Re: Mopani Sightings

[M.Paxton]

Greetings All

Here are some of the sightings for the last week.

The walks have been good as usal, i suspect once it rains we will see less game but then there will be other intresting things to see. sightings: lion, White ***, buffalo, elephant, zebra, impala, spotted eagle owl, kudu, hippo, giraffe and my others.

On the drives the usal suspects have all been around.
The eland have been around the camp the last two nights.
The eendrag males have been hanging around grysbok windmill.
Roan have also been seen by guests on a regular occasion.

Three male lions caught 3 buffalo, 1 cow and 2 calves. the lions ate the calves and a little of the cow. The third male was lying some distance off to the left, i don't think he could look at food anymore.

First Mopane moth for the season that i have seen.
Now all we need is rain so the worms can grow big a fat. YUMMMMMM.

[M.Paxton]

Evening All

Went on a sunset drive this afternoon. I did the shongololo loop as some of you know this is a big hit or a massive miss.
Well we did see a few things along the dirt road, buffalo, zebra, red-crested korhan doing its display, implala, giraffe and elephant. Just before grysbok windmill we came across one of the eendrag males walking down the road, he seemed to be on a mission. Maybe he could smell one of the ladies with that honeymoon perfume on.

[M.Paxton]

Greetings All

What amazing rain we had last week, Mopani camp got about 103mm of soaking rain over three days.
I must admit it was good to see the sun after a couple of days.
If i could put sound clips on, i would let you hear the grass growing.

Animals have become a lot less visable, but they are all still here, you just have to look a whole lot harder.
I did see one of the lioness that was on honeymoon with one of the eendrag males and she looked to be pregnant, so in a month or two there will be more mouths to feed. the eland were close to camp this morning.

Yesterday i came across the female leopard that moves around Mopani camp and Mooiplaas Picnic site.
She was quite happily lying in the road. i sat (in a vehicle) watching her for about 10minutes until finally someone came down the road to share the sighting.
The cat got up and move 2m off the road and lay down.
I stopped the people and said there was a leopard lying down not few meters from them.
They looked at me and said "thanks we see it" and drove down the road, stopped and stared looking into the distance in the wrong direction through binos.
What must i say????????
They did see it in the end when it had got up and walked off into the bush.
Cheers

[M.Paxton]

Greetings All

We got another 7mm of rain last night.
The European Rollers arrived over the weekend. Impala lambs have been seen.

Jane
That is without a doubt one of the Eendrag lions, whichone i can not say, would need to see his face from the front. But it looks like the brunette. He seems to have all the luck with the ladies. the only time i have seen cubs was in my close encounter with them on the walk. Maybe some where out there their could be some little ones.

I went to Mapungubwe this weekend and it is different but amazing in its own way, oh and it is hot. The accomodation in the main camp is very good. Just a word of warning the closest shop and petrol station is 30km away. For birding the western side of the park is the place to go.

Cheers for now

[M.Paxton]

Greetings All

Greetings from a hot and humid Mopani.
We have had some realy good rain so far this season, so much so that the dam is overflowing and the Tzendze river is also flowing properly for the first time since i've be at Mopani.

As you can imagine with all the water around there are lots of different frogs and toads around.

Sightings have been good, lots of elephant bulls around. Some of the elephant bulls have gone into musth.
There are also lots of young animals wobbling around.

Cheers

[M.Paxton]

Greetings All

The last couple days have been lekka hot.
The sightings for the last few days have been good with all the usual suspects sighted and then a few special ones.
Eland and cheetah to name a few.

The birds have been good as well, the white- backed night heron is seen on a regular basis at the shipandani bird hide on the night drives.
On the morning drive this morning we saw a Melanistic Gabar Goshawk having Quelea for breakfast.
That's all for now cheers.

[M.Paxton]

Hello

This morning we went out a morning walk from the confluence look out.
On the way there we came across a small herd of buffalo and a breeding herd of elephant.
After briefing the guests we went to look at the buffalo.
As normal they stood there looking at us until there nerves broke and they all ran off snorting.
Whilst walking along the tzendze river we disturbed 3 hyena drinking, they had been eating and there was some blood stains on the ones neck.
Later on in the morning we came across the hyena chewing on a leg of a buffalo.
After breakfast, back to the vehicle, it started getting hot. A good walk.

cheers.

[Gregor]

Haven't seen sable in Kruger myself either.
I just missed them by 2 minutes last year near Mantimahle dam.
But indeed we spotted a Roan in 2008 at the waterhole of tropic of Capricorn
It was just lying down near it, huge animal, I guess it's a male, too bad that I couldn't get closer to it,
From our second encounter (may 2009) you've seen the picture on another topic right?
These roan is normally a very difficult animal to photograph because they are very shy and run off most of the time they see a car. I think that is why people don't see them that often, and of course there are only a few in the park.
But really the tropic of Capricorn is by far the best location to find Roan in the whole park!

[M.Paxton]

Greetings All

Another morning drive. The weather was not as good as wednesday.
I went down south of the camp and did the the Tzendze loop, which is a hit or a miss and today it was a miss most of the way. Just the usal suspects were to be seen. 1 Elephant, impala, zebra, and a steenbok.
The tar road back provided black-backed jackal, ostrich and more zebra.

Friday Morning, drive again this time i went and drove old faithful, the tropic of capricorn loop.
Whilst waiting for the guest to arrive i could here the lions roaring in the mooiplaas windmill direction, but no luck. the loops usual suspects were all present.
Some tsessebe and 15 eland were at the windmill.

Gregor
in winter is the best time to see the roan in our area. i have only seen them a few times this summer. I'm hoping when we start seeing them again there will be some new additions.

A large leopard tom cat was walking over the letaba low water bridge between Phalaborwa and Mopani. I have seen him on the bridge and in the area of the bridge many times.

cheers

[M.Paxton]

Greetings All

What a weekend. Did a couple of drives with all the usal suspects to be seen.
Mandhevu one of the big tuskers in this area has died near mooiplaas windmil so the is a smell of well matured steak in the air. So that means all the big tuskers that i know of in this area are gone.
On one of the morning walks the black *** was spotted again.

Cheers

[M.Paxton]

Greetings All

Well we've busy, so i'll just give some of the heigh lights.
The drive's have been ok, there has been lots of rain so the sightings are not so good, but the eland have been seen on a regular basis on the tropic of capricorn. Ja and all the usual suspects are still around.

The walks have been great however, with two leopard sightings, ***, elephant, buffalo, zebra, giraffe, impala, kudu.

Mandhevu the elephant most probably died of old age. The body was to decomposed and most of it had been eaten so one could not seen if it had died in a fight. His one long tusk was 2.62m and his short tusk i forget but it was 52cm in circumference. This is amazing as Alexander tuskes were 2.33m and 2.4m and 51cm in circumference and when he was walking around his tuskes were not far of the ground. Mandhevu was a massive bull.

The Eendrag males were all at Mooiplaas windmill. The black mane was on honeymoon for a change. All three of them serenaded us then the blond went and lay on his back. What a tough life.


Cheers

[M.Paxton]

Greetings All

Sorry no posts over the last while and that said this is my last "regular" post for Mopani Camp and Kruger National Park. I have transfered to Mountain Zebra National Park. So be on the look out for a new thread in the frontier park section.

My last day in Mopani I did a night drive and saw the Eendrag males at Eendrag windmill, they even gave me a farewell roar.

I hope people will still post a few things in this thread once and a while so i can keep up to date with the happenings in that area.

Many thanx
Michael.

[cheetah2111]

The sightings around Mopani are pumping of late!
I left the park about a week ago from Shingwedzi where sightings are prolific But there have been so many sighitings of cheetah around mopani
There are two cheetah brothers that were seen everyday by someone or another between Bowerkop to the Mooiplaas area everyday. This is them (note not my photo by permission given to post here )


Other than these two there was also cheetah seen more south between Letaba and Mopani on the main road whenever I visited Mopani people were speaking about it

[K-4S]

Has anyone seen the photo taken this week of the leopard that was seen in the Mopani rest camp. I cant remember what social media platform I saw it on. The women took the picture from the bedroom window of her unit. It was broad daylight.

[Elsa]

I also saw it and pretty sure its from one taken some time ago, think it was just rehashed.
I know there have been 1 or 2 incidences of Leopards in the camp.