bite and the others missed out now.

 

The honeybadger dragged the impala underneath a tree, to be more protected from vultures and started feeding.

 

 

 

It looks lighter on the pictures than it was in reality. My wife struggled with the poor light conditions, so these are the only photos worth sharing. In my video above you might have seen already more footage of this event, I've also made a special video of it, an extended version of how it all unfolded.

 

 

[Peter Connan]

Wow, what a great sighting!

[Tdgraves]

@LarsS wow what a great first honey badger sighting and yes, it is a green pigeon

[LarsS]

Thanks @Peter Connan and @Tdgraves, it really was interesting to see how it developed. Could never imagined this would be my first honeybadger sighting.

[LarsS]

Time for another video, we're nearing the end of our stay in Sabi Sands. This video is about the 4th day and morning gamedrive on the 5th day. We thought of skipping the morning gamedrive on our day of departure and head to Graskop straight away. I'm glad we didn't do it, because we had another great hyena sighting that I wouldn't have missed. A few hyenas were feeding on a kill, but due to their strict hierarchy, one had to waits its turn and made it vocally very clear that he was not happy with that. The crying and begging started of some very interesting scenes. Hope you enjoy it!

 

 

I'll update it tonight (Dutch time) with more photos as well.

 

And although our stay at Sabi Sands is over, the trip report will have one more hyena highlight before our holiday ended.  

Edited June 3, 2019 by LarsS

[LarsS]

The fourth day in Sabi Sands. Is there anything new to see after having so much amazing sightings, especially on our third day?

 

The started and I was still happy to jump out of bed early in the morning. At the same time I felt very relaxed, we had seen so much, that everything we would go to see would feel like a bonus. We hopped into the car and after a little driving around we found our first animal of the day: a waterbuck. There appeared to be only one, others probably were closeby. This one was hiding a bit as well. We hadn't actually a lot of waterbuck, so nice to spot this one.

 

 

 

 

The elephants were next. A small group of ellies was walking paralel to the road we were driving on. I can't see too much ellies in my life probably.

 

 

When you're mother is taking forever to move, just give her push

 

 

 

The younger the ellie, the more happy they look. Look at this smiling fellow.

 

 

From one grey giant to another. A huge white male. I've seen quite a lot of rhino, but this one looked pretty impressive to me. Might be the biggest I've seen so far.

 

 

 

 

 

More white ones were in the area. This time a mother and her calf.

 

 

Look at the size of the head of the mother compared to the calf.

 

 

The ears of the calf are straight up in the air, on all the pictures I took.

 

 

 

The morning kept being very grey, but in a good way  

 

Another elephants ripping a tree apart and feeding on the branches.

 

 

 

And then, a new species! A brief cameo of two jackals. They were running through the bush, to fast for us to catch up with them.

 

 

 

A giraf on it's way to breakfast.

 

 

 

 

 

At first sight it doesn't look like it, but this is one popular giraf. It looks like he's completely on his own, but he appeared to have a lot of smaller friends. Ten oxpeckers were riding his back, pretty crowded giraf back!

 

[LarsS]

No predators this gamedrive? I can hear you think it, but ofcourse there were predators! A pride of lions, still in a deep sleep. They probably had a busy night.

 

 

Not sure if this is a very comfortable pose.

 

 

This one looks to pretend to be a hare, the way she holds her front legs.

 

 

Just when we decided to let them sleep and continu our drive, one female lifted her head. As soon as the guide started the car, she looked to know we would leave and immediately went back asleep.

 

 

We only drove 200-300 metres and found another lioness. She was also part of the pride, but somehow ended up a little further on a small hill. She kept contact with the pride with quiet calls. She kept calling them, not knowing that the others were all in a deep sleep. We didn't hear a call back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Only one lion, but a lot of people watching it. The 8 people in our car ofcourse, but several hundreds or thousands more. How's that possible? Well, SafariLive was broadcasting our sighting. Funny to see them in real life.

 

[Big_Dog]

Wow, 'hyaena highlights' wasn't wrong! Great intro to honey badgers too, and what a cool display of strength as he dragged away the carcass. The socialisation over the carcass is wonderful to see, at an individual level where bonds and rivalries are clear. Great behaviour well captured.

And SafariLive...interesting sighting hah!

[Hads]

Those Elephants surely drank alot of water from your pool @LarsS.

The Honeybadger is also a wonderful sighting really enjoying your report thanks mate.

[LarsS]

I see I forgot to post the extended video of the hyenas fighting over the carcass. In the first video I only posted a few clips, to keep the total video at an acceptable length.

 

But for those of you who are interested in more of the hyena clan interaction, here's an extended 3.45 minute video of the hyena crying and begging to get a piece of the kill.

 

 

[LarsS]

14 hours ago, Hads said:

Those Elephants surely drank alot of water from your pool @LarsS.

The Honeybadger is also a wonderful sighting really enjoying your report thanks mate.

 

The people at the lodge told us that sometimes the elephants empty the pool completely. We were lucky they weren't with enough to do that and leave some water for us to cool down in. (next morning staff already refilled our pool by the way)

 

 

21 hours ago, Big_Dog said:

Wow, 'hyaena highlights' wasn't wrong! Great intro to honey badgers too, and what a cool display of strength as he dragged away the carcass. The socialisation over the carcass is wonderful to see, at an individual level where bonds and rivalries are clear. Great behaviour well captured.

And SafariLive...interesting sighting hah!

 

I was really surprised the honeybadger would be the one coming out as the winner. And indeed, for such a small animal to carry a big carcass with that with his jaws, that sure is impressive!

[LarsS]

Looking back at the photos and videos we took on the last day, I can tell we were really satisfied by everything we had seen so far. We spent less time on our cameras, more time to just sit in the car and be happy to be in the bush. Ofcourse I'm always happy to be in the bush, but you know you're really satisfied and spoiled when you only grab your camera for special sightings. The photos of the evening gamedrive were just about that: a special sighting. Nothing else was photographed, although we did spot some other animals.

 

The special sighting was a leopard up in a tree, together with it's prey. The kill probably wasn't made long ago. The leopard was breathing heavily and needed to recover from an effort of the chase and/or dragging it up in the tree.

 

This is what a tired leopard looks like

 

You can see the kill to the right in the tree.

 

The leopard didn't get much time to close his eyes. Something was going on, the leopard was aware, but we weren't sure what yet.

 

 

 

 

The smell of the kill had been picked up by a hyena, we came to have a look if there was anything to steal. With the kill high up in the tree, there wasn't a lot for the hyena to do, apart from being patient. The hyena lay down underneath the tree, eager to see if the carcass or pieces of it would fall down.

 

 

The leopard just stared down at the hyena. We watched it for a while, but nothing else happened. Both animals were taking there time and just relaxed.

 

 

[LarsS]

The next day we would be leaving Sabi Sands. We thought of leaving without a morning gamedrive, as our plan was to drive to Graskop and explore Blyde River Canyon, several waterfalls, etc. But ofcourse we couldn't leave with one last gamedrive! What were we thinking?!

 

This rhino was protesting against our thoughts and not very willing to cooperate on the gamedrive, so he decided to hide between the bush.

 

 

A little later there was a brief cameo of a warthog. He probably heard about our initial plans to and didn't gave us a good photo opportunity either.

 

 

 

Dear animals, we're sorry, we didn't mean it! If there's one place I can be, I choose the African bush all the time!

 

And apparantly, an apology was all that was needed for wildlife to favour us again.

 

The next sighting was very exciting: a hyena clan feeding and fighting on a carcass. The photos don't tell the story as good as the video(s) above. Such an interesting sighting to witness. A lot of crying and begging for food, but no one was ready to share the meal with the lower ranked hyena. After a while the hungry hyena tried to steal a bite and things got unfriendly. Little fights and chasing and more and more screaming. Really impressive scenes unfolded in front of our eyes.

 

The unhappy hyena is lying down on the left. Unpatiently waiting for its turn.

 

 

Must be hard looking at clan members enjoying a meal when you're hungry as well.

 

 

The hungry hyena decides to get closer, but the others are keeping an eye on him.

 

 

 

The food is too tempting and the hungry hyena tries to get a bite at every opportunity he might get. Sometimes succesful, but most of the time it resulted in fights and being chased away.

 

 

 

 

 

For some there was too much hassle going on, so what better solution to grab yourself a few spareribs and have your meal in a more quiet place?

 

 

 

Afterwards the new guests in our wanted to check out the hyena den, so that's where we went. Unfortunately for them mostly, most cubs were inside the den and didn't came out. Still, there were a few youngsters though. Suckling at one of the females and exploring the surroundings of the den.

 

 

 

 

 

[LarsS]

We were really rewarded for going on this last gamedrive. It was time to find a spot for a coffee break, when we happened to find a leopard again. Moving through the bush we tried to keep up with the leopard. He kept moving so after a while we watched him walk away into to bush.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, coffee and tea with cookies!

 

 

Over coffee and tea we discussed what amazing stay it has been for us and that this mornings gamedrive was a goodbye in style. Little that we know it wasn't over yet. The three cheetahs wanted to wish us a good journey before we left.

 

Posing for a pretty picture.

 

 

 

Enjoying the shade

 

 

 

The cheetahs were on the move, which looked pretty impressive when they walk straight at your car. It felt like they were checking us out, especially the tracker, and came really close to our car.

 

 

 

And with close, I mean REALLY close!

 

 

If I would put my hand out, I would have touched this cheetah. Might have costed me a hand or few fingers, but that also counts as touching, right?  

 

 

 

The last picture of the cheetah and me, it was hard to say goodbey to each other.

 

 

The gamedrive and with that our stay at Arathusa was ended with a bush breakfast, including champaign. What a luxurious way to end our amazing safari in Sabi Sands!

 

 

 

 

Our safari in Sabi Sands was over. Our safari? Not yet! A little bonus will follow soon.

[The_Norwegian]

great great stuff! And so lucky to see Quarantine male leopard, do you know  wich property you were on for that sighting? Xidulu, Tiyani, beautiful girls, now with cubs I might add :-) Quality-time at the hyenaden with the elephant plains-clan, awesome stuff! The cheetah, is that the thornybush-female? Great report, love videos, I have to try to film a little more next trip, its great to have some moving pictures :-) what a great stay you had indeed!