The first month of the year is already over. The quality of wildlife viewing on our game drives remains at the highest level, and our guests enjoyed unforgettable moments in the bush. The frequency of leopard sightings is increasing.

Not as a surprise, the elephant sightings achieved highest frequency rates in January. One can say that you get to see this heavy mammal each time you go on a 3 hours game drive (96%). In this season of the year, all waterdams in Madikwe are filled, so that there is finally enough water for the animals everywhere, and the elephants can thus spread throughout the reserve. But again, we still see them very often.

Although the lion population in Madikwe is smaller than a few years ago, we find the king of the wilderness with a very high likelihood of 83% per game drive.

An interesting development can be reported regarding Leopard sightings. Not only the frequency shows an upward trend (from 14% to 25%), we also discovered leopards, which are very shy and could hardly be seen in the past when a vehicle came near. One day, we suddenly discovered high up on the rocks a unique male leopard, whose name is “Spoco”.

In January, there was another unforgettable highlight, that involved a warthog and a lioness. Our ranger Riaan tells us: “We waited at the pan for about an hour before she tried to take him but unfortunately missed and then she ran straight passed our vehicle.” Riaan was quick enough to take an amazing picture from this moment. We know that this lioness has three cubs of now roughly four months old by now, so she often hunts alone to feed those growing cubs, when the rest of her pride are moves on. Bad luck for her this time, but Riaan says: “Later the lioness did succeed in catching one though.”