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Simon
Join me on a safari to the Kruger National Park with Wild Wings Safaris!

June update

It's been quite a busy month during the World Cup activities. I've spent
most of my safaris up north around Mopani, Letaba and Olifants camps. It's
been quite a treat with lots of buffalo and elephant sightings. Lions and
Rhinos were a bit harder to find in the dense mopani bush, but those I've
manage to locate around the open grasslands of Satara. We've also had the
odd specials like cheetah, wild dog, and tsessebes. One of the highlights
was finding lions feeding on a young giraffe they caught earlier that day.
They were still busy eating when suddenly the adults paid particular
attention to the other side of the road. They started to hunt and went into
a chase which flushed the zebras from the bushes. Fortunately for the zebra
the lions were unsuccessful. It was interesting to see lions hunt before
their previous kill have been finished. I guess they realised that the small
giraffe was not going to be enough for all 5 lions. However, having been
unsuccesful, they have to make do with what little meat they had left.

Leucistic Zebra

I noticed this zebra in the Satara area and realised there was something
amiss. It was slightly lighter than the other zebra with more brownish
stripes rather than black. It had beige tinges to its tail, mane, and
eyelashes. Its eyes were a blueish-gray colour rather than the normal brown.
I realised it's a leucistic zebra. It was the first time that I've noticed a
zebra with a lack of pigment.
Simon Vegter

Wildebeest out of season

Wildebeest give birth seasonally around December/January. It was therefore
unusual to notice a single wildebeest calf at the end of June. This is 6
months later than usual, and seeing it stand amongst its peers make it
really stand out in terms of size. It will also make it more vulnerable to
predation. Let's hope it finds enough protection within the safety of the
herd.

Photo Gallery

Here are a few more photos for your entertainment... and to get you to long
for the Kruger Park.

May sightings update

Winter is starting to set in with cooler mornings, although the days remain very pleasant. The bush is still quite dense but is slowly starting to dry out. Sightings have been very good again this month with a variety of interesting animals not often encountered such as African Civet, Honey Badger, Sidestriped Jackal, African Rock Python. It’s because of the diversity of wildlife which makes Kruger such a special place, and you can at any time see something really unexpected. I’m still waiting for the Pangolin (Scaly Anteater) to make its appearance… one day.

 

Total tours: 4                          Total days: 14

		Elephant	Rhino	Buffalo	Lion	Leopard	Cheetah	Wilddog	Hyena	Jackal
	Tour	4	4	4	4	3	3	0	3	3
	Day	11	11	10	9	4	3	0	4	5
	Sights	Y	32	Y	12	5	3	0	4	5
	Nr	Y	60	Y	30	5	6	0	13	7

 

 

Simon Vegter

Wild Wings Safaris

www.wild-wings.co.za

 

April Sightings Update

Due to nature (some big ash cloud) some safaris were cancelled and left me with only two trips to the Kruger this month. They were nevertheless great safaris. We had exceptional amounts of rain lately, leaving the park very lush and green. This makes spotting lions in particular very difficult. However, one of the highlights for the month was one of those lion sightings. At Mlondozi dam we spotted three of them showing particular interest in a lone impala. From the view we could clearly see the strategy they employed for stalking this impala. One lioness took a wide loop to circle the impala on the one side, while the other did the same on the other side. When sufficiently circled, the one lioness started chasing the impala straight towards the other one. By some fluke of luck and great dodging skills, the impala manage to escape all three lionesses. That was one lucky impala who survived to live another day. It was nevertheless exciting to see the incredible skills lions use in stalking their prey. With a success rate of 30%, lions often do more chasing than catching.

 

Total tours: 2                          Total days: 8

		Elephant	Rhino	Buffalo	Lion	Leopard	Cheetah	Wilddog	Hyena	Jackal
	Tour	2	2	2	2	1	2	2	1	2
	Day	8	4	7	3	2	2	2	1	3
	Sights	Y	16	Y	3	2	2	2	1	4
	Nr	Y	29	Y	14	2	2	12	1	5

 

 

Simon Vegter

Wild Wings Safaris

www.wild-wings.co.za

 

Baboon carrying dead baby

Within baboon society there are strong social bonds and even through death it’s hard to separate, particularly between a mother and her young. Females that lose their babies, for whatever reason, often continue to carry and groom them for several days until severe decomposition causes them to abandon what remains. This type of behaviour have often been documented among baboons and I’ve personally witnessed it a few times in Kruger. It remains emotional to see how animals react towards death.

 

Simon Vegter

Wild Wings Safaris

www.wild-wings.co.za

 

March Sightings Update

March has been a pretty busy month for me.  Lions were quite tough to find, but I still managed on every tour. I had a lot more luck on leopards with almost as many leopard sightings as lion sigtings. This is very unusual. The park is gearing up for winter with temperatures decreasing slowly, particularly at night. We still had a few very hot days though and some heavy thundershowers. Some of the migrant birds have already left and animals are now approaching some of the permanent water sources that doesn’t seem to attract as much game in summer. The first fires have also been noted in the park. The recent rains caused green grass to replace the burnt areas very quickly and are now attracting the grazers. It will also improve visibility making for easier game viewing in the future.

 

Total tours: 6                           Total days: 20

			Elephant	Rhino	Buffalo	Lion	Leopard	Cheetah	Wilddog	Hyena	Jackal
		Tour	6	6	6	6	4	2	2	4	2
		Day	19	13	15	8	9	3	2	5	2
		Sights	Y	35	Y	12	10	3	2	6	4
		Nr	Y	58	Y	31	12	4	9	13	8

 

 

Simon Vegter

Wild Wings Safaris

www.wild-wings.co.za

 

New leopard record

I’ve had a few occasions where I’ve seen 5 leopards on a safari. It happened twice in 2008, and once last year. Now I’ve down one better. On my last safari we saw leopard 5 times with 6 individuals. This female and cub (about 8 months old) we saw on a night drive. We spotted them on a rock in the river bed. After playing a bit they stood up and walked towards the road where they crossed right in front of us. It’s absolutely amazing to get views like this of a normally very elusive cat. I wonder if I’ll ever get to beat this record.

 

Simon Vegter

Wild Wings Safaris

www.wild-wings.co.za

 

All this before elephants

The unpredictability of nature was once again proven on my recent safari. We entered the park at Kruger gate and were straight away rewarded with 2 male lions. They recently finished off a kill with only the bones remaining. The one lion was so full its belly didn’t even leave the ground as it struggled to turn around for a better position. We heard of a leopard sleeping somewhere and decided to follow up on it. On the way, we spotted another leopard moving through the bush, but quickly disappeared into the bush. We reached the sleeping leopard, but could not see anything as it was hiding in the tall grass. Every now and then we saw the grass move as he flicked his tail, but we could not actually see the animal. We decided to wait as it was starting to cool down in the afternoon and hoped it would get up. After 45 minutes we were rewarded. It emerged from the bush and out came a leopard much larger than we expected. Even more rewarding was that it came to drink from some water not far from the road giving us exceptional views. The following morning the warm road had two sleeping lionesses and 3 hyenas trotting along. After a morning walk through the bush where we glimpsed a rhino, we came along 7 wild dogs hunting. They showed some interest in a klipspringer, but this little antelope manage to run higher up into the rocks and escape the dogs. After following them for some 45 minutes we realised they were not going to be successful this morning and left them. We only saw an elephant on the afternoon of the second day. I was so surprised that we saw all these exciting animals even before we saw an elephant. I’ve been very fortunate with elephants this year and have seen them on almost every day, so to go so long without seeing even a single one was very unusual. This was a great start to a bumper safari which later produced more leopard, lion and cheetahs.

 

Simon Vegter

Wild Wings Safaris

www.wild-wings.co.za

 

Impala with bizarre horns

I’ve recently found this impala with really bizarre horns. I’ve seen misformed horns in several species before, and this is another one that really looks weird. Abnormal horn growth can have several causes including mineral deficiencies in their diet, inbreeding or injuries. In this case it does seem that injury is involved as I noticed the keratin sheath coming off in places revealing the bony horn underneath. This impala has been around for a while and although it might not manage to become a dominant male, it still seems to have a pretty healthy life.

 

Simon Vegter

Wild Wings Safaris

www.wild-wings.co.za

 

African Wild Cat

Seeing a large cat in Kruger is special. Seeing one of the small cats even more so. I’ve only had a handful of sightings of the African Wild Cat. It’s the size of a domestic cat and looks very similar (except that the back of the ears are characteristically red-brown in colour). Being that small and nocturnal makes it very difficult to see. This photo was taken on one of my recent trips and gave me great excitement. These cats are vulnerable and with their biggest threat of interbreeding with domestic cats can only truly be found in protected areas where interaction with domestic cats are prevented. What a joy to see.

 

Simon Vegter

Wild Wings Safaris

www.wild-wings.co.za

 

February sightings update

Eventually I managed to organise the February update. It’s been quite a busy month and, regardless of the dense bush, it’s been also a very productive month. One of the highlights of the month was during a heavy downpour (the downpour wasn’t the highlight though). It was so heavy that we had to put down the canvas sides of the truck (something I hardly ever do, even with rainy weather). Soaking wet, we were basically making our way towards camp when we came across a leopard. With the sides down nobody could see a thing. So I reversed out of the sighting a fair distance away to roll up one of the sides. With the side up at least we got a view of the animal (a couple of spots through the bushes). Eventually it stood up and gave us great views of it walking through the bush. It got into a tree and there we noticed a kill on which it was happily feeding for a while. Hyenas gathered underneath. Since the leopard was pretty much done with the impala (with mostly the bones left), it dropped to the ground where the hyenas noisily enjoyed the scraps. The leopard remained in the tree for a while and gave us superb views. We scanned the area and also noticed one of her cubs lying under a tree. We did not expect to see anything during the downpour, but if I get sights like this I really don’t mind getting wet at all.

 

Total tours: 5                        Total days: 17

		Elephant	Rhino	Buffalo	Lion	Leopard	Cheetah	Wilddog	Hyena	Jackal
	Tour	5	5	5	5	4	3	0	5	4
	Day	17	14	13	11	4	3	0	6	5
	Sights	Y	43	Y	14	4	3	0	8	8
	Nr	Y	85	Y	39	5	9	0	29	11

 

 

 

Simon Vegter

Wild Wings Safaris

www.wild-wings.co.za