As most of you know, I still do a lot of freelance guiding at various lodges in Madikwe Game Reserve. This reserve is very special to me as it is where I first began gaining practical experience in the bush when I worked with the Ecological Services division of the North West Parks and Tourism Board during my practical year. Last week I was privileged to be asked to guide at the Jamala Madikwe Royal Safari Lodge on the eastern side of the reserve. Sightings are always good in Madikwe but this weeks was particularly good – especially in front of the lodge where the guests coined the term “sofa-safari”. Over the course of the 4 days, the majestic Big 5 (the guests just missed seeing the white rhino at the waterhole though) presented themselves in all their glory at the lodge waterhole – what more could you ask for?
Daily sightings of herds of 20 plus elephants, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest,impala and warthog made sure that there was never a shortage of activity in front of the lodge. Here are some images captured from the deck overlooking the waterhole of Jamala:
The sightings out on Game Drive were just as good as those at the lodge waterhole though. one of the highlights must have been sitting with a pack of wild dogs for close on half an hour as they ran around and played right next to our vehicle.
Some of you may have already heard me mention the early morning awakening to lions and buffalo in front of the lodge on Twitter or Facebook but this was by far one of the best sightings in terms of photographic opportunities. Although we didn’t get to see the lions interacting with the buffalo, the sounds that came from the thickets in front of the lodge suggested that the buffalo were not happy about the lions’ presence in the area. We caught up with two females and their youngsters as they played around and basked in the first of the morning light.
After a couple of minutes, one of the females started to walk off into the adjacent thickets before she suddenly changed direction and returned towards the rest of the group. Her posture and positioning of her ears showed that she was not happy about something that she had seen or heard coming from the thickets ahead. The other lions picked up on this sudden change in mood immediately and became quite nervous before they took flight in the opposite direction.
It wasn’t long before a large adult male revealed himself through the cover of the dense sicklebush, forcing the rest of the group to follow suite and move out of the clearing and into dense cover behind us.
The first male trotted straight in front of our vehicle and followed the group into the thickets behind us before a second male made his appearance in the clearing. He proceeded to sniff and lick around the area where the group had been resting, tasting the female’s urine in a process called flehmen. In the flehmen response, animals draw back their lips in a manner that makes them appear to be “grimacing” or “smirking”. The action, which is adopted when examining scents left by other animals either of the same species or of prey, helps expose the vomeronasal organ and draws scent molecules back toward it. This behaviour allows animals to detect scents, for example from urine, of other members of their species or clues to the presence of prey. Flehmen allows the animals to determine several factors, including the presence or absence of oestrus, the physiological state of the animal, and how long ago the animal passed by.
The vomeronasal organ, also called Jacobson’s organ, is a chemoreceptor organ thought to have to do with the perception of certain scents and pheromones. It is named for its closeness to the vomer and nasal bones, and is particularly developed in animals such as cats and horses. The organ is located on the roof of the mouth. In addition to lions and house cats, other animals who exhibit the flehmen reaction include horses, buffalo, tigers, tapirs, lions, giraffes, goats, llamas and kobs.
The males continued to follow the females and their two youngsters around the back end of the lodge before we watched them disappear into the thickets to the east. I can only imagine that these two groups were fairly unfamiliar with one another and that the females feared for the lives of their youngsters whilst the males were interested to see who was in their territory. Infanticide is not uncommon in lions as males will kill cubs sired by other males in order to stimulate the females into coming into oestrus. In doing so, they will then be able to mate and have offspring of their own. This is usually what happens when territorial males are displaced by another coalition of males who have then earned the rights to the territory and all associated prides within the region. I am not exactly sure of the dynamics at play with the lion population in Madikwe at the moment but will endeavour to find out and let you know what the full story is.
Hi Andrew
Great photos !! looks like your new camera works well !
Hope to see you more often in the park
Grant
Thanks Grant!
Still getting to grips with all the settings etc but it sure is doing its job! Hope to shoot with you soon, maybe a trip to Pilanesberg with some big lenses for some waterbirds?
I happen to be lucky enough to witness these sightings and your photos really show the excitement of the moment. Thanks to the wild dogs, I managed to see the Magnificent Seven!
And I’m never taking a camera to Africa again!!
Why bother when we have “pros” to capture the moments!
Thanks Andrew!
Thanks Jane!
It was really great meeting you all and I am glad that you were able to see so much in such a short period.
All the best!
It is always an absolute pleasure to work with you Andrew and we take great delight in sharing our very special guests and location with you.
Your images remain unaffected and truly depict the moment.
Well done and thank you for your ongoing support!
Thanks so much for the positive feedback Shaun. Jamala is a really special place as any guest that has been there will know. The sightings in-front of the lodge are truly spectacular!
Look forward to getting back up there in the not too distant future!
All the best.
Great work- love the ones of the Lions when they are looking to the camera. Grant
Thanks Grant, I feel like the images might still be a bit dark and underexposed but it seems to add a nice mood overall….