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

 

January update

Here is the update for January’s tours. As my previous posting indicated, I’ve had a fantastic month. I’ve failed to mention that the birding was also very good. I’ve seen a few specials including Little Bittern, Greyhooded Kingfisher, African Finfoot and Whitebacked Night Heron.  

 

Total tours: 4                Total days: 15

		Elephant	Rhino	Buffalo	Lion	Leopard	Cheetah	Wilddog	Hyena	Jackal
	Tour	4	4	4	4	2	4	2	4	3
	Day	14	10	12	10	3	5	2	9	6
	Sights	Y	35	Y	12	3	5	2	14	8
	Nr	Y	69	Y	39	5	11	11	47	16

 

 

Simon Vegter

Wild Wings Safaris

www.wild-wings.co.za

 

Back with a bang!

After a long absence and great trip to the States, I have finally returned to the Kruger. Not surprisingly, it welcomed me back with a bang. The bush has turned quite dense during the rainy season, even though the rainfall wasn’t as much as last year. The sightings have just been phenomenal this month. I’ve added a few photos for your enjoyment. I’ve had the most relaxed black rhino I’ve ever seen. It was browsing on the side of the road and even with the presence of a few vehicles it still continued as usual. Eventually it crossed the road a few meters in front of our car. I also came across a female white rhino with an incredible horn, one of the longest I’ve ever seen. I’ve been really fortunate with leopards and cheetahs, although lions were a bit more of a challenge. We did find a mating pair of lions which stayed in the area for a couple of days. Throughout the bush we encountered young animals, but none as young as a newly born buffalo. It was already standing, although wobbly, even though the mother hasn’t dropped the afterbirth yet. She was part of an enormous herd of buffalo which approached our vehicle and eventually crossed in front of us. I couldn’t get a proper estimation of the total size of the herd. I ended my count at 500 but never saw the end of the herd which disappeared in the distance. I recalled a herd of a 1000 buffalo I saw in this area last year and figured that this was most probably the same herd. After following up on a report of a recent wild dog sighting, we came across them just after they killed an impala and saw them devouring it. The vultures were already nearby and harassed the dogs during their meal. The dogs kept chasing them off but later left the scraps to the scavengers. These were only a few of the amazing sightings I’ve had this month. If this is how the year started, I think it will be an awesome 2010.

 

May your 2010 be as amazing.

 

Simon Vegter

Wild Wings Safaris

www.wild-wings.co.za

 

Photo update

Before I leave for the States, I thought I’ll leave you with some photos. Enjoy.

 

Simon Vegter

Wild Wings Safaris

www.wild-wings.co.za

 

Annual sightings update

I’ve given you the monthly updates throughout the year, but here is the annual update of what happened throughout 2009. It’s been an absolutely fantastic year. We’ll have to see if 2010 will be even better.

 

Total tours: 44                      Total days: 163

	Elephant	Rhino	Buffalo	Lion	Leopard	Cheetah	Wilddog	Hyena	Jackal
Tour	44	43	44	43	26	17	13	35	13
Day	142	98	114	105	31	18	14	63	17
Sights	Y	288	Y	180	46	20	18	95	24
Nr	Y	502	Y	675	52	39	112	198	33

 

 

Big 5 tours - 26

Big 5 days – 25

Black Rhinos - 19

 

 

 

 

Simon Vegter

Wild Wings Safaris

www.wild-wings.co.za

 

December update

This update is early, but that’s because I’m going on leave and won’t be doing any more tours this year. You’ll only hear from me again in the new year. Thankfully, my last few tours have been absolutely amazing with plenty of awesome sightings. I’m looking forward to more of that next year. To all of you, Merry Christmas and have a game-rich 2010.

                             

Total tours: 2        Total days: 7

	Day	Elephant	Rhino	Buffalo	Lion	Leopard	Cheetah	Wilddog	Hyena	Jackal
	Tour	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	2	0
	Day	4	7	5	6	3	3	1	6	0
	Sights	Y	20	Y	7	4	4	1	9	0
	Nr	Y	29	Y	23	5	7	7	22	0

 

 

Simon Vegter

Wild Wings Safaris

www.wild-wings.co.za