Shenton Safaris - Photographic Newsletter

September 2007 issue

Welcome back to the South Luangwa as Shenton Safaris sees it. It's mid- September already and both the weather and the game action are hotting up.
In the last 'postcard' I promised mating leopard action in the next email - as the photos will reflect it would have been more accurate to say 'flirting' leopard action as they went into hiding at the penultimate moment.
For those guests who do not feel like resting between breakfast and lunch we send out an additional activity at midday each day for about an hour - this might be a walk, a drive or a hide trip.
Kaingo's ebony grove is a favourite spot for this midday activity in September and October owing to the delicious shade thrown by the grove of ancient trees. Shade is a valuable commodity at this time of year.
It was on one of these lunch time activites that we came upon Broken Tooth lolling in a tree.

Amazingly we sat there for a good 5 minutes watching him before a rustle of leaves let us know we weren't alone. Looking up we found a very pretty female leopard peeking through the leaves directly above us.
Male and female leopards typically only come together when they are mating - this promised to be good - my first mating leopard - and in daylight!
We weren't the only ones to register the female's movement - Broken Tooth looked up, and then got up to move towards her, although not quite to her. He nonchalantly yawned and approached, but settled down a little further along the branch.

Broken Tooth's first move was parried by the female's flirty wake-up pose  and she took the interaction to the ground where it looked set to get much more photographically exciting.

With licked lips she made her intentions perfectly clear

Playing it cool Broken Tooth looked down upon her for some time before deciding to go and join her.

 At which point they left us and tucked behind a huge anthill to commence the fairly rapid business of mating. All in all we spent about half an hour with them - it was disappointing we didn't catch the actual act, but such a privilege to share such close space with two leopards in the middle of the day.
Every porcupine sighting this year is a bonus - after such severe floods the burrowing animals were hard hit. We've hardly seen a honey badger all season! 
A selection of shots of our feathered friends: a Little BeeEater, two Lilac Breasted Rollers, an African Spoonbill, a group of Yellowbilled Storks, a Pearl-spotted Owl and a Martial Eagle in flight.

 

An ele at sunset, eating Winterthorn and up close...

One of our beautiful, curious Thornicroft Giraffe eyeing us up.

Male Waterbucks looking to prove who is boss.

A reflective baboon

The Mwamba pride have been as present as ever this month - September/October are months that it is hard to leave camp without bumping into lion as Derek and one of our walkers found out as they crept up close and personal to the pride. Can you see the two in this image peeping their heads over the log?

You probably recognise this distinctive looking female from previous newsletters - she's quite an intense lady and can fix you with a stare that will definitely have you lower your gaze first.

The Hollywood Pride are also in fine fettle - the good news for all guests who have visited lately is the 6 young cubs - are still 6! It has been a while since we saw them all together and we were concerned 2 hadn't made it.
We saw them all last night with full bellies - one had a fairly nasty cut on his face and one was limping very badly finding it difficult to bear any weight on its front left leg (both are likely injuries inflicted by an overzealous older brother whilst feeding on a carcass)
The images below are more from the same morning as the last postcard.

We have a very special indiginous Wildebeeste in the Luangwa Valley called Cookson's Wildebeeste - they are a sub species of the Blue Wildebeeste. We have one of the only viable herds left in the South Park in our walking area behind Mwamba Bush Camp.
At this time of year with most of the back country lagoons dried up we find them out on Lion Plain as they travel to the main river to drink

At the moment there are a couple of Wildebeeste who can be found most mornings hanging out with the group of Zebra at Lion Lagoon

Now for some Zebra photos, we had a stunning morning where 150+ Zebra gathered together at Deb's tree shelf. Never having seen so many Zebra in one place I was most excited.
I had the big lens on so there was no chance of getting panoramic shots showing their vast numbers, instead I focussed on the social greeting and fighting scenes erupting around us.

 

Until next time

 Jules

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