The Pursuit of Cats and Dogs - Timbavati, Sabi Sands

[Kitsafari]

The alpha male and female were impatient to leave, so they led the way followed by the others. Floppy was eating as much as quick as he could. He looked up a few times, and his hind legs moved towards the pack but his head stayed resolutely on the kill. finally, his instincts kicked in and he dashed off after the pack.

 

bloody faces leading the way

 

 

the alphas stopped mid-way to defacate and urinate and watching their intereaction was so interesting. as they danced around each other, the male tasted the female's urine, then he defacated to mark his territory.

 

 

 

 

we followed them as they moved into the river, quenching their thirst, then as one pack, they crossed the giant boulders smoothened over the years by the Sand River. They walked into a thicket, and then vanished from sight. What a ride. what an exhilirating, thrilling morning. we have been so blessed with so much sightings of these beautiful endangered dogs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 26, 2015 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

After saying goodbye and thanking the dogs for their appearances, we returned to the scene of the crime. The coroners and the clean up crew were all there. Two hyenas dominated the carcass, denying the poor vultures which had waited for so long, access to the food. To my delight, a side striped jackal shyly stepped forward from the shadows, waiting its turn behind the hyenas. we had stolen glimpses of the beautiful jackal in earlier drives and this was my first full view of the jackal. lovely eyes and stunning coat, it sat down, recognising the order of the scavengers. while the larger hyena chewed what she could the smaller hyena picked on the vultures. The excitement and frustration seemed to affect the vultures as two mating pairs worked it out at separate trees. we watched for a long while, then decided to let them be and returned to the lodge for our own breakfast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a most beautiful jackal with such lovely compelling eyes

 

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

and then there were vultures - white backed and hooded vultures, not so much lappet faced ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

and a one-eyed vulture - amazing that despite its partial loss of sight, it has managed to survive so well

 

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxPijViGgoc

[Kitsafari]

we tried our luck again at the Leopard cubs but no joy. we moved on. Equalizer's sharp eyes saw something in the bushes as the vehicle dipped down the sloping road. Sandros reversed and carefully picked his way into the bushes. i saw spots, and then more spots. Two leopards! two adult leopards! more wows from me! a mating pair? they were both sound asleep but the twigs and branches proved to be a bane of our photographic lives throughout the trip but I'm not complaining!

 

the two spotted cats were fast asleep so we thought they were resting from one of their regular sessions. the big male, Male 4:4 as he is known, snarled and hissed as the female got up and moved closer to him. the young Mashaba female, about 3 years old, is the daughter of the Mashaba female who is also mother to the two cubs we've been trying to peek at for days. the male got up and walked off. the Mashaba girl followed his every step, sided up to him and curled her lovely long nubile tail around his body and face. But the male snarled and growled, showing absolutely no interest. Sandros said the 4:4 male was seen with another female but showed no interest in mating as well. (*footnote - a couple of weeks after we returned he was seen mating with a female finally). we followed the couple, the girl taking every opportunity to seduce him but he kept walking away, hissing and growling louder and louder each time. in and out of the ravine and through the bushes we went. until they went up the opposite slope and vanished into the next concession.

 

 

 

Mashaba young female

 

 

a grumpy looking 4:4

 

 

 

 

 

\

 

 

 

Edited September 26, 2015 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

well we've seen the dogs, and we've seen the spotted cats and the fastest cat in the world. We had to look for ourselves the king of the beasts next. Male lions had been heard roaring in the distance and we were on the way to look for them.

 

A herd of impalas were standing stock still, all heads turned to one direction. we got excited and headed towards the direction of their alert stares as they barked warnings. but no cats. only.... an ostrich! Ostriches have never been seen in Londolozi for eons, and this female crossed over from the Kruger for the past one year. we all laughed when we saw the ostrich innocently browsing the leaves off a bush. The impalas had never seen an ostrich before and they couldn't make out whether it was a foe or friend. The ostrich has been in the concession for the past one year and is the only one here. Londolozi wrote a wonderful piece on her, and have fabulous photos of the large bird in this link: http://blog.londolozi.com/2015/08/ostrich/

 

our photos pale in comparison, but to jog our memory of the loneliest girl in Londolozi, here are a couple:

 

 

[michael-ibk]

What an incredible drive you had! Love the dogs, and the leopard pair of course. And what a beautiful side-striped Jackal! Feeling a bit sorry for the Ostrich, poor guy, all alone...

[Kitsafari]

Moving on, Sandros spied something on a termite mound. a Cheetah! our second cheetah in an area not known for cheetahs. we had been very blessed (Magic of Sabi Sands). It was a gorgeous looking male cheetah, and he had crossed over from the west at the far end of the horizon. we spent some golden minutes with him, admiring his golden face in the golden sunlight as the sun got ready to set. amazing what incredible surprises the bush had littered along our way in our search for the lions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know which is better - in colour or monochrome, so i put both up.

 

 

[Kitsafari]

What an incredible drive you had! Love the dogs, and the leopard pair of course. And what a beautiful side-striped Jackal! Feeling a bit sorry for the Ostrich, poor guy, all alone...

 

@@michael-ibk it was! so amazing to see the dogs (and hope to see dholes in India too!) this trip came churning out one sighting after another that we were pretty exhausted at the entire trip and wondered why we never had any time to relax at the lodges and just chilled. with such sightings, i'd rather forego the downtime.

 

Thanks so much for continuing to follow the report! i'm trying to finish it as soon as I can. since i lost all my edited photos and videos, i'm going to keep to what I have, which is a lot already!

[hannahcat]

 

 

Just love the liquid gold in their eyes when the sun hits them.

 

 

 

I don't know how I missed the continuation of your trip report -- I started reading it some time ago, and then somehow got confused about it. Anyway, I am so delighted to have rediscovered it and to be reading your new entries, but I had to stop here and comment on this because I just love how you captured that liquid gold color, both here and in the cheetah portrait pictures. I was really astounded at how different their eyes are, and I love that you can really see that in your pictures.

 

While I'm making mid-way-through comments, I also really loved your adolescent elephant photos. An elephant came up and took a sniff of Michael, but I was way too petrified to even try to take a picture. I love the one with the elephant shaking his ears in the dust though -- it makes me really wish I had been a smidge less frozen.

 

And your leopard cub photos and video are darling! Thanks so much for sharing all this abundance!

[Marks]

 

 

as we followed the dogs, we also noticed a single hyena doggedly pursuing the dogs from a distance. The canines had made no sounds, so the hyena must have seen them and came to the same conclusion as us, that the dogs were hunting and a kill could provide it with some tasty leftovers.

 

I hope you weren't following the dogs for exactly the same reason as the hyena!

 

In all seriousness, though, following the dogs for such an extended period of time sounds (and looks) simply awesome. Love the pictures of the cleanup crew, too. The lone ostrich is quite a special sighting; very glad you were able to see that.

 

The leopard shots are gorgeous, but I think I like that cheetah even more!

[SafariChick]

 

I hope you weren't following the dogs for exactly the same reason as the hyena!

 

@@Kitsafari I had the same thought as @@Marks LOL. But what a drive! You were so lucky to spend so long with the dogs - I never saw any at Londolozi! I may have missed it, but why did Floppy Ear only get to eat at the end - is he a lower dog on the totem pole? Very curious about the lone ostrich - hope it isn't too lonely. And beautiful leopards!

[Kitsafari]

@@hannahcat thanks much for the lovely comments. we've always wondered why cheetah eyes are red, unlike the other cats. but when they shine with the sunlight, they are just so clear and bright! same for the lions, the gold just glitters.

 

I was worried when the young bull elephant crossed over to my side, coming closer and started sniffing us. my heart beat faster and i shrank back into the car a little. But i tried to relax, thinking that if dogs can sense your fear, so can elephants surely. the guides were not too alarmed, probably because it was a young bull and the tusks were still short, but I bet those tusks can do a lot of damage if the bull decided we were too much of a threat to him!

 

Im also following your report on Dulini. it was one of the camps we had considered for Sabi Sands and it sounds like a great camp from your TR! so glad you saw such a variety of wildlife too.

[Kitsafari]

@@Marks @@SafariChick thank you for being so supportive! well, i was hungry while following the dogs as I rushed through a muffin before we started the drive, with half of it still wrapped in my bag and I didn't want to be munching it with all these predators and hungry animals around me. but between the dogs, hyenas, jackal and the vultures, there wasn't much left of the carcass for my aged molars.

 

we didn't realised the vulture had an injured eye until we blew up the picture at the Londolozi photo lab. Londo has a photo lab where you can get an hour's lesson on basic processing techniques using LightRoom. Amanda is a great teacher but we made a very basic error. Before we started the lesson, we hadn't select the pictures she would help us edit, so we spent a big part of that hour just selecting the photos. the photo lesson is complimentary! and you can do a print of your favourite picture at a price.

 

@@SafariChick the same thought went through my mind. there is a social hierachy in wild dogs although the hierachy is not as pronounced or carried out as those in hyenas for eg. I guess I always had a thing for "underdogs" !

Edited September 27, 2015 by Kitsafari

[bettel]

Wow, amazing! Londolozi really delivered for you: two cheetahs, two leopards, dogs! Unbelievable!

[Kitsafari]

@@bettel thanks! and londolozi wasn't finished with us quite yet.

[Kitsafari]

H says I missed out some of his favourite photos of the leopard pair. they were lost when I deleted the entire folder of processed pix, so to make up to him, here they are.

 

Pretty Mashaba young female

 

 

 

 

see the snarl on his face and she is blissfully ignoring it. LOL

 

 

 

 

 

like a couple who had just quarrelled...

 

 

 

and one more shot of the ostrich. I hope she finds a mate but she'll need to return to the park. It seems she has been moving closer and closer to the vehicles in search of some company. Poor big bird.

 

 

Edited September 27, 2015 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

So after giving the stunning cheetah his due respect, we went our merry way for the king of beasts. the land was quiet and almost bare, all except for one stag impala staring into the distance. then another impala, also ramrod in his stance, sharply looking in the same direction. we turned back and went into the direction of their stares and found two male lions in their favourite recumbent positions, fast asleep, their tawny bodies well camouflaged against the brown grass and bushes.

 

we sat with them for a little while but couldn't get great shots although one raised his head as we approached, and started grooming himself all of 10 mins and then his mighty head crashed down to the ground once more.

 

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

The sun was dipping and the kings were in no mood to entertain anyone. One of them resolutely stayed flat while other having briefly eyed us fell back to his horizontal zen space once more.

 

with the cats going nowhere, Sandros called time out for a sundowner, planning to return to sit with the kings into the night. And it eventually turned out to be a fantastic call.

 

sundowner was at a large waterhole. it was pretty as a picture. serene and quiet. There was a single hippo enjoying the pool to himself. and a fish eagle in a bare tree, soaking in the last warm rays from the setting sun. and the eagle flew to the banks, with no attempt to fish or perhaps it missed the fish. then it flew back to the trees. and then the show began.

 

imagine a hippo in a tutu doing the pirouette. how many times have the cartoons portrayed the large pachyderm dancing on its toes and looking incredibly graceful as it turns on its toes. Now imagine it in the water. The hippo in the pool was doing just that in a horizontal position. over and over again, the stubby toes stuck out of the water. the exuberant show of sheer contentment enjoying the depths of the pool and the coolness of the water propelled it to roll over and over again. we felt the happiness of that hippo as he/she made it clear the pool was all his/hers.

 

 

 

 

 

this isn't a terribly good picture but i liked the reflection on the water

 

 

the mighty hippo

 

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

Back to the excellent call Sandros made... if we had stuck around while the lions were just flat, we would have had a sundowner late and missed what was an awesome time with the males. Even if we had skipped the sundowner, our bladders wouldn't have been able to keep up!

 

So.... we returned to the male lions after our sundowner.

 

A little history about lion dynamics in Londolozi. The two males are the Fourways coalition. The males are about 5-6 years old and they had come in from the Kruger hoping to fill the vacuum in the Londolozi concession. the Majingilang males used to rule this concession. The 5 Majing males were a powerful coalition, doing exactly what the once feared Mapagos coalition of 6 used to do. The Mapagos terrorised sabi sands, killing off not only competition but also young adults - male and female lions (there is a documentary about them but I just couldnt watch it. H says it was excellent and reflected how lion dynamics worked but there were scenes of them killing off other cats indiscriminately). The Majing killed off two of the Mapagos coalition, and terrorised the concession but they also, just like their predecessors, bred a long line of strong cats. The Majing had moved off to the west, spending more time in that area, leaving the Tsalala pride in Londo ripe for a takeover. (Just as an aside, the young Birmingham boys are now rising up to be the terrors of Sabi Sands up in the north. they've killed a number of cats, including a few adult lionesses).

 

Here is where the fourways males come in. pushing their limits and testing to see if they could claim territory. after we had departed Londolozi, the entire lion dynamics have been undergoing a huge change with a surprising return of 3 Majing male lions trying to reestablish their territory against inroads made by the Fourways and the Matimba males. It's a fascinating drama, worthy of the Game of Thrones.

 

sorry for the little diversion. back to the fourways.

 

the sun had set, darkness set in. as we watched, I wondered if the male that was flat the entire time was dead. I thought I heard what sounded like a warthog scream although Sandros said he didn't hear anything. But the effect was that male immediately put up his head, looking intently into the distance. and then he roared.

 

Edited September 27, 2015 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

That roar sent chills up my spine. and it was only the beginning.

 

The male lion set off in the darkness, beating a slow but deliberate path to something he had heard. as he walked, we and two other Londo vehicles (Sandros had called in the sighting) shadowed him. He stopped a few times and roared again. Each time we listened out for a reply from his sleeping brother, but there was a reply only once. The walking male roared at least 8 times the entire time we were with him. It was just pure magic - the darkness, while the cicadas sing, the silence only broken by the roars of the kings, the soft padding as his large paws made his way, the indifference and disdain shown to the vehicles pursuing him, the regalness with which he walked through what could become his kingdom.

 

It was an awesome awesome magical time. each time Sandros manouvered the vehicle, the lion would pass close to us. at one point he roared as he walked towards us, walking under our vehicle. the floorboards vibrated and the vehicle shook with the depth of his roar, the hairs stood up on my arm, and I could have just stretched my arm to touch him as he walked confidently by. it was just one BIG wow that night. we could have carried on just sitting with the males, but it was past dinner time, and H needed the bush loo. so it was time to go. But What A Night.

 

 

listen with the headphones and turn up the volume.

 

 

(for the next one, listen out for the echoes from his brother towards the end)

 

 

[Kitsafari]

oops oh dear. I didn't realise that I've put up the same video in the second posting on the male lions. and now I can't delete them.

 

seeking @@Game Warden's assistance! could you delete the videos in post #170 please? . I'll post the correct videos here instead. Sorry. I'm not sure how the same video appeared 3x.... some sub-conscious self-destructive feature at play.

 

 

 

[Marks]

What a fun performance by the hippo.

 

The videos of the lions roaring are magical - especially that last one! The nocturnal aspect makes them so much more atmospheric.

[Kitsafari]

@@Marks we really enjoyed the hippo. i've never seen a hippo roll and to see it multiple times brought so much laughter to all of us watching, including the ranger and tracker.

[Kitsafari]

I'm hoping to try and finish the TR today, spending a workday at home to rest because I'm unwell.

 

the next morning dawned clear and bright. there were reports of a lion pride and we set out to look for them. I can't recall which part of Londolozi it was but it was close to a point in the long shared invisible border with another concession. It was though up on a hill that the last sighting was seen, but the hill was dense with fog, giving it such an atmospheric ambiance. visibility was poor which hampered the tracker's sharp eyes, and the fog was heavy on our conversations. there was little talk as we drove through the cold damp mist.

 

 

 

Equaliser peering through the thick mists

 

 

 

The sun struggled for a long while to warm us through the fog, failing miserably with the pale weak orb but it sure gave rise to some moody sunrise pictures rarely seen in Africa

 

 

 

 

 

[SafariChick]

@@Kitsafari I have never seen a hippo do that either - it was so charming!