WILDLIFE REPORT SINGITA PAMUSHANA, ZIMBABWE For the … · managed to evade the croc by all hopping out of the water. • A white-tailed mongoose. Fishing The fishing has been lucrative.

WILDLIFE REPORT SINGITA PAMUSHANA, ZIMBABWE

For the month of January, Two Thousand and Eighteen Temperature Rainfall Recorded Sunrise & Sunset Average minimum: 20,8˚C (69,4˚F) For the month: 11,5 mm Sunrise: 05:36 Minimum recorded: 16,5˚C (61,7˚F) For the year to date: 11,5 mm Sunset: 18:38 Average maximum: 33,8˚C (92,8˚F) Maximum recorded: 40,4˚C (104,7˚F) Many of these photographs still show a green flush and although we’ve had a sprinkling of rain the land has really dried considerably and is looking more like late autumn than summer at the moment. This has resulted in excellent game viewing – we’ve even got lions smiling for the camera! Here’s a summary of what’s been happening: Elephants There have been very good sightings of bulls and breeding herds.

On one occasion, while watching a bull, we heard a young elephant scream in the distance allowing us to quickly locate a breeding herd of about sixty elephants. Guests enjoyed a spectacular view of these animals, feeding, playing, bathing and drinking at close quarters. Lions There’ve been some terrific sightings, like this one: As we left the lodge we drove straight to where we got word of a possible lion sighting. We found two female lions and two males lying down doing nothing. After a while we saw them react to a sound and they all jumped and advanced towards it. We followed and found a group of buffalo boys sleeping in the open. The lions wasted no time in launching a surprise attack and soon were on top of the buffalo and battling to bring one down. The other buffaloes rallied and came to help their comrade and chased the lions away.

Photo by Mark Saunders Later that week a buffalo was not so lucky – it was killed and feasted upon by three lionesses and three males. Hyenas Individuals have been spotted all over the reserve, but 16 gathered and fought over the above buffalo carcass once the lions left it to drink water from the Mahande stream. Wild dogs The wild dogs are back on the property, nine of them were on a hunt in the south eastern area, and later in the month they put on a terrific show fighting with crocodiles in the Chiredzi River! Leopards Two leopard sightings really stand out for the month. The first was when a leopard killed an impala and took it up a tree. The scent of blood drew two crocodiles from the river and they lay at the tree base trying to reach the kill. The second was while we watched some elephants, we heard a troop of baboons going berserk in the background. A quick search found us watching a troop of baboons mob a large male leopard that they’d trapped up a tree. Cheetah The two males have been seen. Guide Bulisani Mathe reported this after some new arrivals’ first afternoon drive, “Wow! It blew us away. We were greeted by a lot of plains game - giraffes, impalas and lots of zebra. Just as we thought this was enough we were entertained by wildebeest chasing two male cheetahs away from their young calves. While watching this and following the action a few elephant bulls came to drink.”

Buffalo Herds of up to 150 buffalo have been seen at the water sources. Rhinos Excellent daily sightings of white rhinos abound. Highlights were two bulls having a shoving match and eight white rhinos, including a baby, which guests were able to photograph really well. The more elusive black rhinos have been seen too. On one occasion a large black rhino bull come right up to the vehicle and posed beautifully for guests. At the same time three hyenas stood nearby watching the rhino and two sable antelope walked across the plains in the distance. Plains game Impala, giraffe, zebra and kudu abound on every drive, and if you’re lucky you’ll catch a glimpse of eland, sable and hartebeest.

Unusual sightings Guide Mark Friend and his guests have experienced some unusual sightings this month:

• Two porcupines near to where they’d stopped for sundowners.

• A genet with a mouse it had killed.

• An African wild cat with a mouse it had killed.

• A young crocodile trying to hunt frogs which managed to evade the croc by all hopping out of the water.

• A white-tailed mongoose.

Fishing The fishing has been lucrative. One outing netted about 19 kg (41,8 lb) of bream and a very nice tiger-fish of about 3 kg (6,6 lb). Sundowner safari cruises These have been idyllic – on one cruise birds, hippos, elephants and even a black rhino were seen. Rock art We’ve had so many guests enthralled with the rock art and have done many walks to rock art sites.

Walks There’ve been some lovely nature walks taking place. On one, Guide Japhet Diza, took his guests to the largest baobab on the reserve and discovered that there are some fig trees growing from the branch joints of this beautiful tree, where bird droppings had allowed the fig seeds to germinate. Great drives It’s such fun to hear of guides’ drives when they return to the lodge. Here are three great drives: Guide Tyme Mutema, “Another epic afternoon with great sightings! We saw a total of 20 white rhinos in different locations during the course of the drive. On top of that was a very good sighting of a mother and sub adult black rhino at Makeche, the two cheetah brothers, looking very full, heading east on the Chivi road, a breeding herd of close to 100 buffalo at Makeche and four hyenas patrolling the airstrip area.” Guide Tyme Mutema, “A royal rumble kind of safari starting with the Southern pride of five feeding on a buffalo bull they’d killed in the afternoon, south of Hwata pan. We then left for Hwata where it was all taking place with four elephant bulls drinking as well as one adult male white rhino. The rhino got challenged by one elephant bull and resisted before another elephant bull came to the rescue of the first one, resulting in the rhino leaving the watering hole. Then two buffalo bulls came to drink. On spotting the approaching lions they charged towards them and the cats took off. The second attempt by the lions to drink was again blocked, this time by the bull elephants who, in turn, charged towards the lions. This kept on taking place until well after our sundowners.” Guide Dharmesh Daya, “We had a wet but highly productive morning drive! We saw lions on the buffalo kill, a honey badger, white rhinos, buffaloes, wild dogs and good common mammal species as well as birds.”

Mimicking mom

This was the most delightful scene. A breeding herd of elephants calmly feeding on one side of the road, then calmly surrounding the vehicle as they crossed to feed on the other side. In amongst the mammoths was this tiny ‘mini-me’ tottering along, trying to coordinate its trunk to wrap around the little leaves of thorn bushes and carefully strip them off to eat like its mother so deftly did. It tried to do some cheeky intimidating moves as it was a couple of metres from the vehicle, but its mother just gently guided it over the road and tucked it beneath her forelegs as she fed, dusting her baby’s head in confetti green leaves, and pausing to carefully scratch her eardrum with the two finger-like projections on the end of her trunk.

From dawn to dusk We found a pride of lions, bloated and resting near the carcass of a wildebeest early one morning. It’s possible they’d killed and fed on something the day before because the carcass was hardly touched and they were too gorged to feed. After a while one large lioness strolled towards the carcass and deftly hauled the carcass under the fallen branches of a tree. An adult wildebeest weighs about 250 kg (551 lb) but she moved it with ease. She fed a little and then left it for the others. That afternoon the pride’s two young cubs were lying at it, and when we returned at sunset the rest of the pride had gathered around for a serious bout of feeding, and it wasn’t long before only ribs and other bones remained. Lionesses capture most of the mid-sized prey (wildebeest, zebra) but the males typically catch the really large prey (buffalo and giraffe). A male can eat 43 kg in a day, and a female may eat over 25 kg, but their average intake is about 8 to 9 kg per day.

A kill is a kill

On a significantly smaller scale than lions eating a wildebeest was this mouse being eaten by ants and dungbeetles – but a kill is a kill! We found this dead mouse while on a walk, and were not sure what killed it - it might even have been old age, but the ants were gathering on the moist soft tissues. As we inspected the grim scene the mouse began to twitch slightly causing a few shrieks and squeals. The culprit turned out to be a bright green dungbeetle that was burrowing beneath it, and causing its movement.

This was a really interesting observation as previously I thought dungbeetles only fed on dung, but some research on the matter has revealed that some dung beetles (Scarabaeidae) feed on a variety of decaying organic material, including dead flesh.

Grooming Oxpeckers are excellent groomers as they comb through a herbivore’s fur with their beaks looking for ticks and other small parasites to eat, but this male nyala (Tragelaphus angasii) wasn’t leaving the work of looking good up to his two attending grooms alone. Nyalas only have incisors on their bottom jaw so they sweep their heads up and back against their fur to groom it with their incisors acting as a comb.

All creatures great and small

Photo by Mark Friend Is it a wasp? Look at those wings and striped abdomen. Is it a praying mantis? Look at those raptorial forelimbs. No! It’s a mantidfly (Mantispidae) belonging to the order Neuroptera that includes lacewings and antlions. This one is a giant mantisfly (Pseudoclimaciella) that is a wasp-mimic with a brown and yellow marked body and clear patterned wings with brown side patches. Mantisflies lay their eggs in large batches on short stalks and hatch into larvae that search out spiders’ egg sacs and feed on the eggs or young spiders. Pseudoclimaciella may be seen during the day on the underside of tree leaves and are thought to parasitize large rain spiders. Their front legs are modified to catch small insect prey and are very similar to the front legs of mantids. They are not very good flyers. This was evident when Guide, Mark Friend, and his guests were examining it as it did not choose to fly away, rather it ‘threatened’ them with its mantis-like front legs. Very little is known about them and the lack of information makes us contemplate why it has evolved to mimic a wasp. It could be to avoid predation by other predators that know wasps are dangerous. This is known as Batesian mimicry, which is mimicry in which an edible animal is protected by its resemblance to one avoided by predators.

All a twitter Some great twitches have been had this month including an osprey and greater flamingos. This juvenile martial eagle (Polemaetus bellicosus) had its short erectile crest flared as a crown as it surveyed its kingdom. The pair of Verreaux’s eagle-owls (Bubo lacteus) duet calls led us to them early one morning, from far away. Apparently, their song can carry up to 5 km (3.1 mi) away.

January Gallery

This calf seemed happy to sit for a photo, while the rest moved off and an oxpecker flew in.

Ambling along a seldom used track close to rocky hills we came across this curious hyena mother and cub peering at us. We’d stumbled upon a hyena den-site area where a couple of cubs were playing tag. Every now and again you see a clump of these apricot-coloured flowers near the side of the road. They are from the sabi crossandra (Crossandra mucronata) plant which thrive in full sun in acacia and mopane woodland areas.

A mother white rhino waits at the waterside, as her calf casts a shadow on her.

These two young rhinos are about two to three years old and should be leaving their mothers to make their way in the world, and to make way for new calves. The sex ratio at birth of white rhinos is heavily skewed, with 173 males to 100 females. 50% of males that die naturally, die due to fighting.

The scenery at Singita Pamushana is simply breathtaking and as beautiful as any wild animal you’ll see.

Buffaloes look at you as if you owe them money, but who can take one seriously when it looks like this? This herd had finished drinking and were heading back into the thickets for warmth and protection at sunset.

Well before sunrise the dew clung to the grass while a jackal stayed curled up keeping warm, and a pair of

crowned lapwings had their feathers fluffed to hold an insulating layer of warm air.

Fly in with a charter aircraft and land at our airstrip - we might have a special welcoming committee waiting…

Written and photographed by Jenny Hishin, unless otherwise indicated

Singita Pamushana Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve

Zimbabwe Thirty-first of January 2018