July 2009

 

It is almost hard to imagine that July has come and gone that the season is past its halfway mark.  The past two months have been incredible regarding game sightings, visitors have walked away with memories and tales that would entertain and astonish the people back home for weeks to come. 

The most noticeable change in the region has been the vegetation; the floodplains and escarpment is rapidly transforming into its dry season wear, sporting some impressive crimson, yellow and ginger shades.  Soon the bush will be bone dry and all the wildlife will concentrate on the life giving banks of the Zambezi again, providing visitors with even greater game sightings.     

Another remarkable change in the valley has been the arrival of hundreds of Elephants, due to the drying conditions they have been moving out of the escarpment towards the valley floor.  Large herds can be seen marching across Jeki plains in the early morning only to return in the evenings crossing the plains with beautiful crimson sunset backdrops.  On one early morning  airstrip transfer a breeding herd of +/-80 adults, sub-adults and youngsters were seen crossing the vast open plain, the result; a truly breathtaking scene. 

Jeki is not only home to loads of elephants but massive herds of buffalo of about 300 to 400 strong has been seen on the plains their distinct dust clouds and bright white egret followers giving their presence away long before they are seen.   Large harems of Zebra also roam the plain in search of the last remaining good grazing prior to everything disappearing with the looming dry period.

A surprising sighting on the plains was encountered one morning when from a distance a loud commotion could be heard, it was immediately identified as Hyenas whooping, at first impressions it seemed like they had a kill, so the guests were sped in the direction the sound was coming from.  On arrival glimpses of 5 hyenas could be seen entering a thicket, and it was thought the kill must be in the bush, after a few seconds the 5 hyenas came running out of the bush with their tails tucked between their legs and a look of sheer panic on their faces. 

The vehicle went forward to investigate and suddenly another 8 intimidating hyenas came strolling out of the thicket with their bellies bursting at the seams and heads stained dark with dry blood.  It seemed that the vehicle stumbled across a territorial dispute amongst two contesting clans, but after the 5 intruders saw they were clearly outnumbered they scuttled for the hills. The remaining 8 stood next to the vehicle staring into the direction the others ran, and then slowly moved into the thicket. The kill was never seen, but still it was a rare sighting seeing 13 hyenas in the open, as well as seeing two different clans clash. 

The lions have been strutting around Old Mondoro as usual, and still it is the same crowd with the three boys providing the majority of the sightings.  One of their more interesting sightings has also been on Jeki plain or actually Jeki airstrip.  During the night the boys killed a young Zebra at the bottom of the strip and devoured most of it, leaving behind two shaken Jeki scouts who had to listen to the crunching of bone not far from their sleeping quarters.  The next morning all that remained of the Zebra was the head which the one male was dragging around like a prize trophy and three very lazy lions with bulging bellies.

A surprising discovery was that of a lone lioness with two cubs; one male and one female both are large already and approximately 5 – 6 months old.  This is great news for the local lions as the area has not seen a large influx of new youngsters in the past few years we will try and keep track of their progress as the season continues.  

July has definitely been the month of the leopards, almost all the guests that visited Old Mondoro had great leopard sightings to boast about.  Of all the leopards that were spotted one particular male has made so many appearances that he has become almost like our own celebrity in camp.  He was spotted in the same tree 4 nights in a row, and has absolutely no hassles with the vehicles and their squirming passengers.  He is so relaxed with the vehicles that almost every time he is seen he seems to find a nice spot to sleep next to the vehicle.  One evening a female leopard was spotted with him, she suddenly dashed into the long grass and 2 minutes later came out of the grass with an Impala in her jaws! The resident male then wrestled the carcass from her and pulled it up the same tree he was spotted in the previous three nights.  

The female then attempted to get her fair share but the male would have none of it, he virtually bashed the female out of the tree and the guests saw her dangling for dear life below the tree branch only managing to hang on with her claws similar to a baby baboon clinging to its mother’s belly!   She then skulked off into the grass leaving the male with the prize an amazing sighting to say the least.

Old Mondoro had a remarkable 13 nights in a row of leopard sightings in July of which two nights delivered two leopards and one night provided the guests with a kill, so in total 15 leopards was seen in 13 nights, proving that Old Mondoro still lives up to its reputation of being an excellent leopard destination. 

We are heading into the busy stretch of the season, which also means the valley is entering the crux of it game viewing period, the Old Mondoro team eagerly awaits the rest of the season’s guests and cant wait to see what the bush is willing to deliver, be it Leopards hunting next to camp or Lions sleeping next to the kitchen only the next day can tell. 

 

Hope to see all of you soon.

The Old Mondoro Team.

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