#Krugerlions – DreadLion Safaris

The tough guys living the life!

dreadlionsafaris.com — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 07:34:36 +0000

The toughest animal of the Big 5, that is acknowledged by almost every single story-teller, hunter, writer and wildlife lover, is the African Cape buffalo. These have had an amazing come back from 150 years ago after the rinderpest decimated the herds by the tens of thousands to a mere 50 individuals in South Africa. There are now thousands of Cape buffalo all over South Africa and all the game parks have their share with Kruger National Park taking the lion’s share as its due. The way the Cape Buffalo herds operate is an education in itself and not for this blog. Here I want to talk about a specific type of Cape buffalo……… the dagga boy.

That’s an odd name what’s a dagga boy? Well dagga is the name of the slimy mud which is used to build mud huts by the Zulu people in the old days and this is exactly what these buffaloes are usually covered in. Dagga boys is the name given to old retired bachelor bulls who have left the herd. So no wives and kids or leadership responsibility, so they are just plain old retired and they answer to no one. We were trained to walk in the bush and you see a buffalo herd you find a safe, safe, safe spot. You see these guys you walk all the long way around. They are just that unpredictable. I remember a single file line of 8 of these buffalo were coming towards us across the plain about 100m away and I parked and waited for them to come . the Lead buffalo saw me in his way but did not deign to move even 6 inches out of his way to pass behind or in front of me. He led his gang of 8 straight up to my vehicle and stopped 1 foot away from the middle of the car. He had all of Africa to walk in but he chooses to do this. So then I had to start the car and reverse and let them pass. That’s attitude! ‘Hey punk… move this car out of my way’!

They are amazingly strong, they are completely fearless and have a real aggressive attitude. A single lion seeing a group of these boys will walk around them. They have already fought lions and killed lions their buddies and family have been killed by lions they themselves have been attacked by lions they have literally seen it all. If it actually comes to a few lions trying to hunt them they cant run but hey they can fight. They may run a little way to get into a better tactical position for a stand then they turn at bay and its almost like they are saying “Ok fellas we ready, bring it. Lets see what you got”.

Some of them are injured, most of them have Bovine TB, I am told by Park Rangers, but they have an indomitable spirit and they do not play.

Hyena Alert!

dreadlionsafaris.com — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 05:54:08 +0000

Kruger park has these culverts that go under the road and hyena clans with young ones use them for resting at night and they also leave the young ones there while they go out hunting. So we came up to one of these culverts and found about 10-12 hyenas there. Mostly youngsters and actually one or two very little fellows. Mom was there too so she was in charge but it was quite early morning and thy were all just sunning themselves and relaxing before they start the day. The youngsters are especially curious and they came over to sniff on my car and the tyres particularly since we drive over a large area and often times over dung and other smelly things that excite their interest. The tyres are especially at risk cuz an adult hyena can just bite a hole in the tyre without much ado. They have the toughest jaws in the animal kingdom and can break the thigh bone of a buffalo if they want to get at the marrow inside. That is really hard stuff.

One youngster went around the back and did not come out on this side. I was really worried he got under the car and found something to eat cuz when he came around he had something in his mouth. Oh Boy!! Soon enuf a car pulled in behind me and told me he was chewing on the plastic covering of the two bar and not something seriously damaging or expensive. Ha! Really fun to be so close to them and one guest put her hand over the side of the car to get the hyenas attention. Well that can be seriously dangerous. They are brutally strong and thank God it was only a youngster and not an adult otherwise we could have had a serious incident. Wild dogs too cannot be trifled with in that manner, they would jump up. Wild hyena are all very well to look at and in their habitat is best of course but never make the mistake of taking them and their friendliness for granted. They are wild and have to be treated with the respect due to a top predator in the bush. They are opportunistic hunters and a nice juicy arm outside a window is all it takes to get them going. So for sure explore Africa but keep your hands inside the car. ha!

Too much to eat!

dreadlionsafaris.com — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 06:15:21 +0000

Animals are all about conserving energy, all animals. Energy comes from food and food is not always plentiful and especially for predators the whole energy conservation is a very big deal. They are just an injury away from starving especially the lone cats. Lions are social and so there is always someone else who can hunt and the injured one gets at least something to keep going. There is very raraely a glut for predators. This summer in the Kgalagadi was especially hard and the rains which often sprinkle some extra water so there is some grass to grow came late. There was a real famine in the land. Without good grazing the wildebeest, springbok, oryx and eland would be in serious trouble. Seems like the eland were the first ones to start dying off.

Summer is also a time when the lions play a nasty game. They stake out the waterholes and that means nothing can drink when they are around and whoever comes in to drink are a likely target. This is what I mean about conserving energy. When it is 50C in the shade you do not want to be wasting energy and running around and dehydrating cuz you will die. The lions know this best and they find a shady spot near the waterholes and just sit there waiting. Eventually some animal is going to run the gauntlet and when that happens they have an easy meal.

This time it seems the eland, which are the largest antelope in the world, just could not hack it. There were dead eland which had died of thirst and starvation in a few places in the Kgalagadi especially in the Nossob valley. We were driving down from Camp Nossob and heading to the dune roads when we came upon an unheard-of sight. There were 2 lions at the waterhole called Kij-kij. Lo and behold there was a half-eaten carcass of an eland and another one not even opened up yet. The big male was lying right next to the whole one while the female kept her distance a little ways away. I have never seen that before or after that time. A whole eland, and they are big, was just lying there. The lion had pulled it into the shade next to him and he was sleeping almost on the carcass. These two lions were set up for a week of eating from the looks of it. An eland weighs about 450kg and the big males can go up to double that. This was a skinny female but still that is a lot to have just lying around. So these lions are bulking up in the glut while the weather lasts.

The silent predator no one sees!

dreadlionsafaris.com — Sat, 02 Nov 2024 15:29:16 +0000

We had an amazing experience one day in Kruger. We were heading to the dam to do some birding and its kinda out of the way a little. So we were a little surprised to see a few cars parked by the road about 800m before the lake. Wondering what was happening when we could not see much of anything we looked around a bit and lo and behold there was drama unfolding.

A giant African rock python had caught an impala and was constricting it in the tall grass. WOW! An impala is a mid size antelope and weighs about 40kg so it would need to be a fairly big snake that could overpower that impala. Now constrictors are themselves vulnerable when they are constricting their prey especially out in the open like this and they don’t move very fast either so a group of hyena or a few lions could make short work of a large python. I have seen a video where a honey badger killed a 15 foot python. So the snake was very aware of his/her surroundings and came up once in a while to suss out the surroundings for threats to itself.

We watched for a while and when it all seemed to be quiet we left. We returned a couple of hours later just in time to find the snake dragging the impala into the bushes so he/she could swallow it in peace. You can imagine the strength it would take a snake, an animal with no limbs for traction to drag a 40kg animal through the tall grass. They are really powerful. A python is pretty much all muscle.

They would eat a meal like this and digest it for about a month or so in a thicket and this is actually when they are really vulnerable cuz they cannot move at all virtually and have no ability to constrict anything in defense. So they find a deep dark place to hide and stay there till they are all set for the next round.

The wild dogs at Nsemani.

dreadlionsafaris.com — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 07:20:51 +0000

We were parked next to the Nsemani waterhole in Kruger and hoping for some actionall of a sudden a wild dog ran across the road ahead. Now they are not usually alone and we waited for a minute and saw about 25 wild dogs cross the road and head for the waterhole. We had just come from there and saw several herds of impala and so we hightailed it for the waterhole and just in time.

Wild dogs move really fast and as a group the can literally take down whatever they pointing at. So the impala were obvious targets. Before we could actually settle in and see what was happening with the dogs who had run behind some bushes a couple came to drink with fresh blood all over their muzzles. The first of the pack had already made a kill. The rest of the pack how ever was still hunting. What had happened was that the first 10 or so dogs had taken down and eaten the first impala while the others continued the chase.

We went around the waterhole on the side road hoping to get the rest of the pack as they brought down their quarry. No such luck however. The pack moves very fast and they were long gone by the time we were in the area. We saw the white tails tops moving through the grass in the distance and turned back to the waterhole. Then lo and behold the rest of the pack appeared as we were turning and we met them head on on the road. We followed them back to the waterhole and watched them drink and meet and greet each other again. They just remained by the waterhole and were relaxing after their meal.

These dogs also called the African Painted wolf are really fierce hunters. All in all a great sighting and amazing morning in Kruger.

The little lost fella.

dreadlionsafaris.com — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 16:25:12 +0000

We came across a rare sight one day on our game drive in the Kruger park. There was a lion cub all alone sniffing around beside the road. We had just seen the pride a few km away and we wondered about this little guy. He was about 10 months old, walking around and sniffing the ground as if seeking a scent. He had the sense not to call out though which is good. A young lion is easy prey for a predator like a leopard or a hyena. So calling was not. Good idea and he instinctively knew this. I had heard the pride was in the area the previous day but they apparently forgot about him when they moved off or so it appeared cuz they were far away from him. Maybe they moved off in the night and he was crashed someplace and nobody noticed. It is a well-known statistic that only about 1 in 2 lion cubs survive their first year and 1 in 8 make it all the way to adulthood. The adult numbers are not encouraging either with life expectancy for males being only 10-12 years and females a little more. Captive lions live past 20 years. Its tough being a lion in the wild. Anyway we watched him for a while and then had to go on our way, I really hope the kid made it.

The UGLY 5!

dreadlionsafaris.com — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 18:09:58 +0000

Everyone comes to Africa for the Big 5. Who are the Big 5 and how did they come to be?? This is not readily known to people outside the guiding community in Africa. So back in the day in 1909, Teddy Roosevelt came to Africa, in the pell mell of Colonisation and the looting of African resources, before the 1^st World War. He had come for a hunt purportedly. As a frontiersman in the USA and the youngest ever President of the USA he was a charismatic figure and hunting was his well-known pastime. Sure he did hunt but also had some clandestine meetings in East Africa while he was at it.

At the end of a 6 month safari through Kenya Tanzania Uganda and so on he was in Mombasa in British East Africa ie Kenya to board his steamer home. When the press caught up to him finally since his safari had no pressmen in tow, and spoke to him of his African Adventure he talked about the hunt and named what he felt were the most dangerous animals to hunt. They are elephant , Black rhino, buffalo, leopard and lion. These of course became the Big 5. Madison avenue certainly did a number on Africa with that.

Well, African tourism which has gone from predominantly hunting tourism to safari tourism now has a new spin on the Big 5 and naturally the Little 5 showed up. The buffalo weaver, the leopard tortoise, the antlion, the rhino beetle and the elephant shrew. These now have the same names as the Big 5 but they are small, tiny even.

The other spin offs were the Ugly 5. The Ugly 5 are the wildebeest, said to be made from leftover parts of other animals leads the group, followed by the hyena, the warthog, the crocodile and the Marabou stork. The wildebeest though is an anomaly because it is one of the few animals to be camouflaged for the night. Predators and most other animals see in monochrome. The shoulder stripes of the wildebeest look like the moon in the grass when they are sitting down in the open plains. So I thought it would be cool to have a few pictures of these animals who are famous for all the wrong reasons. Voila!

A leopard adventure.

dreadlionsafaris.com — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 17:47:57 +0000

I have written before on my fascination with leopards since a young age and that story was told in a different place. http://birdwalkin.blogspot.co.za/2011/03/amazing-sightings-of-leopards-in-gir.html

My sightings of leopards have been many in Kruger yet they have all been memorable just the same. It is not often that I get to use a camera effectively while juggling talking to guests, watching animals and other vehicles and all of that and so while the photos maybe indifferent the experience has always been awesome.

The quest for leopard began for me when I was in the 7^th grade, donkeys years ago. My grandfather went on safari in India and knowing of my passion for the wild he sent me a trip report of 6 typed pages. The first para had the words “Mr Spots walking over the rocks”. The imagery was bold and had a profound impression on me. He has passed on to his reward now, that trip report has become compost somewhere, I am 50 years older, but I remember the thrill that I got from reading that report in my hostel dorm.

I met a couple at the Skukuza camp and we got to talking. Deepak (not real name) is a Colonel in the Indian army posted in UNPKF in Sudan. His wife and son and I spent a couple of really great days in the park. They were really keen to see leopards and we were lucky enough to bump into two of them and one with a cub.

I always tell my guests they have to bring their luck with them. I am here daily mine does not count. Ha! Well they obviously did bring their luck and it paid of in spades. We were driving around and seeing a lot of plains game antelope and giraffe and so many others and yet leopards and lions were missing. It was getting close to late afternoon and soon we would have to get back to camp and I would have to leave the park and still nothing. Suddenly we came down a road and one car was parked and the driver was peering across the road. A leopard crossed here he said when I asked and as we watched he came up out of the bushes to lie down and crouch down low as though stalking. Then he noticed that it was buffalo on the other side of the bushes and so relaxed and stayed there for quite a while as we watched.

The leopardess was a similar case there were cars parked and no one could see her. With the Landrover seats being higher we not only saw her but also the little fellow next to her. What an amazing sighting. Leopardess and cub sleeping 20 mtrs off the road. Supreme. The little guy had his eyes open but he too was dozing and she was out for the count. Did not move for the whole time we were there. The beautiful sunset was a close to an awesome day! Explore Africa with me, and bring your luck with you, it will be fun.

One angry female cheetah!

dreadlionsafaris.com — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 07:04:14 +0000

One afternoon in the Kgalagadi driving down the Nossob road just past Grootbardskolk we saw a cheetah approaching the road from the west. Barely 50 yards ahead of us she kept looking back and walked rather angrily it seemed. When we came up to her, I got a couple of photos and sure, she was obviously pretty upset. We watched her for a while and then drove on slowly past the dune she had just come over and found the reason she was so mad.

A huge brown hyena and a few jackals were on a kill and it was clear what had happened. A brown hyena outweighs a cheetah and cheetahs cant afford to sustain any injury because they have to be at peak physical condition to hunt. A small injury which takes 10% off their peak could be a fatal injury and death due to starvation of injured cheetahs is not uncommon.

So this female just relinquished the kill and came away furious, while the usurpers shared the bounty of her hard work. We watched the thieves enjoy themselves thoroughly and I was actually surprised the brown hyena let the jackals in so close cuz as you can see he is more than double their size. Stealing from cheetahs is nothing new. It happens all too often in the bush and its just the way things work.

The three stooges of the Kgalagadi.

dreadlionsafaris.com — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 11:17:30 +0000

In all my times in the Kgalagadi, there are 3 players that always stand out and always get my attention. The pale chanting goshawk, the ubiquitous jackal and the star of the show, the honey badger. I have taken to calling them the 3 stooges of the Kgalagadi. these inseparables, or so it seems, are always up to something. Of course it is the honey badger doing the heavy lifting just poking his nose into everything looking for food and the other two just hang around waiting for leftovers. As the world is, some people willing to work and others willing to let them work. LOL.