An eventful start to this morning’s game drive from Phinda Zuka Lodge. Early on we find a male black rhino, who decides charging the vehicle is the best means of defence. He stops short of the vehicle, trots off, turns around, has another charge, stops short, and then trots off in disgust.
Amazingly, we then find a maternal group of 3 black rhino – a mother, calf and probably an older sister of the current calf. Initially spooked, by sitting quietly in the vehicle, they slowly and cautiously approach to investigate what this mechanical beast is that seems interested in them and makes a constant clicking sound. It is estimated that only 2-3,000 black rhino remain. To have seen 4 of Phinda’s 30 in one morning is outstanding.
There has been word on the radio that two lionesses have been hunting near the main road. We haven’t been able to get close enough to see them, but patience pays off, and one of the lionesses sees a female zebra and very young zebra foal, and takes off in pursuit of the foal. She runs straight past our vehicle, and out of sight. Happily for the foal, she misses, unhappily for her two cubs, they’ll be going hungry for a while longer. We have an excellent sighting of her walking up the road panting after her chase.
This lioness is the daughter of the lioness she is hunting with, and the daughter has the two cubs. Which makes the older lioness about 15 years old, and the mother of many litters of cubs over the years. We are lucky to follow them both to a nearby waterhole, where they lie down to recover. The older lioness starts to groom herself after a while, and it is evident that she is an old girl with arthritis and probably many old injuries. Watching her trying to twist around to lick her back is sad to see – she is very stiff and is finding it difficult to maintain her condition. This poor old girl is famous in the reserve for having brought down an adult male giraffe single handedly in order to feed her cubs. Now she is reliant on her daughter bringing down the bulk of the kills.
Still panting after the zebra chase, the younger lioness spots a male nyala coming to drink at the waterhole. Her mother hides behind a bush whilst the daughter flanks behind the nyala. Her timing is a bit off, and the nyala lives for another day.
Much to our surprise, we find a 5th black rhino on the evening game drive. It’s still hot and sunny, and this guy doesn’t want to move out of the shady spot he’s chosen for the afternoon.
A female Bataleur eagle is giving a flying lesson to her juvenile offspring, whilst an African Hoopoe rests in a tree.
At a nearby dam, a female white rhino is spotted with her young calf. The calf has had a mud bath, and then goes to suckle from it’s mother.
A tree with white backed vultures and a rare lappet-faced vulture (very like a turkey vulture) brings hope that a leopard may have stashed a kill nearby, but it seems that they are just resting in the afternoon sunshine.
The sundowner drinks spot is visited by a curious and relaxed young male giraffe. He ambles easily up the road, stops to inspect us from a safe distance, and heads downhill towards the waterhole.
All in all, a quiet afternoon game drive, but the morning was going to be hard to outdo!
