Sunrise Safari- July 6, 2016

Sunrise Safari- July 6, 2016

 We start off this morning with Jamie Paterson sitting at the Hyena Den with the young cubs being very inquisitive.  Bryan is on camera this morning with Jamie

 An Antelope scampered by and the cubs made a hasty retreat back into the den.

Over to James who is on Bush Walk this morning.

We see a Bag Worm. Well, actually the worm lives inside of it.
With the drought, many farmers cows are now having to eat leaves because there is so little grass. If a cow were to eat this worm, it would kill the cow.

Bag Worm

 The plan for Herbert is to continue providing security detail when guides are doing bush walks but the hope is that once he is over his shyness in front of the camera, Herbert will be doing some of the bush walks and someone else will be doing security.

 With Jamie now at the Hyena Den with the little one has popped out from the den for another little visit.

Hyena Pops Out

Over to James

We see a Scorpion Exo Skeleton

 As the Scorpion grows it crawls out of its entire outer skeleton.

James also finds an Olive Scorpion

Olive Scorpion

 Jamie has moved on from the Hyena Den.  She is going to be checking the drainage line in hopes to find the female lioness that has her cubs there. The cubs are now 5 weeks old so the Lioness will be bringing them out into the open more and more.

Also report on the game drive channel of Leopard tracks on Djuma

We now go to James

We are at a very important tree. A gardenia.

If you take the leaves, crush them up with water. You then use another branch to use as a mixer and stir the solution well until it foams.
You then put your hands behind your back clasped, bend over and drink the foam.
It is a cleaning agent for your body and spirit so that your mind and body are clear to learn the days lessons.

Use Gardenia to Clean The Body And Spirit.

Another important use of these branches is to get 4 pieces of Elephant Dung and you place a branch in each piece of Dung and place them outside at the 4 corners of your home. This will ward off evil spirits from entering your home

Ward off Evil Spirits

Over now to Jamie who has located  a Female Nkahuma Lioness and Blondie (One of the Birmingham Male Lions). This is not Amber Eyes. This is a different Lioness.

There is another Lioness sitting a short distance away.
Jamie is uncertain if the Male is Blondie or not.
Cant yet identify which female this is as well

Over to James who has found a Termite mound

 James has climbed this Termite mound to get a good view of what is around him.

There is the tree that Brent fell out of during Rehearsals for the live Tv show

Over to Jamie with the Lions who are on the move.

The Male is essentially blocking the one female from the other female (Amber Eyes). As they walk, he puts himself in between them and is attempting to split them up.

The lioness offers the male an occasional growl to tell him that she is not impressed.

Lion Courting is not always a peaceful affair

Amber Eyes is still just over the ridge and the other female is keeping visual with her as she attempts to connect back up with her .

This is definitely not the Birmingham Boy that we saw yesterday. Could be #4.
 Still growling back and forth at each other but in a semi polite way.
Amber Eyes is on a fallen Marulla tree a short distance away

Over to James who has Wild Dog tracks.

There is a conflict with local healers with their ability to be allowed in certain areas to collect medicinal plants. They are not allowed into most of the privately owned reserves where they once lived.

Conflict With Collection Of Medicinal Plants

Herbert says he dogs have crossed out of the area so James and Herbert are now walking towards Tree House Dam.

Jamie has left the Lions because this week is full of surprises.
She is at Buffleshoek dam as she waits to get in on an important sighting.

Lots of Elephants clustered together waiting for the go ahead from the Matriarch as to if it is safe to go down to drink

Now they are eager to get to the water

We are leaving the Elephants to go and see the surprise Jamie has for us.

While Jamie moves into the sighting we pop briefly over to James

James shows us a very small spider web. About 1 cm in size

We are back with Jamie and look at our surprise!!

Introducing 3 Identical Nkahuma Cubs!!

Three Identical Nkahuma Cubs

 Play Time With The Nkahuma Cubs

One of the cubs has hunted and caught a piece of Elephant Dung and proudly carries it around.
Another tugs on Mom's tail

1 Cub Hunts A Piece Of Elephant Dung While The Other Tugs On Mom's Tail

 The lioness and her cubs have moved deeper into the thicket so Jamie has moved out.

Aubrey thinks there is another female Nkahuma within the drainage line with Cubs as well.
 So perhaps this Lioness with her cubs have gone to meet up with her.

Jamie stops to check out these tracks.

 She thought these might be Lion tracks but on closer examination, they turned out to be Baboon tracks.

Over to James

A Tropical Web Spider Web with remains of an egg sack

 Over to Jamie now with some Impala. You can still see the dark areas on their backs as they fluff up their fur in the cool mornings to keep warm

 As we arrive at Buffleshoek drive, the Elephants have moved off and the area is relatively quiet.
We do see a few Blacksmith Lapwings

 James has found some signs in the soil.
We see a drag park and at the end of it is a track.
James thinks it is a Caracal track.
This would be very rare.

The drag mark goes underneath a thick bush.

James climbs a tall and quite steep Termite Mound. Elephants have also made their way to the top of this mound.

We move back over to Jamie who is with the Male and Female Lions

While we were gone, another Male joined them but has since moved off.

Jamie is leaving this pair of Lions and moving on to hopefully find the other 2 that are not too far from here.

A second Birmingham Boy with another Lioness

 A Relatively Unenthusiastic Pairing

This is Amber eyes and since she didn't really roll over onto her back, it is a sign that she is just about over being in oestrus.

 Jamie provides some really interesting information regarding the Male and Female Lions so I have included 2 back to back videos because the video explains it all so well.

Who Mates With Who

The Birminghams Have Quite The Reputation

 Looks like the Sunset Safari will be a good Safari as these Lions (both pairs) will most likely be available for us to see and perhaps those Nkahuma Cubs as well.

This brings us to the end of a great Sunrise Safari.

Thanks to everyone