More Leopards, Elephants, Rhinoceros, and Lions

We started our day revisiting the kill site in the dark – there was the male leopard eating what remained of the carcass up in the tree, with the two cubs at the teats of the female down below. Roland explained that this is a sight that most of the researchers don’t believe until they see it. A male staying with the family and sharing its kill. There is only one other documented case.

We went looking for elephants catching sunrise on the bank of a pond with a Grey Heron and Guineafowl around the pond. Then we found six Southern Ground Hornbills. They mate for life and each breeding pair is assisted by at least two other birds to properly care for their young. They are very particular to finding nesting holes in old Mopane trees about 1 ½ feet above the ground. With the elephants tearing down these trees, there numbers are decreasing. The group of Hornbills we saw had just grown from five to six birds since a chick had just left its nest. We found them eating some small rats. We did eventually find another 30 year old male elephant. We could hear the tree branches breaking and went bushwhacking through the trees, only to find it alongside another road. We ended our drive by spotting a male, female, and chick Bateleur or Short Tailed Eagle in a tree above a dried out river.

On our afternoon drive, we headed south toward Kruger Park after White Rhino or square-lipped rhino, the grass eaters. Sure enough our guides found three, a male and two female. At first they were in the brush and hard to see, but eventually they passed our vehicle in full view. Their horns sell for about $250K per kilo and an adult horn in about 10 kilos. We went further down the road and came upon two more rhinos in the middle of the road, a female and her baby. They had just layed down to take a nap and the Oxpecker birds came onto their backs, two adults with red beaks and a juvenile.

White Rhinos in the road

Meanwhile one of the other vehicles spotted a male Lion only about a hundred yards from our first Rhinos. It was the same nine year old male we had seen two days ago, but he had walked quite a few miles south to protect his territory. We stopped for our usual Sun Downer drinks and after dark, our tracker spotted a Chameleon in the bushes. I have no idea how he spotted him. 

Lion resting 

We were able to converse with Roland for quite a time on this drive and at dinner. His father is quite famous – he began the program to license guide rangers throughout Africa. Roland has been trained as a guide since he was a youngster. He is quite skilled at tracking which we have witnessed in the last few days: sight for tracks, smell to find recent kills and scat, and hearing to listen to the monkeys, antelope, and birds warning of predators. In fact, Anthony, our tracker has only been a tracker for a few months. He was a maintenance man at the lodge, but has been trained by Roland and they have become an effective pair at tracking – especially leopard and black rhino.