Sunrise Safari- June 29, 2016

Sunrise Safari- June 29, 2016

 Good Morning Everyone!!

James is our guide on this eerie fog that has covered the lowfeld this morning.
He will have Wiam on Camera.

Byron will also be out on a vehicle this morning for his last 2 drives with us and he has Bryan on camera.

 Starting off with Byron this morning and he is at the spot where Karula was last evening. She does not appear to be here this morning.

 There are Hyena tracks all over this area so Karula might have taken her cubs out of the area for safety.

James stops to marvel at this 9 year old Male Elephant with magnificent Tusks. James thinks he will eventually be a Tusker.

Good News : James says Karula has been found and Byron is heading there.

Elephants do not migrate. They have home ranges that they usually travel within. They can move vast distances between grazing grounds. They do not have specific territories.

It is very misty this morning. Quite Hazy. 

 Over to Byron as Karula is heading South.
He spots Karula with both Cubs. They are on the edge of the drainage line.

 Karula Grooming each of the cubs

Byron is attempting another visual as we see the beautiful landscape as the sun peeks above the horizon

Byron spots Karula but she is almost completely camouflaged within the thicket.

 
Over to James who has just arrived at 3 in a row pan on Cheetah Plains

Back over to Byron with Karula
Karula is sitting on top of a Termite Mound and is listening and scanning. She perhaps is looking to hunt.

Karula is on the move.

Over to James
He is driving along.
Sign of the drought- A pipe  that the Elephants have dig up. They can smell the water . This pipe leads or lead to the pan to pump water in.

James sees many many vehicles off in the distance and has asked for Final Control to link back with Byron while he sorts this out.

Byron is still attempting to locate Karula once again but the thickets are so dense it is very difficult to move around, through and into.

Back over to James with an enormous Elephant Bull
He is quite close as he wanders past and even though he is in full musth, he appears quite calm.

 Large Tuskless Male Elephant

James says the game radios are going crazy.  There were 3 lions with a kill on Cheetah Plains last night as well as 3 Female Lions.  No confirmation as to who they were.

Byron has once again found Karula. No signs of the cubs. She may have left them in the drainage line or they could be hiding in the thicket.

Back over to James who sees the 2 Brother Cheetahs moving along towards Mala Mala.

 Cheetah On Cheetah Plains 

 

With Byron now. Lots of alarm calls from all directions in the last little while. Impala's alarm calling. Birds alarm calling.
Before we moved off from Karula, she was aware and ears perked listening to the alarm calls.

Over to James who is with a Male Lion and 3 Lionesses. They have a Buffalo Kill. The Male is very full and is sitting slightly away from the carcass. One of he females is eating now but the others have very full bellies as well. This has made a very good meal for these 4 large animals.

1 male and 3 lionesses with a Buffalo kill with James Hendry

The females have got up and are moving about. The Male decides to follow them.

Male is scent marking

James is wondering where the other Male Lion is as reports say there were 2 Male Lions.

Male has a very full belly

The Female has got up and moved. The Male cannot decide if to follow her or not as he is very full now and very tired.

The Male does decide to follow the female and stops and smells her urine and elicits his Flehmen Grimace.

  5 male following with Flehmen grimace

Lions have a sensory organ called the Jacobson organ  that enables them to gather more information about scents through the roofs of their mouths. The Lion will open his mouth and make an odd face, as though he is sneering, grimacing, or frozen with his mouth slightly open, as he draws air into the organ to check it.  This “grimace” is known as the Flehmen response. The Jacobson organ, which is connected to areas of the brain associated with sexual, social, and feeding behaviours, is most often used by male Lions to gauge the sexual status of local females – in other words, to discover whether they are fertile and ovulating by the scent of their urine.

Also a couple of Hooded Vultures hoping for some scraps

As this Lioness is resting beside the Male Lion, James decides to move back to the Buffalo carcass to see what the other 2 Lionesses are doing.

 Over to Byron who has located a Lilac Breasted Roller

  LILAC BREASTED ROLLER

Back over to James
James is with the 2 Lionesses who are still eating even though they are already quite full.

James is once again moving along and we see some Elephants perhaps coming down for a drink

7 ELLIES ZEBRAS AND LION

The Zebras are running around and are nervous and as the camera pans off into the distance (not too far) we can see one of the Lionesses walking. Their kill is close to this waterhole.
The Zebra move cautiously closer to check on the Lions to see what they are doing. They want to know their location to ensure their they know their proximity.

Over to Byron who has found some fresh Male Leopard tracks.

Male Leopard Tracks With Byron

Over to James

3 types of Vultures

White Headed Vulture

Hooded Vulture

White Backed Vulture

The Cheetahs are once again within our visualization area so James is heading back to them.
We cannot get close to the Cheetah as we do not have the super zoom camera and there are other Mala Mala vehicles there 

View Of Cheetahs 

Over to Byron
Red Billed Hornbills

 Full Length 3 Hour Drive

June 29, 2016

This Concludes our Sunrise Safari for this morning.

Byron has the Sunset Safari Drive with us and Tomorrows Sunrise Drive and then he will be leaving.

NOTES: Remember to check the various pages on my blog here as I frequently add other videos not included in these drives but are of interest to Safari Live Fans.  Humerous videos as well as misc and post drive chat videos are usually updated daily