One Brave Leopard By Chad Cocking In The Kruger National Park Continued



Hyena sniffing the Leopards Tail






Leopard and Hyena come face to face





The leopard managed to keep his nerve and the hyenas eventually lost interest, giving the youngster an opportunity to escape!



One Brave Leopard By Chad Cocking In The Kruger National Park



This young leopard was having a nap when the sound of crunching bones distracted him! The big cat went to investigate and found himself cornered by two hyenas.



What he found didn't leave him too impressed: two big hyenas who turned their attention on him. Although the leopard had the high ground, he wasn't completely out of reach, so he had to stand his ground



Hyenas cornering the leopard



Poachers Aressted In The Kruger National Park

2 rhino poachers were arrested during a joint operation between SANParks, SANDF and SAPS yesterday 7/3/2013. A 458 ammo and other equipment were recovered.

An Update On The Rhino Poaching Statistics

An update on the rhino poaching statistics: To read the full story click here http://www.sanparks.org/about/news/default.php?id=55461

Photos Taken By Nhongo Safaris



Blackbacked Jackal's enjoying their meal



A herd of Blue Wildebeest drinking water



Kudu Standing between the trees

Safari Starting 23rd February Ending 26th February 2013

23rd February

Mark left early morning from Nkambeni with his guest after breakfast and this is how the day panned out:

Route: Napi - Eloff - Kruger gate road - Napi

4 different sightings of elephant bulls down the napi, distant visual of a herd off buffalo (approx 100). On napi boulders 1 lioness lying on the rock, 2 male lions walking down the road 900m past the flat rocks, 1 cheetah 900m past the flat rocks lay watching the lions walk past in the road. 1 lioness just before transport dam entrance, 3 massive male lions on experimental tar S114 just lying sleeping next to the road. 2 rhino running across the road. General game throughout the morning was great. Afternoon drive was rather quiet with just general game viewed and then returned to camp to watch some cricket.

24th February

Once again an early morning breakfast before departure from camp and the route travelled was as follows:

Route: Napi - H3 - S114 - Watergat - Doispan - Albeseni - back to camp

Very good elephant, buffalo and rhino sightings throughout the day. Got a pride of lions 300m before transport dam access road. 3 males 3 females and 5 cubs all in good health. Male leopard at klipspringer koppies. 1 lioness walking up from S112 towards napi. 1 male leopard 100m from H3 on the S114, 1 leopard cub up in a marola tree 2Kms from napi on Watergate. 10 wild dog on H3 1km before S114. 4 wild dog on biyamiti weir, of which the alpha male and female were mating. In general we have had 2 great days of sightings.

25th February

Enjoyed an early breakfast and then did a short drive as Mark had to have his guest back in Nelspruit by 09h00am so that he could be transferred back to Johannesburg.

26th February

Dean left Johannesburg at 07h00am after collecting his guests from a private residence in Sandton and started his day with arriving in Nelspruit before lunch to change over vehicles and then onto the camp of Pretoriuskop for lunch.  After lunch a drive was taken down Napi, to Kwagga Pan and then back to Nkambeni for the night.  The day was very warm so sightings were few and far between with only two elephants and a herd of Impala being seen in the heat of the afternoon.  We shall see what tomorrow will bring, but the  weather is once again a warm 36 degrees.

A Did You Known For The Day

#DidYouKnow - The curved black lines on the rump of the impala, together with the tail stripe, make a large letter 'M' = Fast food for lions (MacDonalds of the bush) ;)

Rhino Poachers in the Kruger Park

It has been a very busy weekend, the incursions continue relentlessly and our Rangers have had 4 seperate contacts with armed groups in 4 different sections of the park, all in a 36 hour period. In 3 incidents the poachers managed to evade arrest by being close to the boundary and making use of the darkness to make good on their escape. A final contact late yesterday afternoon resulted in 2 poachers being fatally wounded. A rifle, silencer & ammunition were recovered. No rhino were found dead during the incidents.