SANParks.org Forums

What I will do on this tread is to update the guests as frequent as possible on sightings from the Wilderness camps as well as from the game drives/walks, 4x4 trail.

It is difficult to get updates from the outside camps, but it will give our visitors an idea of what to see on what activities and what is going on at what camps, so please bare with me until such a time I get these reports streamlined.

GROOTKOLK:
This last week the sightings was good at the camp, a group of 6 lions are hanging around the camp (and stealing the camps kettles), there is also a male leopard and a female with a cub seen. I have also been informed of a Cheetah with three cubs which visit the waterhole on a frequent basis.

BITTERPAN:

There is a huge male leopard that comes and drinks water at the water point next to the attendants accommodation, so be on the lookout for that.

Great sightings again

We had a great trip in December and cant wait to share our wonderful sightings.

I have upload images of Male Lions with collars and will appreciate if you can give me more info about them.

viewtopic.php?style=2&f=38&t=52243&start=330

collars seems to be brand new... they change Cheetah for Lion
and one of them has a mark on the legs... like some naughty Lions in the Kgalagadi

Morning all,

@Jan, thanks for the pictures of the lions. The two lions you have seen with collars on are two which have broken out of the park whereby we received a call from a farmer to advise us that we should come and get them back into the park or he will shoot them since he is a cattle and sheep farmer.

Before the collars were on we would go out to the farm in search of the lions hoping to find them before they would kill livestock. It was decided to start collar the lions breaking out of the park to stop them from being shot. On a daily basis the respective section ranger will monitor the lions whereabouts due to the GPS collars of the lions and if it seems that the lions would head towards the fence we could be one ahead and chase them back before there are any fatalities.

As Anna-Marie mentioned the lions do have brand markings on the back sides as we do keep an I.D. record of all lions breaking out to make it easier to recognise them and keep an close eye on them.

The two lions in discussion have behaved very good and haven’t decided to go back out of the park, if they keep up the good behaviour it would be discussed to takeoff the collars but only if we are sure they don’t attend to break out again.

Hope the explination helps.
KG

Thank for the info Jan appreciated.
Presume they are still Nomads looking for a territory. They were very nervous because they stop every 500 meters and look back over their shoulders?
Were they released far from where they originally break out to ensure they don’t go back?

Hi there Jan,

They could be young males looking to establish their own territory and since they ,might be in another males territory they are quite nervous.

These lions are normally released about 80 km from where they have broken out, and these two are behaving so far.

Hope it helps

thank you Jannie

AstroMatt has some amazing video footage of those 2 collared males being klapped around by the 2 brats who chase the cars ... that might be why they were looking nervous

you can't make a claim like that without a YouTube link for all to enjoy???

Morning all,

Twee Rivieren drives:

Sunset:

Lions
Cape cobra raiding a weaver nest
Plenty general game
Spotted eagle owls

Night drive

5 x Brown Hayena
AARDWOLF
General game

KG wonderful sightings on the 2 drives.

Nossob sightings:

Sunset drive

Bruin Hyaena - Brown Hayena
Jagluiperds - Cheetah
Jakkalse - BBF
Bakore - BEF
Gevlekte ooruile - Spotted Eagle owls

festival continue... I come... I come... in about 2 months

Afternoon,

Twee Rivieren Morning drive:

Lions
Cheetah
Plenty general game.

There is still brown hayena sightings on the sunset and night drives.

In a previous post I have mentioned the Aardwolf we have seen on our game drive, the guests were friendly enough to forward a picture of the aardwolf.

Following is a few pictures taken by the students while on game drive. The pics was taken by Pelham.









KG