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My brother and his family were fortunate enough to spend 4 nights in the Park at Berg en Dal and Pretoriuskop. Iwas fortunate to be able to spend a day with them. Some amazing sightings were had on this day and by my family in general during their trip.Some of the highlights included the following:
- A lioness was seen at the fence at Berg en Dal and was later heard to make a kill a stones throw away from the fence.
- A leopard hunting impala neat the gat to Berg en Dal.
- Numerous (understatement perhaps) of rhino sightings in the vicinity of Berg en Dal.
- Several elephant herds and 2 large buffalo herds with in 10 kilometres of Berg en Dal.
- Lion kill close to camp.

That was all in the immediate vicinity of Berg en Dal.
Slightly further afield resulted in one of the most amazing sightings I have ever experienced in the park or anywhere else in the bush.
An adult male leopard had dragged a young leopard into a tree near Afsaal and proceeded to feed on it. It was not actually witnessed, but it seems most probable that the young leopard was killed by the big male. I have seen leopard killing cheetah before and dragging it into a tree and leaving it there, not feeding on it, but this is the first time I have seen leopard cannibalism of this nature. Pics to come soon!!
Secondly, my brother was lucky enough to witness an interesting interaction between a wild dog and a pack of hyenas near the Stevenson Hamilton memorial. The lone wild dog purposefully appraoched the hyean den and drew them away trasing them and nipping them while steadily guiding them away from their den. After a couple of kilometres, the hyenas were obviously too far from there den and left the wild dog alone. It appears though that the wild dog went out of its way to get the attention of the hyena and get them to chase him/her.

Great stuff fevertree!!

I have a theory about this BnD bonanza! When we left it last week the whole area was teeming with general game. It was the third time I visited BnD this year and it was by far the most successful place to see general game in great numbers than anywhere else in the southern part of the Park on the last occasion.

I reckon that the obvious thing happened:

The game in that specific area has upped in numbers resulting in predators following them to the area. That added the value to the multiple sightings of big predators in the BnD area.

Well done and I have to say that I am pretty sick with envy as I missed all with about a week then. Lady luck has turned her face on me and cheap slapped me behind the left ear.

It would have been better for me if she had just slit my throat, kick me twice as I bled to death and fed my intestines to the big male leopard at afsaal to end my misery.

I still think BnD is one of the best areas in the Park.

Thats the kind of BnD we know and love! We have had these kinds of sitings often over the last 10 years and that is why BnD is the top of our pops. We have seen the big 4 from inside the camp and while a few metres from the gate have seen leopard. We have often seen wild dog and even a kill on the tar road.

My bestest place ever!

These sightings are great, Fevertree!
It has given me hope for our next visit to Malelane at the end of the month. Last when we were there (end May05), B'nD did not turn up much. So much so, that we would travel by tar road (N4) to enter the park at Croc.Bridge for better sightings (did the dirt road S25 too, but took us 3,5 hours to reach Croc.Bridge, so now with WildCard, not paying for entering the gate, it is better for us to do the 50km's on highway) and then travel back again on the N4 to Malelane in the evening!
B'nD has always been a favourite though and we have also seen all of the Big 5 on Majulu loop numerous times!
Think we will stay in the Malelane/B'nD vicinity this time....well, maybe travel to Croc.Bridge via N4 one day?!

Hope this picture is clearer than the one posted earlier. The sex of the dead leopard is not known, but I would think it might be a juvenile male. As mentioned this was observed at Afsaal on Thursday 30 June.

I have seen, I think it was Tjololo eating a cub of one of the females in his terratory (on TV). Can't remember the exact details.

Could be the same as with new lion males taking over a pride. To bring the females back into oestroeus soon. In the case of leopards, well they'll eat just about everything, other male's cubs included.

The big male leopard responsible for this juveniles death was strong and healthy, and was definitely not injured. I believe that the interaction was territorial, and that the killing of this young leopard triggered the instinctive nature of a leopard, drag the carcass into a tree and feed. I do not believe that feeding on this dead leopard has anything to do with a shortage of prey - especially not in the KNP with its impala population, duiker, steenbok, mongoose etc....I believe the cannibalism is purely an instinctive reaction from a leopard towards an animal it has killed.

All things considered, it was possibly the most unusual sighting in terms of animal interaction that I have witnessed in Kruger or anywhere else. As we all know in this forum, to see a LIT is an achievement in itself, but to see a LIT eating another LIT has to be beat!

Du Ques is graciously looking at improving the quality of this pic for me. I have also played around with it in Picasa - see result below:

phabeni to skukuza
we saw Buffalo, White Rhino and the usual including giraffe, kudu. Saw 2 lions young male and female
Nice bateleur and vultures



Skukuza to ls
saw a lone lioness walking down the road right next to the car.

ls to crokodile
Nice elles with calf
Kudus, waterbuck
saw a fish eagle attack a sadle bill stork
in the evening saw heyna and buffalo next to the fence
in the morning saw 4 lionesses walking down the road. when we turned around 3 male lions came out of the bush.

saw another pair of lion mating in the road, with another male watching. Al together we saw +-15 lions.

The road back to skukuza was very quite just a few kudu and elles.

here are some of the pics





Slightly edited by DuQues & DB

Excellent day. Entered Numbi at 7:30am, first sighting was a Duiker, then about 300 buffs, only then Impala.Then a herd of ellies spraying Impala and chasing them away from a waterhole. 2 good lion sightings - pride of about 9 in the dry Bume riverbed near Mpondo, cubs were digging for water. Also breeding pair of lions lay on the Dam wall at Gezantfombi. Now listening to the hippo at Croc Bridge with a cold castle and a lekker braai!

Lots of impalas, zebras, wildebeest, kudu, 7 ellies, 2 of which held their own amusing roadblock just outside camp, giraffes, hippos and 1 Freda.

Hi all,

Just brief trip report -

2 nights in Kruger spent, 1st Orpen then second at Berg-en-dal.

Highlight was seeing Sable twice, 2 subadult bulls respectively at Airforce dam and Jones' dam. That road can be a bit of a graveyard, but can be rewarding at times and is quiter than the well travelled ones - corrugated road surface is quiet hectic though.

All the usual wildlife seen, ie. buff, w rhino, lion, etc. Mating lion pair at Mlambane crossing of Old Malelane-Skukuza.

Nice that Autumn colours still splashing the Combretum- woodlands..

Yours,

wj

Had a wonderful weekend in the Park (again).
Entered the Park at Phabeni on Saturday. Within 5 minutes of entering the Park saw a new born giraffe with umbilical cord still attached. It was for me probably the highlight of the weekend, and I did not worry if I saw nothing else.

This was followed by a sighting of 4 young lions, about 8 months old on the dirt road from Phabeni back to Kruger Gate. They were lying right next to the road and were totally relaxed not to be with adults. A herd of Impala were close by, and were totally confused by the lack of interest by these cubs.

For the rest of the day, saw good elephant sightings on the Dosipane Road as well as loads of general game - zebra, kudu, waterbuck, giraffe, impala.

Sunday morning left P/kop at 6 and travelled the ring road just outside the camp. Cam across one lioness and then 2 males crossed the rad to Numbi gate, and probably joined up with the lioness in the bush.

A large herd of elephant were near Mestel dam, as well as a group of buffalo bulls on Shabeni Loop.

Later in the morning down towards Afsaal on the Voortrekker Road came across a family of Ground Hornbills. Two rhino sightings south of Afsaal, and lots more elephant and buffalo close to Berg en Dal.

The only downer for the weekend was the poor state of the cafeteria at Berg en Dal. The quality and hygeine had much to be desired and was actually disgraceful.

I am having problems uploading to flickr today, so feel free to look at my photos at www.flickr.com/groups/knp [/img]