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Welcome to today's catch-up. Looking back at the past 24 hours on safari. From Leon with the Juma clan to some behind the scenes moments in Sandringham, the bush was keeping us busy. A rare artful sighting here at Mabula and Cedric's return with another great sighting of Rolani. Let's get into it. Oh, that's rather nice, isn't it? The youngster suckling. It looks rather big to still be suckling, but that's how it is with hyenas. That one is probably about a year old already and still suckling. Exhibiting a status or a state of fairly high excitement, I would say. Uh hyenas are delightful creatures. I absolutely love them.
Especially when they're active like this. There's definitely a chase going on between these topis and maybe a hyena somewhere. And you know, the hyenas can keep running for a long time. They have the advantage of having the front quarters bigger, heavier by about 20% on the front quarters and that gives them maybe the big plus to be able to keep trotting and trotting, covering long distances until they tire this particular, you know, prey they're chasing. This case topis and possibly [snorts] the hyena has disappeared in the grass but still on the run.
Still on the chase. So, they definitely stop, look back. I would think the hyena is still chasing them. No doubt about it. Biba spotted this. Look at that. In the lower branches of the tortured tree. It's an agama. A tree agama. Now, it's more typical to see them on the trunk of a tree rather than in some flimsy, very thorny branches. This looks like a female agama. Doesn't have the blue head that the males have when they're breeding. But um wow, well spotted. When Biba first spotted it, I thought, "What is it?" What is it? Because I didn't see it in the beginning. I could
only see it on the screen. Um but a closer look reveals what it is. Sam, it is indeed, huh? So often these little things are fascinating and you see them if you're moving slowly or not moving at all. So, yeah, very nice to have found that. Probably wonders, "How the heck did you spot me? I'm camouflaging myself. I'm hiding. How did you spot me?" Well, Biba has pretty sharp eyes. Here we are now with some members of the Rongai pride. So, to give you a bit of history of this pride, when we talk a lot about the R5, meaning Rongai five, cuz they're the five boys who came or are from originally this pride, the
Rongai pride. And right now this are a lot of the sub-adults you can see right there on your frame. The big females, I don't know where they are. They could be somewhere in the area. The youngsters always like it being near mama. And they're just here sitting on the road and especially after receiving a lot of rains during the night and it's been a bit cool. Lions will tend to even other big cats would like to sit on some ground that is not filled with dew or muddiness. And you can see one of our lionesses right there. She's pretty young. Still now sitting on the road. So, I am curious where the other older females are. They are the big boss of this pride. Olumina, I don't know where
he is also. Haven't seen him in quite a while, but he does like going between back and forth different females such as the fig tree females and I haven't also seen them in a while. But in the tall grass, you never know. We could have passed a few of them. You can see their bellies look good. Not too bad, actually. And they're liking to go down to the drainage section. Mickey and Harit had the pleasure of hosting Nick Newman from Newman's Birds. And what better companion than a Birds by Color book to guide you along the way?
Good morning from Sandringham. We're here with Harit and Nick Newman this morning doing a bit of birding on the banks of the Timbavati. It's been an awesome morning so far. Let's see what other birds we managed to find with the Birds by Color book. Now, this is the malachite kingfisher. And uh is in great plumage. Uh Very brightly colored at the moment. Often you can sometimes see the juvenile that has a duller coloration but also quite a dull red bill. His bill is super bright.
He is in top form. Pity we got a bit of overcastness cuz that uh little crest um when it catches the sun, absolutely sensational colors of blue. Which must also gets me a little bit malachite, which is both green and blue as a color. And I've also got a question, Nick. Between the malachite and the pygmy, what are your easier distinguishing factors? Yeah, that can be tricky when you see them far at a distance and you're not able to necessarily judge the size as accurately as you can when it's, you know, um up close or standing still. Um but it there is a the most obviously the size. Pygmy is really small, but as I said, not always can you tell the difference in size when it's far away. But there's a little mauve
cheek on the pygmy um that is quite distinctive when you do see it. Okay. Um and that's kind of the giveaway. Well, somewhere down there, it seems there are some cats. Um I don't know if they got what these guys are up to what these ladies are up to, but we've got our three lionesses here. And they've just dipped behind that bush. Ooh, warthog. Run. Ooh. And I don't know where to look either. It's kind of difficult. Oh, there we go. There it goes, one. There's one standing there. Ooh, where are we running?
My goodness. Where are you guys going? Ooh. Is that a warthog? Ooh. What is that? That was a very quick animal. There's no chance of catching it, unfortunately. We're a little bit late to the show. one southern yellow-billed hornbill. We've been birding in the low felts. And yeah, this one is even talking to us. Good morning. Just maybe eye a little bit. There we go. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. We're having great views, great vibes, safari vibes.
Sending them out of way. Thank you. Off to the rain. Um This is one of the were another two of these southern yellow billed hornbills in the area, but this one is really close to us and pretty relaxed. Cameron's getting some great shots at branch. It's just bothering me a little bit, but I'll try and get over my OCD. scratching or knocking his bill against the branch. Now to the waterbuck. Guys, I'm giving you the antelopes around this area and it's always nice to give them a bit of attention because without them, trust me, there won't be the big cats that we love watching and even the environment itself will be quite different, the whole landscape. They do play a big role. And they're kind of almost similar
in the sense when it comes to the diet and um they do like to consume the coarse grasses that other antelopes usually or often ignore. Kapeeli, yes, thank you for your question. They do look amazing, right? But you're right. A lot of animals don't prefer to uh let's say even lions, they Rarely do I get to see a waterbuck uh kill. Usually they do excrete um a gland, well, a hormone pheromone from their glands, which is on their skin and [snorts] it makes their meat and the smell not the best tasting to a lot of predators. That's why you rarely see them being targeted.
We are now looking at a particular plant that goes by the name of needle bush or beesting bush, which is uh Azima tetracantha. And at the moment this particular bush is fruiting or has fruited. Um and they obviously they produce these little uh green berries that eventually actually change color when they ripen to almost like a see-through color. And when they do, I promise you the birds go absolutely crazy. Now, they call it beesting bush because the uh particular thorns that they have on this plant have got this little sort of a bit of liquid at the very end of the thorn that when you when it impales you or goes underneath the skin,
it actually will make the skin sting a little bit. Um and uh it sometimes can also um I know that the Khoisan people used to actually use it for like a I don't know. What is the word? If they had toothache, they would use it to kind of help relieve the toothache. So, you can see they're really sharp little thorns. Um so, very cool. This herd of buffalo as we've been sitting here, they're getting closer to us. They're on the left, the birds are on the right. Kevin, um I'm trying to think if I've seen one on Mabula. I did see quite a few of them um I went via Zaucal's Drift on the way up here and there were quite a few there.
Um They're the oxpeckers and usually, you know, the cattle either will follow buffalo. Um and they are pretty much all over the country, maybe not so much in the really dry areas, but they There's no reason why they shouldn't be. I just don't think I've seen one here. They'll often follow buffalo herds, elephants, rhino, grabbing any insects that they disturb as the big animals walk through the grass. I've been following this particular pair of gray crowned cranes for about 2 months now. And ladies and gentlemen, it has paid because the other day, or is it yesterday afternoon, I saw one chick in the reeds in the marsh area.
My friend Professor Musau saw two chicks, but I think me and Musau were wrong. The chicks were three. And here they are. This is very cute. And you can see the mama is Oh, how lovely. Mama feeding the chicks. I've had cute moments, I had great sightings here out in the Mara, but this might be one of my best. Now, not sure what this mama is feeding them, or is it papa? What I can see to me is an elephant dung. And either she's digging out some insects With the morning behind us, the afternoon stepped up with its own surprises.
Before safari, it's essential to make sure you have enough fuel to carry you through your journey. Fortunately, here at Mabula, it's a painless process for myself and Cameron. So, if you drive a safari vehicle, you have to put fuel in from time to time. Just one of the things you have to do out in the bush now. How does that make you feel, Ian? Cameron, um yeah, it is what it is. You like fuel. What is your favorite type of fuel? Well, What Where do you like filling up? Let me start by saying that the Land Cruiser has two tanks, so you can do quite a lot of drives. Other than the Land Rover there, which has one tank and they need to go
to fill up more regularly. So, you usually get quite a lot of range on this. Yeah. We are very blessed to have this very tiny baby giraffe starting our afternoon drive. Now, looking closely at her, you can still notice she got her umbilical cord on, albeit having good friends on her neck and possibly the oxpeckers. The other day, Imara saw a very young baby. Not sure whether the director could have known what age that baby was and maybe we try and compare the sizes.
Eesh. That's wind. I mean, nothing very big happening there. And we compare the sizes uh of the of that particular baby Imara had and this particular baby. And it's reminding me the chicks we had this morning from the gray you know, the gray crowned you know, cranes. We are sitting at one of the trees here. It's a hollowed out spot, so you can see there's two holes. So, maybe from a woodpecker, barbets, um lilac-breasted roller, kingfisher, something. But an interesting part here is that there is no bird in this hole at this point of time. There is something a little bit more creepy that is uh pretty much housing itself inside there and it is known as a boomslang.
A boomslang is a snake. Look at that big eye. You can see the big eye and that greenish color as well. A boomslang. So, it looks like a male boomslang. A female's got a bit of a browner color to her. But there's also a little fellow called tree agama. So well camouflaged against the bark of this brown ivory tree. And it's just blending in there. It looks like a female. The male's got that beautiful blue head. I think this is a female. I think she's just keeping very still now. I'm not too sure, maybe the snake did pick up on uh the agama. And we will sit here for a little bit just to see what really plays out here.
Cuz it's definitely part of the boom slung's diet. Having these yellow billed oxpeckers, maybe another and an immature one. You notice the adults will have very clear, you know, the red and the yellow on the beaks and the other one doesn't have any colors on her beak. Imagine possibly could still be a juvenile. The other species. Ooh. As you can hear them. He's reprimanding the youngster.
I don't want to say this is a father, a mother, and a baby. Possibly could be, but you can tell the one that's holding herself on the back of this particular buffalo because of the wind is definitely a juvenile. We got two species of oxpeckers here. What you have now are the yellow billed oxpeckers, but we also have the red billed oxpeckers, too. Yeah, we just came around to this water hole and we found this cormorant eating what looked to be we couldn't decide if it was a fish or a frog, but it seems to have swallowed it. But it was pretty amazing to see the battle it was putting up, hey Nick?
Yeah, he seemed to have got it by the tail and was trying to wrestle it around to face forward so he could swallow it. I don't know. So that fins weren't going to stick in his mouth, but yeah, he was battling away. Hi Joy, no. Um we don't have only ocean cormorants, but there's a good population and a variety around the ocean, but yeah, the reed cormorant is a very popular inland species of cormorant. Can see a lot of like fishes rippling around the area where he's going. It'll be interesting to see if he manages to make another kill. That fish is was quite large rippling in his belly. I'm not sure he's going to take a break.
We just stopped here. We've got some rhino. Another one of the reasons to come and visit Mabula. If you want to see rhino, this is the place. I tell you what, I've never seen so many rhino. That one's got a few oxpeckers on. I can't tell the sex from here back. Beautiful horn. Look at that horn. So yeah, after the rain, I think the animals are all That's a good question. Um they aren't they? I never really thought about it. I think maybe they you know, we sort of assume they're going to be quite fat or maybe they store their fat elsewhere.
Um but yeah, you can definitely see the rib cage. Well, this animal looks like it's in pretty good nick. She's got quite a girth on her, but yeah, the ribs are showing. I'm not sure about that answer. As if Mabula wasn't special enough, Cam and I were treated to an aardwolf sighting. A rare encounter and an incredible one at that. Very exciting for me. This is the second earthwolf aardwolf that I've seen. Very exciting. This is what makes Mabula so special, yeah. You actually get to see these kind of animals. This one aard- bot quite a lot browner, but I think that's attributed maybe to this reddish soil here. The one that I saw seemed a lot lighter
in color, but what an epic sighting. Aw. Don't go. What's an I think they here in Mabula, I think they're a little bit more used to the vehicle, so I'm going to say they are seen here from time to time and it's a great place to come and to see them. Um the one that I saw was a little bit more skittish. That was in the central Kalahari. Um and it bolted for the hills. So yeah, I think we're getting quite a good sighting even though it's disappearing into the grass now. We all got a good look at it. Fantastic. And indeed, we have found something spotted. This is our lady with the little ones. Although we have not seen a little one. I thought I saw one when we first arrived. Um she's actually moved from where we first saw her. She's kind of moved like
5 m up. Oh wait, I see one. So there Oh, there's three. Are there three? There's one underneath the tree. Right underneath the tree at the bottom left hand side of the screen. So we've got two center screen. Yeah, and then to the left. There, center screen. Hiding. Enjoying. These cubs are big now. Oh my goodness. They have grown. Goodness me, there was a tail. It was the tail that moved. I'm I'm certain that's it. I'll go to the top, too, rather. But um now we're being stared at. They've probably been watching us the entire time, actually. There's a little bit of movement. Now that they've been spotted, there's a bit of movement.
Meeting guests is always a highlight, especially when they're passionate WildEarth fans. And in a place as magical as Mabula, it makes it all the more special. Hi guys, I'm with Debbie and Leon, who are staying at Mabula for a few days. They're massive fans of the show. Absolutely. 100%. As you can see, Cam was so excited to meet the new guests that he passed out. Fortunately, he bounced back again really quickly. The lions haven't moved too much, so we've sort of keeping tabs on them. We were hoping they would get up, but they are looking very comatose.
Bit of a food coma going on here. We might get a bit of action as the vehicle moves. But these guys are He's sort of struggling to have a look. Holly, I think lions kill lions. Um and uh yeah, it's something that we struggle to comprehend. Um lions obviously well known for killing cubs and bringing the lionesses into Easter into, you know, back into Easter so that they can mate with them. But yeah, males are quite brutal and I think uh they can kill females. It's not something that they do all the time, but if you've got different prides, different territories, different dynamics, it might well happen.
Last minute surprises in the bush don't always come along, but this time Cedric was treated to a welcome one in the form of Rulani. Well, well, well, everybody. What a way to end the this afternoon's uh sunset safari with none other than Rulani at the airstrip. She's looking at some impalas here at the moment. That's young leopardess as well. One that I was hoping that we were going to find. She's been hanging around here the whole time, that's probably just here to the east of the airstrip.
What she's doing now, you can see in the right top corner of the eyes. So impalas, that's busy moving around. We don't have any spotlight on her. We're in pretty much darkness here at the moment. I'm just got the infrared. Like this, and then we're going to sit down and she's just going to and keep an eye on them. The rise here fantastic. What a way to end the show. So as I said, tomorrow morning we'll try again this side to see if we can follow up on this young leopardess. Hoping maybe she might even have a kill up in a tree.
It should be absolutely fantastic. And that's your catch up for today. All the action in a fraction of the time. We'll see you on the next one. Until then, take care.
