Singita Grumeti Sasakwa & Faru Faru Lodges Serengeti House & Sabora Tented Camp Explore Mobile Tented Camp Tanzania

Wildlife Report

For the month of June, Two Thousand and Fourteen

Temperature and Wind Rainfall Recorded Average maximum 29.1 ºC Sasakwa 69 mm Average minimum 15.4 ºC Sabora 89 mm Average wind speed 0.4 m/s Faru Faru 22 mm Samaki 132 mm Risiriba 193 mm

Month of the lion Photos by Medison Samwell

June was indeed the month of the lion. Be it the Mkuyu pride, whose territory lies along the Grumeti River areas near Faru Faru, the Butamtam pride that patrols the whole of the central areas around Sasakwa, the Nyasirori and Sabora West prides that dominate the western plains where Sabora is located, or the many lesser known prides in Ikorongo in the east, guests were not short of lion sightings.

In the 30 days of the month there were a total of 92 lion sightings, that’s an average of three different lion sightings every day at Singita Grumeti. On one particular day, at the beginning of the month, a total of 60 individual lions were seen!

Cheetah cubs! Photos by Ryan Schmitt

In June we were delighted to spot a mother cheetah with two young cubs traversing the area between Sabora Plains and Nyati Plains, close to the boundary with Serengeti National Park.

Besides being super cute, young cats are loads of entertainment at sightings, purely because they are a lot more energetic than their adult counterparts.

Guides and guests had a great sighting one morning of these two little youngsters running around and playing for a good hour.

Cheetahs can give birth to up to six cubs, and on occasion even more. With large litters the survival rate is very low. An average of two cubs per litter make it to maturity. Potential threats range from big predators like lions to birds of prey like the martial eagle, when the cubs are very little.

Cheetah cubs have a white mantel of hair on their back that serves as a means of camouflage for hiding from predators, as it blends in with the savannah grasses.

Unwanted company Photos by Ryan Schmitt

Ryan was on the plains west of Sabora, where his guests had just touched down from a hot air balloon ride, when he heard jackals alarm-calling about two kilometres away. Once the guests had landed and were back in his game viewer, he took them to investigate the situation.

After a few minutes they spotted one jackal, trying to eat what she could off of a very bare animal carcass that was almost a complete skeleton. They could still hear another jackal calling to the east of the first one.

They looked over to where the second jackal was and suddenly saw a female leopard walking between two thickets, the jackal behind her yapping away.

Ryan recognized this leopard. She is the one the guides call Tulia, which means 'relaxed' in Swahili. On this morning though, she was less than relaxed. The leopard walked from thicket to thicket, trying to keep herself covered as much as possible while the two noisy jackals followed, alerting the entire wildlife of the bush to her presence. She was clearly annoyed and growled back at them constantly.

The carcass that the jackals had been attending to most likely was a kill that the leopard herself had made. She had left it sometime before as there was nothing on it that she could eat, the jackals then came to have their turn, eating what they could from the scraps.

Ryan and his guests followed the group for about 20 minutes, until eventually the leopard had had enough and found a large thicket to hide in. She did not come out and was most likely having a cat nap. The jackals eventually left and went back to the carcass and peace resumed - but probably not for long...

Sightings report

Lion: 92 Leopard: 30 Cheetah: 40 Elephant: 40 Buffalo: Multiple sightings daily

Special sightings

African rock python at Raho drainage, downstream from Mbuni Crossing, about 2 km on the southern side. Single bat-eared fox on Grumeti North Drainage. Journey of over 100 giraffe downstream from Mbuni Crossing, about 2 km. Two ground hornbills on Robana River Rd, directly north of Sabora. Multiple hyena and cubs at their den-site about .5 km southeast of Den Site Rd. Porcupine - east of Punda Milia Rd. Striped hyena 400 m west of Sabora Camp. 100 000 wildebeest 1 km north of Sami Sami Camp (Ikorongo).

(Photo by Ryan Schmitt)

(Photo by Ryan Schmitt)

By Lizzie Hamrick Singita Grumeti Serengeti Tanzania 30 June 2014