Top Wildlife Sightings of the Week: Leopards, Giraffes, and Cheetahs in Action

Welcome to your weekly catchup. A look back at the very best sightings from across our locations over the past week. From rainy, unpredictable weather to action-packed drives and some fun behind-the-scenes moments, nothing's slowed the bush down. Stay with us. We kick things off from Aira camp where Emara's return truly delivered some stunning sightings. From her very first live wildear leopard to a newborn giraffe honeymooning lions and cheetah, she was certainly on a roll this week. This is a new mother with a new baby calf, giraffe calf. And it's starting to get up cuz it takes 30 minutes to 60 minutes for the baby to stand up. And guys, we're going to witness a baby giraffe's first steps. And at first, I

was like, this female is acting a bit strange. And then when we looked at her backside, you could tell that still had a bit of blood. So, she is definitely just from giving birth. But mom needs to feed the baby. Oh, there we go, guys. The first steps of a baby giraffe. Look at those legs. Oh my gosh. Come on, little. You got it. Look at that moment, mom and baby. Well done, mama. Look at that, guys. I am happy to announce this is my first leopard on Wild Earth. Look at that. I'm just so happy, guys. Today's a good day. I don't know if it's 22 because that's one of my lucky numbers. So, I've actually just gotten a message

that this is Olapono. It's good. It's holo cuz he's not shy at all. There's so many leopards in the Masamara, but they are very shy. But when it comes to our famous leopards like from Lulua, Faulu, Bahhati and Aono here, even Olmanak, they are all very very confident. This is the leopard that I'm used to seeing. I know there are other leopards on the other side of the Masimara, other places that are also not too shy, but the ones I'm really more aware of and know most are the ones I've just mentioned. That's Chong and a Roger female. We are not too far from Rerum. So, this is part of their territory. It's not uh an known land, let's say.

Joseph, thank you for your question. I did hear something similar when I was away that the R5, they kind of chased and there's a bit of a conflict if I'm not wrong. But definitely if the R5 cuz they're young boys and they're all looking to establish now their own pride. If they do see the female and she's also cooperating, it could happen. But with these boys being around, it would be a big fight. I don't think Chongo and his brothers would let it go easy. One is looking in that direction, but I don't know if they know that the cheetah is there. One is sitting down. The cheetah is very nice and low. And our cheetah has started.

Oh, so close. Oh, it was just a small run. I didn't have enough coverage. You started too early, my friend. You should have stayed low longer. Yeah, she kept on looking up the tree. I actually remember seeing them when they were cubs climbing small little like branches. Not a really big tree. It was like a bush tree. You see? Look. Look at that. Oh, you're actually climbing. Come on, girl. Come on. I can even hear her nails. Oh, close. And right there, we're looking at some oxeckers. Looks to be the yellow bill oxeckers. And these guys are very important to the buffaloos. Not only

buffaloos, other antelopes, and even some giraffe. They are very good at helping with cleaning areas that our buffaloos can't be able to reach, such as the back. As you can see right there, you can see them right there. A nice young one looking at us. We have some cattle egrets also. Most of them are sitting down. They've gotten used to us because we just parked the car. And once you park the car, they kind of feel more comfortable. They'll still look at you here and there, but not in any way feeling kind of threatened. We all know that when Cedric's in town, leopard are on the menu. Rolani, Clamba, Kachava, and even Tortois Pan made the cut with the special appearance from the wild dogs. Take a look. That is the

strongest branch in the Sabbi sand at this point of time. Absolutely amazing. And it's a beautiful tree. At least we got to see all Miss Rani just fast asleep now. An amazing part about this is that we spent time with her yesterday and guys as well the day before on Monday and she had a juvenile male implorer that she killed and she finished that uh male implorer and guess what now she's got all of a sudden she's made another kill pretty much close to the same area. She has killed a young impala once again. She has not even opened this youngster up yet. As you can see it is just still fast asleep up in the tree. So yeah, I'm sure sooner or later when she's uh feeling a little bit peckish, she will go and feed on that

impala. But for now, it looks like she is just resting nicely on a nice horizontal branch and very comfortable. As you can see, we've got Rani now, but uh what has happened is that Clumba came into the sighting and chased her all the way up here south towards uh close to the clearing called Mike's Kitchen. No, no, they won't know that they're related. No, she won't know. Hey, Lama, but you are my aunt. No, that's there's no understanding to that point. It's a female leopard versus female leopard. And unfortunately, Rouani was in Columbus's territory.

Oh, there's another leopard. That's right. Oh, there's another leopard stalking her. Oh. Looks like Lumba's just coming in. I thought Lumba was gone. Yo. And Rani is still oblivious. Come on. Thank you very much. Yep. There you go. Oh. H my word. Got the dogs. We got the wild dogs here as well. So yeah, let's see. Full of blood this one. You can see the face is full of blood. We got the collar tann won't have one or two or three or packs forming each other. You know, sometimes you'll have breakaways. Sometimes you'll have a female and a male breaking away from the pack feeling that they're not the alpha male alpha female. they feel

like they need to too there's too much pressure on the pack itself and sometimes you'll get uh you know individuals breaking away together and that's uh but other than that um now you won't get one big pack and another big pack really forming uh one super pack as you can see the lumber is really tucking into this kill. But there's still actually quite a bit left. When she picked it up, I didn't see on the other side. There's still like the front quarters, the neck, the head. So, she'll be busy on this kill. Definitely today, this afternoon, she'll still be around here. That's if she doesn't drop it. There is a hyena that is roaming around here at the bottom. We can't see it at the moment, but there's a young

hyena that's roaming around here. It might be Jubu or it could be Nigel. Either one of them. Etsy. Uh Rani did have a little bit uh it see the Rani had the like how can I say a very small pork portion like just a little bit of the hind quarters uh and that's about it. Nothing much more than that. So pretty much Lumber scored a nice prize here but you know that it happens. I mean, you know, the young female sometimes that's what I said yesterday afternoon and I was quite surprised that Lumba or Langa or Kachaba has not pitched up at this sightings yet where um she even had another Rani had another kill just like 50 60 m south of us and it was really kind of pungent you know you can smell that like it was very

it was stinking a lot as you can see we got kachava It's always such a beautiful leopard pose when they do lie on these thick uh horizontal maruda branches. And I'm sure she's used this tree a few times cuz this is part of her territory. So this is close to a northern area of her territory and she knows this area very well. I mean she was pretty much born in this area. Mom being Tundi, father and vula. There's all the leopards haven't been looking happy for the last 2 three days. I think because of the weather. I think the weather has been also very miserable and uh and

rainy and cold. I think now all of a sudden they're also feeling it. They're like m so they have to get used to this cold now. Winter is on its way. But I also think it's just a branch. I think it's just as the way she's lying. It almost seems like she's a an angry girl, but she's not. Is comfortable. Even this big male leopard known as tortoise pan. He is just uh taking it easy up in one of the it looks like a knobthorn tree with his skill. And you can see oh he is enjoying a good old nap there. Exact the same spot. I'm sure he's been moving around and he's been feeding on it coming down the tree and going up again. But I don't think he wants to lie in the grass currently um due to the rain and the grass being so wet. And Yatini is his dad. And Yatini they

think of Oh, look at that. What a beautiful pose. Oh, look at that. Would have been beautiful. in Sandringham. Unpredictable weather pushed Amy and Poor indoors, but that didn't dampen their spirits. With their favorite show, they treated themselves to some homemade snacks. I wonder if a giraffe would enjoy a pancake. There's two, but I'm joking. Yes. Oh my goodness. And you can see that they were really going for each other. And this is where it happened. You can see some signs of them here. This is the a horn impression over here like that. You can even see the little indentations from the first section of the horn that's got the ridges in it like that. And um one went there and there's another horn

impression over here very clearly like that. And basically there's some um foot marks and scuffs all over here. Here's some fresh ground that's been lifted from there. If I flip that over, it's going to be sandy on the other side. So it is the ratting season for impalers at the moment. So the males come out and um they knock horns and basically they fight it out for uh small territories uh that last temporarily for the rtting season and then within that there are females which they want to mate with. We have hopped off the vehicle because we have a little bit of a surprise for you. Uh I have a setup here and we're going to be making some pancakes. And you may wonder why the pancakes. Over

the last few days, Paul and I have been speaking a lot about wanting pancakes in the weather that we've had. And I thought, well, why not make them? The weather's held out, so we've brought everything that we need here with us. we are. I'm going to carry on. And we've got some beautiful. But we're just making a few more here. And then once we've done this, we are going to get Mr. Muscles and pork to have a taste. I'm excited. It's terrible. I'm joking. I'm done. I'm walking. I'm joking. We have a elephant bull walking down the road here. And um from what I could tell with my binoculars, he is in must. Quite wet uh around the back legs, but it is

sort of wet all over. So, I'm not 100% sure, but as he's coming closer, I'll be able to get a better look. So, we are just a little bit wary. Um ready to reverse. I don't want to be in his path. But we far away enough now to just enjoy the sighting a little bit before I need to move. And um yeah, if he wants to walk this way, we won't stop him. So I will then reverse and turn around and get out of the way. But he's got a clear idea of where he wants to head, too. And he was walking along the road when we came here already. You can see him using his trunk, throwing that sand on himself. So very relaxed.

What you doing then Paul? Watching the show. Supporting the gents. Supporting the guys out. Supporting. Hello. Got a visitor. Boy doesn't want them to steal his eggs. Do that. We're doing the things, you know. Look at that. Yo. Steady. Next up is Amakala, where stunning views were matched by incredible sightings. Elephants, rhinos, lions, and cheetah. What more could you ask for? Oh, she does. Look, it looks like she ate an ele. what a special sighting. We were trying to find that elephant again and I looked up onto the hill and just saw something

that looked like a really big termite mount. So, I made use of my binoculars and this amazing animal popped out. From a distance, we thought it was a black rhino. They've moved off. That's so cool. Very, very cool. That little baby was tiny. Probably only 2 months old, if that. Hey, we managed to get him so nicely, even with a female. So, we heard him calling, but obviously didn't know there was a female there at the time. Didn't see her. Managed to get a brief visual of him from the top of the ridge. So, we made our way down and Morgan has asked me a couple of times to turn the sun off.

Matt, it really is. This is very, very cool. You just got to squint your eyes a little bit to try and get the sun out. But other than that, it is awesome. Very, very cool. Being at the right place at the right time. Organ must have brought some good luck or something yesterday when he said we're going to find black rhino. Got one more. Very, very cool. Very chilled. sniffing the air. I was having a quick look at it and trying to figure out if it's the same one that we saw yesterday, but that one from yesterday was a little bit too far away to figure pick up on any defining

factors, constantly listening in our direction. You can see those ears are moving independently. So, head pointing towards us. They don't have great eyesight, but their hearing and their smell is very good. So they rely on that more than they do their sight. So once they are happy with their surroundings, then they chill out a little bit. put that. So, we managed to find Zika again, this elephant bull. I did see that he is in must. So, that is when their testosterone levels are very high. So, they tend to be a little bit more temperamental. But we are sitting at a very good distance. If he decides that he doesn't want us here, we've got more than enough

time to move away. If he turns his head, you'll be able to see just behind his eye, they have got a temporal gland. So, we all have our temple that is behind our eyes on the side of our head that soft spot soft and they secrete testosterone from there when they are in must. It doesn't look like his legs are particularly wet or at least I can't see anything from this angle, but when they are in full must, they actually secrete it from their penis as well. So, then their back legs are wet. It looks like they've just walked through the water, but only on half of their leg. And sometimes they will be very relaxed, but sometimes not. Their behavior can change very, very quickly in a split second.

You can see that broken tusk that we were talking about earlier. And those legs are dry. So, either he's just going into must or he's just coming out of must. We managed to get them again. Awesome. Just took a little bit of a slow drive down the road, but they were walking in the road and we got very excited when they lay down. So now we can actually sit and watch them doing their thing. The amigos. It's very, very cool to see them just taking it easy for now. They'll take a little break and then they'll get up and be on the move again cuz they are still hunting. So heads up, looking around, but just relaxing, taking it easy.

in order to gain a little bit more energy. Is Oh. Okay. I thought maybe he was looking at something behind us, but he's just having a scan. Nothing much going on. See those thick tails? So, the end of their tail is relatively flat, but the rest of their tail is very thick. So they use that as a counterbalance. So what they will do is when they are running that will go if when they turning they'll use that to stop themselves from just rolling over. So what's going on? You always know you're in for a treat when David is around. Sightings come thick and fast.

Servils, lions, and a close elephant encounter which literally knocked him off his feet. And to top it off, a little dance which may or may not have bought the rains to the mara. Wow. Did you see that made in Chelsea? So I think where she is there could be some little path of some rodents and at times they'll always stop in such areas and wait for the mice or the rats just to walk through and unknowingly very quickly they'll pounce on them and claw them. None other than my favorite boy Mojo. Moa still with girl he had before this morning who we all have been guessing either could be Ankorai Now on a closer look, you see how he is driving his beak right through this

particular reptile to dig out the flesh because they use the be like pick axis. Very, very strong bills. Of course, they're very sharp as you can see. and the shell being very hard, the carroposy being very hard. So, the first thing they need to do is to get the softer flesh out of this particular uh tortoise. It is Calo with her two cubs and possibly or I'm thinking there's another female who is next to her who I'm guessing could be Kito. Kito is you know one of the other members from the mar pride but earlier during mar live uh we also had u lola with him love I have followed these cubs since last year and I am with them including or up to this day I cannot wait to see them become big boys go teenage and then

shown the door by the mother or maybe their fathers tell It is time for you boys to leave. And finally, here at Mabula, what a week it's been. Nothing short of special. The weather may have been a challenge, but in a place like this, it's hard to complain. Wild dogs, elephants, cheetah, brown hyena, and even lions made an appearance. Take a look. Wow, guys. We just uh lucked out here after a bit of a slow start. We've just come across this wild dog who's just run across the field and promptly laying down in this mud wallow. How cool. Very exciting. And we're back. We're back with these uh two boys. And uh our little gap gave me a chance to do some research. And just wanted to respond to Vinnie's question again um about

Coalition Brothers and whether they fight. And um apparently they do. to Vinnie. Apparently, it can get quite messy. Um, it's certainly not romantic love. Uh, when a coalition of males finds a female, can be quite aggressive. There can be quite a lot of fighting. Got my I got my camera and uh in the distance we've got the rhino. We've got a bit of a pole in the way and there's quite a bit of grass. Brownina don't see that often. All the viewers are willing him into frame there. Well done. There he comes. job. I'm going to take a stab and say I think they do. Um I have actually never really guided with brown heenas before.

So uh I just I only know the stuff from the low felt with the spotted hyenas which obviously the females do. I'm going to have to get back on you on that one. Hopefully we'll see some more brownina. Actually, this one might get up as well and join his brothers. There's the stretch. Downward dog. Yep. Let's see what they do. Tempted to move, but we got the shot here. Ah, it's great seeing the coalition bond like that. And see them walking in this green, beautiful green grass. Oh, this one's dying on the other one as well. And that brings us to the end of this

week's catchup. All the action, all the sightings, all in one place. We'll see you on the next one. Until then, take care.