Singita Pamushana Lodge Malilangwe Zimbabwe

Wildlife Journal

For the month of December, Two Thousand and Fourteen

Temperature Rainfall Recorded Average minimum: 21,7˚C (71,0˚F) For the month: 148,0 mm Average maximum: 32,3˚C (90,1˚F) For the year to date: 791,6 mm Minimum recorded: 16,5˚C (61,7˚F) Maximum recorded: 38,9˚C (102,0˚F)

It's been a month of festivities and feasting for all - especially the predators. Early bird guests and guides have seen a female cheetah chasing an impala - but speed's not everything, the impala jinked away to safety. Using the same strategy a wildebeest outwitted a lion after a high-speed chase and the bull made a great escape into the thick bush. We've seen a pack of 26 African wild dogs hunting along the river and a young male leopard stalking impalas. This journal details two predator feasts, and if you, like me, cannot eat dinner and watch Grey's Anatomy at the same time due to the gory images I suggest you keep all food far away from you, especially any carpaccio! The predators did reveal their softer sides as well this month, such as when a clan of five adult hyenas delighted guests by playing with their four cubs next to the road and when two lionesses showed off their five cubs of different ages, the youngest being a 12-week-old ball of fluff.

With all the green grass about now, thanks to the summer rain, the browsers and grazers have been feasting too. We've seen a massive herd of about 700 Cape buffalo and a crash of eight white rhinos mowing down the grasslands, seven black rhinos pruning the bushveld, and a magnificent sighting of a herd of 16 sable antelope selectively nibbling their favourite grasses.

It takes little encouragement to be up and about before sunrise at 05.22, because that's the best time to catch nocturnal creatures winding down, and diurnal ones waking up. Guests have also spent blissful afternoons in the Suncatcher, cruising the Malilangwe Dam while birding, laughing with the hippos and having good fishing luck - this afternoon guests had nine successful bream catches! Not caring about sharing

We spent such an enjoyable hour at Lojaan Dam watching a cranky hippo trying to chase off a trio of Egyptian geese. I have to admit, in the hippo’s defence, that the geese were really annoying. The solitary bull had left his natal pod for some reason - possibly he had been chased off by a territorial bull, and was trying to eek out some quiet time in the calm waters, on his own. But no, the geese insisted on swimming in continuous circles around his head. We mused that he must be thinking something along the lines of, "What does an old hippopotamus have to do to get some peace around here?" Then he did a 'yawn' display and swivelled around causing the cheekiest goose to levitate from the water in an effort to save itself.

But alas, that close call only seemed to make the geese more brazen, and they continued teasing him. The hippo bided his time, and waited for them to come even closer. He acted calm and relaxed and slid beneath the water's surface.

Then suddenly he erupted from the depths and tried to snatch the goose, missing by a mere feather! I have no idea what he would have done had he caught it, but at least the geese learnt their lesson for the moment. We left the dam wall and walked back to the Land Cruiser, only to find a herd of buffalo making their way to the water's edge for a drink.

This battalion of invaders was the last straw for the hippo. He moved to the deepest part of the dam and proceeded to have what I can only describe as a tantrum, by throwing his head about, gaping and showing his teeth in the most intimidating way he knew, while the buffalo languished in the shallows, drank and looked on with nonplussed poker faces.

The most astonishing, frightening and incredible sighting of my career

I am not exaggerating with that title. The day after the funny hippo / geese / buffalo sequence I returned to Lojaan Dam as it is, without doubt, my favourite spot on the reserve.

I was on my own and had been slowly pottering along a winding back route, stopping here and there to photograph flowers and . I had planned to have a break at Lojaan Dam, drink my bottle of water and do some tranquil birdwatching, as it is also a birding hotspot.

I stopped the vehicle in an alcove and while doing so cast my eyes across the water. I saw the cranky hippo was in the middle of the dam again, but this time he'd been joined by two elephants in the water, at the far side. Or so I thought, as it was just a quick glance while carefully parking. As I reached for my binoculars I thought to myself, "Oh how special, today I get to see two elephants swimming here." But I dropped my binocular as I lifted them to my eyes because the two grey bodies were not those of elephants, and the long protrusions on their heads were not trunks. I had stumbled upon TWO BLACK RHINOS IN THE WATER.

My hands trembled as I grabbed my 400 mm lens and my 1.4 convertor and fitted them to the camera body. While doing this and trying to stay calm I could tell from the sounds that these two highly endangered, rarely observed and very aggressive were not having a swim - they were having the battle to end all battles.

Both were bulls - the one much bigger than the other. They fought in the water and on the bank. Their thundering feet shook the earth and their bellowing cries echoed off the sandstone walls and amplified over the water. They churned the sand to mud and the water to waves as they laid into each other with full force. Each time the smaller one was challenged it would plough through the water to deep safety in order to try and protect itself from the stabbing horns of the other. There were times on the water's edge when both were airborne as they slammed their over 1 000 kg enraged bodies and dagger-like horns into each other. Both had blood pouring from wounds on their faces, I could see the whites of their enraged eyes and the curl of their lips and I will never forget the sound of their furious roars and terrified screams.

I had my finger jammed down on continuous shooting and before I knew it the episode was over and the larger bull had chased the smaller one into dense bush. Their vocalisations eventually faded and the earth stopped vibrating. I think I was in a state of shock for a few moments afterwards as I sat there trying to make sense of what I'd just seen. On reflection I think it was most likely a territorial dispute with the smaller bull challenging the larger 'landowner' for his territory.

Black rhinos (Diceros bicorni) wallow in water and mud to cool down and remove parasites, and I've seen injured scab-encrusted black rhinos standing in fairly deep water, presumably to soothe their wounds; but to see them in broad daylight using deep water as sanctuary and defence during a fight was behaviour I've never read about in all the material I've studied over the years.

Thankfully I have this sequence of photographs to document the event, and share with you:

Walking on water

On a lighter note, you can always count on baboons for some comic relief, so when we were having a coffee break on a cliff overlooking the Chiredzi River, and saw a troop of baboons wanting to cross, I dashed for my camera again. Fortunately I steadied it on a beanbag on the ground because we were rocking with laughter and every shot would otherwise have been a blur! It was absolutely hilarious to watch their histrionics as they crossed the ankle-deep channel. The little ones literally walked on water, screeching and flailing their arms; the mammas walked across quickly and carefully, clutching their babies to their chests; the dominant males, or wannabe dominant males, tried to stroll across nonchalantly - but inevitably they would be halfway and lose their nerve, sprinting, leaping and shrieking to the other side. A nearby log was obviously a crocodile in disguise, and who knew what other terrors lurked beneath the toe-wetting water...

Christmas feasts - part 1

In July we saw two, muscular, young, male lions challenge a mature, big, black-maned lion on the western side of the Chiredzi, for his territory. They chased the old king and laid into him, giving him quite a beating. Since then I've seen them predominantly in the north western half of the property, and they are brazen in their demeanour - they're the new rulers of this land. They are also excellent hunters - especially of buffalo, which are difficult to hunt, but a favourite prey species and a bounty of about 800 kg of beef.

The brothers took down this buffalo slap bang in the middle of the public access road that runs through our reserve to the Gonarezhou National Park. You had to drive around them in order not to irritate them (or terrify yourself) as they lay next to the carcass guarding it.

It's an enormous meal for two lions, and after having a family Christmas feast of our own a few days ago, I can relate to their gorged discomfort!

A few days after finishing this meal they killed another buffalo, but I think it was more

of an opportunistic killing as they didn't even bother opening the carcass and eating it. Instead they lay virtually immobile a few hundred metres away and reluctantly let the hyenas and vultures have a feast of their own.

However, this hooded vulture (Necrosyrtes monachus) was desperate to feed on the carcass at the same time as the lions. The trees were heavy with vultures biding their time, but this one flew down and crept along the road toward the kill. It kept on looking over its shoulder and making out that it had no intention of stealing a meal in that, "Just passing by, nothing to see here." kind of way. When the lions did abandon the carcass stripped of most of the meat, the vultures descended en masse and made sure every last morsel was removed from the bones. I've included a photo of an old buffalo skull here too, which proves that Nature knows no waste. You can see what look like muddy tubes protruding from the skull. These are made by the larvae of horn-borer (Ceratophaga vastella). A lays an egg on the horn which hatches and the larva eats into the horn, made up mostly of , and it defecates and spins the tubular frass out behind it. It pupates inside and then hatches into a moth, and so the cycle continues. You may want to become a herbivore after seeing the graphic carnivore photos in this sequence, but horn borer moth larvae specialise in feeding on decaying horns and hooves and, as such, are known as detritivores. Christmas feasts - part 2

These two male cheetahs were a very lucky find. We'd spotted them that afternoon, sleeping beneath a tree near a road. As the sun set that evening I drove along the road, but they weren't where we'd seen them. I made a U-turn to head back to the lodge, but then reversed and continued along the road again as I just had a 'feeling'. After quite a distance I rounded a bend and there they were, having just killed an impala. They must have been chasing and ending its life as I was looking for them. It was like a repeat of the lion story - two male predators making a kill slap bang in the middle of a road!

I cranked up the ISO on my camera, and took this sequence in very low light without a flash because cheetahs are mostly diurnal and their eyes are very sensitive. When they eat they do so quickly, gobbling as much as they can and constantly looking around to make sure no other predators such as lions, hyenas or leopards will come and chase them off their meal, steal it and possibly injure the cheetahs in the process. The constant popping of a camera flash could disorientate them, as could a spotlight, which is why we usually only view them during the day or in low light.

You can see how they start with the muscular meaty areas around the rump, thighs and shoulders while avoiding the fermenting grassy stomach contents.

Cheetah brothers, like lion brothers, often form coalitions. It is a more effective way of defending a territory and hunting. Cheetah females are strictly solitary while lionesses are social cats, living in prides.

I checked the area the next morning and the carcass was almost finished, and no other predator tracks were around it - only those of the male cheetahs leading off into a dense thicket area, so all ended well and they were able to feast in peace.

The kiss of mistletoe

In Western culture mistletoe is used as a Christmas decoration, under which lovers are expected to kiss - the reasons for which are less than clear. Allan Tarugara offers us a more rational report about the species we find at Singita Pamushana on the Malilangwe Reserve:

The following is edited from a report by Allan Tarugara. Allan is a student at the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo, where he is in his third year of a four-year programme studying a BSc Hons in Forest Resources & Wildlife. Allan is currently at Malilangwe doing his under-graduate internship for 10 months.

Plicosepalus kalachariensis (Danser) Mistletoes (plant parasites) are a very specialised and successful group of flowering plants that exploit a wide range of host plants. They rely on their hosts for nutrients and water, which they acquire by attaching to the host’s stems or roots using structures that penetrate the host’s vascular tissue.

The disadvantages of mistletoes are that they reduce plant community biomass and productivity by reducing host growth. Parasitism also has the ability to lower the plant community diversity by shifting the competitive advantage to non-parasitized plants. Some aggressive parasites are able to drive a preferred host to local extinction, thus altering plant community diversity. Parasitism places plants under water stress as the parasites are always green and transpiring (even under limited-water conditions) and stress has been shown to increase the susceptibility of hosts to disease and attack, a situation that can become dire when compounded by harsh environmental conditions such as droughts or fires. Browsing of stressed host plants can reduce host resilience and ability to recuperate into healthy populations.

But despite the harmful effects there are some advantages of mistletoes too. They are considered as important components of plant diversity and forest ecosystems. Mistletoes can have a profound effect on soil nutrient concentrations especially of nitrogen, which is a major contributor to plant productivity. In general, mistletoes can attain greater nutrient concentrations than their hosts and due to minimal withdrawal of elements prior to abscission (natural detachment), the fallen litter remains enriched; such litter decomposes faster and releases nutrients more rapidly than litter of co-occurring species. Studies have shown that mistletoes enhance rates of nutrient cycling as infection increases volumes of litterfall beneath host tree crowns, and thus contribute to higher nutrient returns beneath infected trees. Mistletoes also attract other visitors, such as insects and birds, that alter overall nutrient inputs in their immediate vicinity. Since mistletoes acquire the nutrients straight from the host’s conducting tissue, they are evergreen and succulent (even when the host is under stress) and have been seen to sustain greater levels of herbivory from browsers when compared to their hosts, thus reducing browsing pressure on the hosts.

No trees or shrubs have immunity against mistletoe infection. Mistletoes produce sweet sticky seeds which birds love to eat and when birds defecate the sticky seeds elsewhere, on tree stems or roots, they help increase the range of the mistletoes. The seeds stick and attach to the new host and quickly germinate into a new plant, from the point of attachment.

"Thank you so much for being such a fantastic grand finale to our very special family African adventure! We hope to all be back one day!"

Settlermer family, California, USA.

Written and photographed by Jenny Hishin, unless otherwise indicated Singita Pamushana Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve Zimbabwe Thirty-first of December 2014