A Heartbreaking Story

We have some pictures of this little lion cub up already, but we never told his amazing story. You can see from the pictures that he lacks good muscle condition even though his belly is quite full. In the video his sister walks past him and she is noticeably larger. His detailed story is told in full by the wonderful rangers at Londolozi in their blogs. In short, he was separated from the pride during a hyena attack and survived for five weeks alone. He stole our hearts, and he was so adorable to watch with his little tough guy persona. We subscribe to the Londolozi blogs and get nice updates and pictures, so we looked forward to watching this little wonder of nature grow up. Sadly, that is not going to be the case as he was killed by one of the four big male lion brothers the other day. This has been much more difficult for us to accept than all the other hunting and killing we saw while we were there. I guess that's the downside of getting up close and personal with wildlife.





Read more about this lion cub at Londolozi's blog

Read More about the attack at Londolozi's blog

Londolozi: The Big Five

The term, "Big Five," was created by hunters and refers to the five most difficult animals in Africa to hunt. The term is still used in most tourist and wildlife guides that discuss African wildlife safaris. The big five are the lion, African elephant, cape buffalo, leopard, and rhinoceros. We saw all the big five and more in our visit to South Africa. The game drives at Londolozi offered excellent views of many animals much closer than we could have imagined.



Rhinoceros


Buffalo


Elephant



Leopard





Lion




Zebra



Hippopotamus


Giraffe


Hyena

Londolozi: Impalas and Friends

Impala



Waterbuck



Steinbuck


Bushbuck




Nyala

Londolozi: Jackal, Hyena, and Wild Dog

Jackal



Hyena



Wild Dog

Leopard up a tree with two impala

One evening, when on a game drive with Talley and Fred, they spotted a dead impala that had been dragged up a tree by a leopard. On closer inspection, it turned out to be two impala. There was a hyena below but no sign of the leopard.

We watched for a while in hopes the leopard would return, and after a while went off in search of some more birds. We checked back about an hour later and the first thing they discovered was a leopard on the ground about 25 feet from the tree. When we looked up the tree, we found an older leopard, its father, in the tree with the impala.





They theorized that the older leopard had stolen the kill from its offspring and dragged it up the tree. It looked like the younger leopard had eaten some first.

It was hard to leave.

We stayed a little longer on our last day at Londolozi but they needed our suite for the next guests. They were nice enough to give us a day room to shower and get changed before we departed.

The day room had a terrace that was tree height and there were three or four vervet monkeys on the terrace including one lounging on the furniture.
They were really cute.



We finished packing and four elephants walked by the room on the river bank.



One elephant left the bank area and came up toward the room.




We liked how unpredictable the animals were. We were never disappointed, but we didn't know what to expect each time we looked out the window or went on a game drive.

Leaving Londolozi

We had a blast. We saw every animal we hoped to and more. We were astounded at how close we could get to them on the game rides. We also stayed with many animals for an hour or more so we got to observe many natural behaviors: hunting, eating, sleeping, mating and drinking.




If there was any disappointment on the game rides, we never got a good look at a warthog. Well, on the way out of Londolozi, there were two warthogs on the side of the main road bidding us farewell.



We are already planning a return trip.

Incredibly Cute Hyena Cubs

 

 

The title says it all; right? It didn't take long for the cubs to come around checking us out. Our guide today, Talley, knows where the den is. We birded a bit along the way to the den, and then we had wonderful birding opportunities just while waiting for the cubs to appear. It turned out that the cubs were out of the den when we got there, which we didn't realize, and then we watched them making their way back home and feeling comfortable and curious about our presense. It was funny that they seemed insulted when our attention was drawn away from them by a stunning bird, and they gave us the, "Hey, we're the entertainment here" looks.

 

 



Elephants

 

Zebras

 

 

 

Leopards, lions, and wildebeest

One of the first things we saw on the evening drive was a herd of wildebeest with at least three really cute calves. Next we saw the female lions and cubs resting.

 Then we checked out where the wildebeest in labor was left to find the three lions having a meal.  After watching the lions, vultures, and even a yellow-billed kite eat, we left when our driver heard on the radio that the female lions were moving.  As we approached the female lions we saw a female leopard walking away. We discovered that the female lions stole a kill from the leopard.  It turns out that the kill was a wildebeest calf.  It was not a good day for wildebeest at Londolozi.

We left the lions and found a male leopard up a tree.   He climbed down and then we followed the female leopard again.  We tracked her for about 15 minnutes and she caught up with the male leopard and they mated.

Below is a video of the leopards mating

We had a great day. This is better than National Geographic.

The Tale of the Wildebeest

This is not a happy story. On our evening game drive, we did go back to find the wildebeest in labor, but we found the three male lions got to her before we did. It's gross but I'll tell it anyway - one of the lions was eating the calf which they had removed from her. I guess the only good thing about what happened is the female wildebeest didn't have a slow birthing death but instead was hopefully killed quickly by the lions.

We watched that scene for quite a while actually because two types of vultures, hooded vultures and white backed vultures, kept trying to make their way in and steal some food. The three brothers took turns chasing them off, so even though we didn't hear any loud roars, it was totally awesome watching the lions charging the vultures. Also cool was seeing the piece that some of the vultures were able to steal, which was the inside of the female wildebeest's stomach.

I actually already can't remember what order everything else that happened on the evening game drive came in, but there was lots of activity - including the mating of leopards!

I should be trying to sleep now - we head out again in two hours for another morning drive. Just figured I'd put the insomnia to good use and update anyone wondering about the wildebeest.

One of us will hopefully get around to a post on the way things go here at Londolozi, which is cool too - some of which I'd read about but have a better understanding of now that I'm here.

As perfect as Londolozi is, I'm going to suggest they provide house cats to each suite for those of us missing our own domestic feline snugglers after seeing all these great cats we can't touch. Might be a bad idea, though, since the staff remind us to close all the doors up and use the baboon proof latches when we go out.

I can't wait to see a baboon - but I promise not to let it in!

Unbelievable

On the theory that a picture is worth a 1000 words, here are 4000 words describing our day.