Lion kill and twinspots cub safe and sound

We were fortunate to witness a large pride of lions consuming an entire buffalo. When we arrived at the scene an adult female was dragging the remains of the carcass under a shady tree and there was still a lot of meat left. The rest of the pride were casually lying in the shade close by, seemly satisfied with their share of the kill. Then after a few minutes another two lions got up and joined in the feast. We sat and watched as the lions crunched through bone and tore off chunks of meat. There was not much friction between them as there was plenty of meat to go around. The mother of the small cubs was with them but the cubs were nowhere to be seen. We had heard that she had taken them to the kill earlier which is a great sign as this means we are now allowed to view the little cubs (without upsetting them). Hopefully in the next report we can produce some pictures of them!

On one hot afternoon we decided to try to find a leopard as this was the only member of the Big Five our guests had not yet seen. We had a lead from the morning which made tracking a lot easier, and after a while we found him sleeping in a nice cool spot under a shady tree in the river bed. It was the young male, the only surviving cub from the latest litter of our territorial female Twinspots – and he is looking rather big now! He looked so comfortable that he hardly budged when we arrived. His head was perfectly positioned on a substitute pillow – a nice sized rock. The cub is about 11 months old and has already killed an impala which is incredible as this feat would normally take 2 years of experience to accomplish. He seems to be growing up faster than usual. Twinspots was nowhere to be seen but was probably close by in a thicket. When these cats want to hide they can do so very easily!

On a morning drive we were very lucky to see a honey badger and her small cub cross the road in front of us! They were way too fast to take a picture. Honey badgers are normally active during the night but occasionally we get quick glimpses of them during the early morning or late afternoon. So a very rare sighting indeed!