Lion seen on camera trap

The birdpool camera trap has continued to catch the regular visitors during the day and night, with impala, waterbuck and duiker having the highest number of sightings.  We always download the latest photos with a sense of excitement as to what we might have captured during the last week or two and this time we were rewarded with our first lion sighting on the camera trap. 

It was a lone male on 18^th October at 10.31 pm, walking in from the side and then standing for a short while at the bird pool, although not taking a drink.   At that time we had been hearing a lot of lion activity during the night and had on several occasions been convinced they were on our entrance road, so it was a real treat to see him come to the bird pool.

Another great sighting happened just two days ago.  We were returning to the lodge when I spotted a jackal on the road just past our entrance.  We stopped to watch it for a few moments and then were lucky enough to see two small jackal pups come onto the road.  They seemed to be fairly relaxed so we quickly drove back to the lodge and picked up our guests hoping to be able to give them a very good view of jackal and pups.  

We returned to the spot a few minutes later and found that the jackals had a den site in an old termite mound right beside the road.  One was asleep in the long grass and the other was being a bit more active – running about and dashing in and out of the den.  We watched for a couple of minutes and snapped a few photographs.  The sleeping pup is well hidden in the grassy undergrowth.   

Finally, I am posting this picture of the moon rising last night over the waterhole.  Every month as the moon begins to wane it rises over the ridge behind the waterhole and makes a magnificent display.  The photograph does not do it justice but the spectacle is worth recording.  Past guests who have been lucky enough to be with us at this time of the month will I’m sure remember seeing it.

Lions visit

Evening light catches the lion at the waterhole

During the last week we have had several very good sightings of lions at Leopard’s View.  Our first sighting was a week ago on Thursday 13^th September at 8.00 am.  We were re-laying the top floor of the game viewing tower (more news of that in the next blog), when we saw two lions walking across in front of the water hole.  They did not stop to drink and were intent on going somewhere in a hurry.  Two more lions followed them, but again were moving too fast for us to get any photos. 

Lion seen early yesterday morning

That same evening we saw one young male lion drinking at the waterhole and went down to take a closer look.

He had a limp in his back right leg and after drinking moved off into the river bed where there must have been at least two other lions from the very loud roaring that we heard.  The sound of a lion roaring at night must be the most evocative African sound and can literally send vibrations through the body.  We love to hear it and guests lucky enough to share the experience never forget it. 

This lion seemed to be suffering from a definite surfeit of food

Yesterday, we were treated to another fabulous lion sighting.  We first became aware of lion nearby at 4.00 am, when there were growls that could only have been made by a big cat, although at that time we were not sure if it was lion or leopard. 
 
A couple of hours later we found one male lion very close to the house and were glad we had not chosen that morning to take a walk as he was resting just 150 m away.  Later that afternoon about 5.00 pm the same male came to drink at the waterhole.  He took a very long drink and then lay down to rest.

The lion begins to walk along the road, back to the carcass
Lodge in the background

Not surprisingly, he had a very full belly and took several more drinks before walking off up the hill, and past our house back to where we had found him in the morning.  There he picked up part of a carcass that he had hidden in a thick bush and walked off.  We left him to enjoy the last of his meal, delighted to have had such a memorable sighting.   

We took this picture as he walked right past our vehicle on his way back to the carcass. He looks quite menacing compared to the picture below.

Lion at rest