Flavour of the Month June 2012: H4-1: Skukuza - Lower Sabie Road

[JoeKing]

This is honestly the wild dog road, almost every morning about 20km from skuks they'll be in the road hunting. pack of about 8. and of course the 3 big male lions that took the buff down 700m from skuks frequent it aswell. but seems there are n ow only 2....am i right and if so does anyone know what happened to no. 3?

but besides gate opening time this road is far to busy

[Richprins]

Wonder why it was abandoned? Just reading Lawrence Anthony's "The Last Rhinos" and according to him ellies will never abandon a baby.

They do get lost, very occasionaly!

Unfortunately when they are so small and defenceless and trusting, I don't think they make it through the night anyway, so it may happen more than one knows?

[Richprins]

More wild dog...very near LS!






And something in the riverbed North of the High-level bridge:







Something ON the High-level Bridge:

[Richprins]

Thanks!

And some lion near the rubbish dump!

[Dzombo]

Saw this small group of Eles on the H4-1
Photo taken March 2010



Another drive on the H4-1:

[jasond]

the 3 males that have become dominant near Skukuza in the last 9 months are the 3 Toulon males that were dominant in southern Sabi Sands until early 2011, they started becoming dominant near Skukuza/Tinga around August 2011 and since then getting info/reports on them is hard to get, i did hear they have taken over 2 lionesses that have broken from a bigger pride. If anyone has any info on them like what prides they control and any interactions theyve had with other males or prides in that area and the dates of the interactions, i have been putting together histories on the coalitions in Sabi Sands and the border areas. Any help is greatly appreciated

[Toko]

jasond, welcome to the forum

Have a look here: Toulon Lion Males on Facebook

[jasond]

Hi Toko, thanks for the help, i started the Toulon males page on facebook with another person, but since they crossed over into Kruger regular sightings reports and info is hard to get. So if any of you can send me any sightings reports or info you know of these 3 males it is greatly appreciated. thanks

[Richprins]

From a Bushcraft trip 2013:

https://www.africawild-forum.com/viewto ... =46&t=3225


21st Skukuza continued

My adrenalin was pumping as there’s nothing better in my book than a surprise leopard sighting with only one other car around.

The leopard parked still for about 1 minute, gave a yawn and then started to sneak off, but towards us, so I was shrieking again “Take pics, video!!!”







The leopard made his way onto the grass path which leads under Lubyelubye Bridge, so I was again flapping “Hold the camera, I need to move”, “WHY!!”, “It’s going to walk under the darn bridge”.



I positioned the car so we could see over the other side of the bridge and the leopard participated by cruising out directly under us.

He stopped on a rock for awhile and then ducked off into dense bush.



I now expected a lashing for my outbursts, but everyone’s teeth were hanging out, so I decided to move swiftly on towards Skukuza and change the subject as there was a small traffic jam up ahead “The lion from earlier are still sleeping in the riverbed”.

The lion hadn’t moved so we just slowed and then continued on much to the surprise of others at the sighting.

As we approached the S79 the normal decisions had to be made “Tar or dirt”, “dirt today”.

The S79 didn’t produce much except a giraffe in the road who dwarfed a few impala.



The rest of the drive back to camp didn’t produce much, only the normal locals, a few buffalo and nyala, but the Skukuza area seemed very quiet.

[Richprins]

At around 4pm we were all back at our unit and planned the afternoon drive.



We had been on the road for about 10 minutes when the Cow spotted a movement in the bush next to the road “I think it’s a rhino”, so I stopped and instantly shouted “Black rhino!!”, which got all in the car more interested.



I issued the silence command to the rats as I know how temperamental these guys can be and we reversed a little to give him space. A few minutes later he popped his pip out the bush in front of us.



The rhino parked off for a few seconds and then started to give us the hairy eyeball. A few seconds later he started towards us, which had me flapping to put the car in reverse as I had forgotten under pressure that that our “new” bakkie was an automatic.



Fortunately the rhino decided that our car was bigger than him and chose to back off into the bush and out of sight.

We were pretty stoked as we have never seen a black rhino in this area, so we were all jabbering away when 100m later someone in the car shouted “Lion!” and there was a lioness cooling off in a riverbed.



We didn’t hang around with the lioness as we were roasting in the car again.



Next up was a rather nervous boon at the top of a tree who was intently looking at something and a little further the reason for the boons attentiveness.





The traffic started to get a little hectic around the leopard and we couldn’t get a clear view, so decided to head back towards camp.

We stopped on the way back to take pics of a legavaan, more boons and then a hyena hiding out just before camp, which I could probably post under the “what is it” section of the forum.