Kruger National Park

Spots!

Leopards are the most popular among the great cats in Africa and I would say they are the most sought-after mammal on safari. They are difficult to find, very beautiful and they transmit a sense of veiled power. Interestingly, every time we have seen a leopard, resting, walking or on the prowl, you hear alarm calls from a variety of animals. We have not heard this when lions, cheetah or hyenas are around.

So, when you find one that is approachable and you have time, first and foremost you watch it and then, regardless of how the light is, you photograph it but without forgetting that watching it is the important part of the event!

The leopard is the same of my previous post (https://bushsnob.com/2026/09/11/spot-the-beast-86/).

Busy washing itself, totally ignored us.

Then it proceeded to do some stretching!

And it almost went to sleep.

We probably made a noise in the car or a sudden movement so, we disturbed her and she stared at us.

Awake again, it got distracted by birds and monkeys as well as the arrival of another car.

This sighting was among our best ever because it was a very relaxed animal and no one else was around.

Spot the beast 86

We spotted this beast during our journey through the Mphongolo Loop (S56). In fact, it was found by my wife Mabel and I am still trying to understand how she did it. As they say in this part of the world, she has a “trained eye” and never ceases to surprise me.

This is what she saw and I promise that it was still much further away from us than what the picture shows! She assures me that she is able to see a tail movement or the flicking of an ear! It took me a while to find it!

The picture below may be of help before I reveal it…

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If you still have not managed, that is the spotted beast spotted!

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The young leopard was enjoying its life and we managed to watch it on our own for about an hour before another car joined us. An almost impossible feat in the Kruger National Park.

I think that of all our leopard sightings, I can claim credit for one. It was a male leopard that was lying sunning itself a couple of metres from the car and on my side of the road.

The above sighting was so nice that my next post will be a slide show of the pictures we took. I hope you will enjoy them.

Spot the beast(s) 85

Our favourite drive while in the northern Kruger National Park is the Mphongolo Loop (S56) that goes between Shingwedzi Rest Camp and Babalala Picnic Site It is about 30 km and, as its name indicates, follows the Mphongolo River, a major tributary of the Shingwedzi.

The road passes through various habitats where different wildlife can be found. In some places the river does not have any surface water (although it may still run under the sand) while in others, particularly when the terrain becomes hillier, water accumulates in waterholes that attract good amount of wildlife.

Below is what we found in one of these river bends that I believe was the Ribye waterhole.

A picture of the view:

We stopped the car and watched, enjoying the moment. After a while, we noted that we have missed some other beasts that were also present, apart from the crocodiles…

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The above picture should help…

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However, the following will leave no doubts…

At some stage, while entertained watching the action in the water edge closer to us, a movement caught our eyes in the rocks further away. We saw a flash of pink and realized that the rocks were in fact a pod of hippo. They had been there all the time, lying quietly enjoying the sunshine and too lazy to move to the point that their exposed bodies were dry!

Poaching scar

The waterhole at Punda María Rest Camp, in the Kruger National Park, is a great way of enjoying a sundowner while watching the elephant activities and, with luck other night animals as well.

Among many elephants, one appeared to have a kink in its trunk.

Unsure of the reason, we waited for a long while until it got closer and we could have agood look at it.

It was clear to us that unfortunately the animal had been sneared and luckily for it, although injured, it managed to break free before more severe, probably lethal damage was done.

Although when sucking in water it leaked some, judging by the size of the animal, it had adjusted to its injury and managed to live a fairly normal life.

However, the sight was a grim reminder of the horrors of poaching.

What on earth!? (26)

We spotted this sign at Skukuza Camp in the Kruger National Park. One would have thought that, if there was a tree that gives sausages, instead of such a sign there would be one promoting the sale of fried ones or at least a fridge to collect them for later!

But these are the fruits of the aptly named sausage tree (Kigelia africana), solid fruits that could weigh over 10 kg although more often less than that but that, if they fall on your head, they could give you a headache, perhaps worse than if they fall on the bonnet of your car!

Camping at risk of falling sausages!

The sausages that fall are consumed by a variety of animals, including humans that use them for flavouring “pombe” the local beer in Kenya.

Before that, it produces beautiful scarlet flowers that are not only decorative but also animal food. This young baboon is picking the best sweet bits!

What on earth?! (18)

While working in Mozambique about 12 years ago, we frequently visited the Kruger National Park as it was quite easy to get from Maputo to its southern entrance through the Crocodile bridge. Although the favourite camp for the family was Lower Sabie, we also visited Biyamiti Bush Camp, a favourite of mine.

“Biyamiti” is a word in the Shangaan language, which means “a fence of sharp wooden spears”(1). Built in 1991, it is the most recent of the bushveld camps in the Kruger Park and I like it as it has only 15 cottages and it has a small but interesting area that only the camp residents can drive in.

Some camps keep Visitors books that go back several years where people write their experiences while staying at that camp. I always read some of the more recent comments to get the latest information on animal sightings, just in case. At one of the bungalows a lady that clearly frequented the place talked about the “leopard tree” where, according to her, years back a leopard could frequently be seen with its kills (we looked for it but did not find it). There were also many references of finding leopards on the access road to the camp but we also missed them although we heard them close by at night!

At that bungalow I got my first surprise when I saw that someone that signed as Chris Barnard stayed there in 1993. I believe he was no other than Dr. Christiaan Barnard, the surgeon that performed the first heart transplant in 1967. (2)

At another bungalow I found that Lindsay Scott (with her family) stayed there in 2009. I believe her to have been the well-known Zimbabwean wildlife artist (3). Luckily I have bought some of her prints and a great painting of a pair of crowned cranes that I cherish greatly today!

(1) I think this is an ambitious translation for one word, but I cannot find another.

(2) Much less known is that he also did the first kidney transplant later the same year! See: https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/christiaan-neethling-barnard for more information.

(3) See: https://www.lindsay-scott.com/about.html and https://www.artbarbarians.com/gallery2/main.asp?artist=205

Mad buffalo?

We were on a game drive following the Shingwedzi River towards the Kanniedod dam in the Kruger National Park on 5 October 2017. About four km after leaving the Shingwedzi rest camp we spotted a group of lions feeding on a greater kudu that appeared to have been killed earlier that morning. It was 08:30 hours.

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Lionesses at the kill seen through the branches on the other side of the river.

There were ten lions, two adult males, on one young male and seven adult females. They were feeding on the opposite bank of the river. Although the latter was open sand banks with scattered bushes, our visibility was rather limited by the dense vegetation on our side. As we were alone -a rare occurrence- we drove up and down the river trying to get a good view. All we managed to find was a rather narrow gap in the vegetation and from there we watched. 

At exactly 08:45 hours (we know the exact times because of the pictures’ information) four lionesses were feeding on the kill while the remaining members of the pride were nearby, either a few metres away or up on the river bank. We also noted that there were three adult buffalo about 50 metres towards the right of the lions. They were not grazing, just watching them.

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The lionesses feeding and already alert by the buffalo presence.

Suddenly, one of the buffalo rushed towards the lions at speed and charged the group scattering them in all directions.

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The first charge.

Through the dust I saw the buffalo head-butting something on the ground and my first thought was that it had got one of the lions! However, as the situation became clearer, I could see that it was in fact violently thrashing the greater kudu carcass!

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The buffalo clobbered the carcass for a few seconds while the lions run away and then stopped and watched the buffalo. A second buffalo arrived to the scene but it did not join the first at the carcass.

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Then, the third buffalo appeared and the trio stood at the site for a while before moving off to the other side of the carcass to a distance of about 30 metres.

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Two minutes later the lions started to come back and resumed feeding, still being watched by the buffalo, now from the left of the pictures.

Once the buffalo cleared off, the lions returned to the kill and fed for about half an hour.

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Then, when everything appeared quiet, a second buffalo charge took place!

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This time the buffalo seemed satisfied scattering the lions and it did not interfere with the carcass.

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After this second interaction the three buffalo turned their attention towards the various lions and proceeded to chase them and flash them out from the various locations they chose to hide.

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After about one hour of this confrontation one of the lionesses moved off and walked about two hundred metres towards a pool in the river and, after drinking its fill, hid herself under some bushes, clearly fed up with the buffalo!

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By about 11:00 hours the contest was over and the buffalo moved away leaving the lions undisturbed either singly or in small groups at various places along the river. When we returned before sunset a group of lions was resting on the riverbed but the buffalo were no longer in the area and, by the following morning. there were no signs of the lions or the carcass but some buffalo were still in the area.

We always learn from these kind of observations and I believe that there are a few issues of interest. The first is that at no time the lions attempted to confront or retaliate against the buffalo despite the size of the pride. This is probably explained either by not being hungry (as they had fed on the grater kudu) and/or being aware that the strong buffalo were a dangerous prey.

The second is the clear and understandable adverse reaction of the buffalo against the lions that they perceive as a danger and did not wish to have in their territory.

The most puzzling observation relates to the buffalo behaviour towards the carcass. It is possible that, unable to retaliate against the lions, the buffalo’s anger was expressed against what they perceived as associated with the predators. Of course we cannot rule out that some other reason sight- or smell-related triggered this conduct. 

Perhaps readers with more experience on animal behaviour would like to comment on this and put forward a better explanation?

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A general view of the area where the observations took place. The kill was towards the left of the picture.

 

Spot the beast 33

Now, this one is really tricky… We spotted around Shingwedzi Camp in the Kruger National Park last October. See if you can spot it…

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A better view may help?
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OK. I reveal it below:

 

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It was a different pot the beast!

I imagine that the terrapin had been buried somewhere safe and moist waiting for the rains and we found it moments after it re-emergence while crossing the road to get to the river.

And then, after the photo opportunity, it just continued on its way.

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Spot the beast 31

Very close to the Shingwedzi Rest Camp in the Kruger National Park we found this interesting beast. I think it is a nice challenge…

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Here there are a couple of pictures that reveal the mystery in case you did not.

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I am not sure if the monitor lizard “beast” lives in the tree hole or whether it was raiding  a nest in search of prey.

It was clearly enjoying watching the cars going by!

Leopards

When on safari, finding a leopard is the cherry on the cake. These scarce predators are hard to find as they are very secretive and cunning animals. The fact that protected areas are shrinking does not help their conservation status either. Luckily, as you will see, the Kruger National Park (KNP) still remains an excellent place to spot these elusive and beautiful cats.

This year our “out of Zimbabwe” travel included South Africa and Botswana where we visited the KNP at the beginning and at the end of our trip and the Kgalagadi Trans-frontier Park in between. Quite a journey (about seven thousand km!) but well worth it.

The first visit to the KNP included the northern section as this is the closest to Zimbabwe. We visited three camps: Sirheni Bushveld camp, Shingwedzi Rest camp and Bateleur Bushveld camp.

While we did find other interesting things in Sirheni and Shingwedzi (that I will tell you about soon), it was while arriving at Bateleur that things became really exciting. Near the “Red Rocks”, the main attraction near Bateleur, we found a dead impala under a tree. Fellow travellers informed us that a leopard had killed it and that it was a female with a cub. Scared by the vehicles they had left the kill and hid somewhere.

We decided to wait quietly and were rewarded. After about an hour we saw a movement up the tree just above the kill and, soon enough, we could see a leopard moving in the thick foliage. A few minutes later it climbed down. It was the youngster that, hungry, started to feed on the impala. The area was very bushy and photography was difficult but it was a good sight.

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After a while the cub walked in front of us and briefly joined its mother. We had a glimpse of the female that immediately hid again in the long grass while the cub returned to the impala. We waited a bit more but as we still had to check-in at our camp we decided to leave making a note of the site to return later.

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So, quite encouraged by our find we re-joined the road towards Bateleur camp. We had not travelled more than a couple of kilometres when we heard the alarm snorting of impala and found that a large number were looking in the same direction while calling in alarm! This situation can indicate the presence of a predator. I need to clarify that in the Southern Africa’s more bushy landscapes you need to take all possible signs into account to find game.

We stopped and waited and when we saw that the monkeys, guinea fowls and francolins -among others- joined the chorus, our belief that a predator was near firmed up. After a short while we spotted another leopard! It was waking in parallel to us in a direction that would take it to the river, on the other side of the road. The leopard ignored us and it never hesitated once on the direction it was traveling. We watched it walk, still followed by its mobbing retinue but completely unmoved, until it went down the river!

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Finding three leopards in a couple of hours left us rather stunned and we thought that Bateleur was “the place” to spot leopards. Well, as usual we were wrong! During the four days we spent there the leopards carefully avoided us! However, there was more to come on our return to the KNP later on.

On the second visit to the KNP about two weeks later, we entered through the Paul Kruger’s gate and headed for the Olifants Rest camp. About one kilometre from the gate a bunch of cars marked the whereabouts of a sleeping leopard! As our journey was still long, we left it and continued towards Olifants where we arrived late in the afternoon.

Olifants Rest camp is probably the most spectacular of the KNP camps as it is built on a cliff that overlooks the Olifants river, located quite a way below, offering a breathtaking view of the river and its environment. We were fortunate to have booked one of the “river view” bungalows so we could just sit in our verandah and take in the scenery opening up below us!

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The morning after our arrival, after a “breakfast with a view” we drove towards Olifants satellite camp Balule [1] and then followed the Timbavati river, an area well known because of its white lions. The latter are not albinos but a leucistic form, similar to the starling reported in this blog [2].

We knew that to find white lions was very unlikely as most of them are now in captivity or game reserves nearby but we had driven through this area earlier on another journey and found it very attractive. It did not disappoint us. Fortunately, the river had water and we found lots of water birds, including a family of saddle-bill storks fishing at a stagnant pool.

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Further on, on another stretch of the river we spotted a pair of ibis and, while trying to confirm that they were the rarer purple rather than the more common glossy, I spanned the area a couple of metres to their left and I could not believe my eyes: a large leopard was lying down next to the birds! I was very excited, as I had never experienced such an accidental find! I believe that the leopard was walking to the river to drink at the time we appeared and its reaction was to crouch not to be seen!

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We waited and watched. After a couple of minutes, it stood up and walked to a small water pool where it drank for a couple of minutes and then, as it is often the case with leopards, it disappeared in the thicket.

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We drove back really excited by the find and, before reaching our camp, we had a fleeting sighting of yet another leopard well inside the thick bush!

After a fruitless early drive looking for the leopard spotted near camp we decided to relax at our bungalow to take in the beauty of the Olifants river as we could lots of animals coming to drink and to graze there. That morning, apart from the usual hundreds of impala and dozens of waterbuck we could also see lots of greater kudu and a few bushbuck. However, our attention was focused on a couple of elephant families enjoying drinking and bathing.

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While busy watching I heard my wife saying, “the elephants are scared” and then I could hear their loud alarm calls. Immediately I heard her saying “there is a hyena walking behind the elephants towards the water” and immediately, “oh gosh, there is a leopard drinking also!” As I wanted to see it, she explained me where it was so I started looking and, after a while, I spotted it. After a while the leopard moved “it stood up” I said. “No” replied my wife, “it is still drinking”. We started to argue but then we realized that we were in fact looking at two different leopards on the river bed!

The afternoon of our last day we spent it back at the Timbavati river. It was during this time and before arriving to a pan called Ratel that, lo and behold, a leopard was looking at us from a donga and, of course, it immediately took off before we could do anything, as usual and we could not see it again!

So that was our experience in the KNP where we spotted nine leopards in a couple of weeks, a marvelous experience that we know it will not be repeated and certainly it will not be forgotten!.

 

[1] Interestingly, this was one of the few camps where people of all races were allowed during the Apartheid times!

[2] https://bushsnobinafrica.wordpress.com/2017/01/05/odd-bird/