Looking onto Mateya’s watering hole from the room’s veranda or having a meal at the lodge is almost a safari on its own. Sightings have been pretty good during the month of July. We are halfway through winter and water is becoming scares, therefore the animals are moving more frequently pass the lodge. The winter months in Madikwe are cold in the early mornings and late afternoons. Mid-day temperatures are quite pleasant. Night temperatures in July can drop down to 2 degrees and day temperatures averaging 23 degrees. Sunrise is at 6:59 AM and Sunset at 17:42 PM.

We were out on a morning game drive and had the opportunity to follow a pack of Wild Dogs down at the Eastern Airstrip for a while until we got called on the radio by one of our Rangers, that the bigger pack of Dogs are in front of the lodge and just made an impala kill. We told the guests about the sighting at the Lodge. They were very keen and we were about 20 minutes away from the Lodge.

It will take a pack of wild dogs roughly 15 minutes to finish of an impala. Having a success rate of 80 percent, they are Africa’s most effective predator and will consume on average 2 – 3kg of meat per day. We were fortunate enough to witness a couple of dogs chewing on some bone. Interesting enough, the Alpha female wasn’t present and the last time we saw her, she was pregnant. It’s defiantly exciting news, that she might be denning, but we will wait for a while, until we have better clarification. Denning usually takes places in May, but seems like this pack only started to den at the end of June.

An update on the lion cubs from our previous photo’s. They seem to be doing very well and are growing up fast. The females are still very protective over them. Hunting takes place on a regular basis to make sure the youngster’s bellies are full. Lion cubs does a lot of bonding by chasing each other around, roughhousing and playing keep-away with each other. This in fact helps a lot to develop their skills and physically becoming stronger. In the wild, learning through play and paying attention to the females, is critical to a lion’s survival.

Our guests surely enjoyed their time here at Mateya, especially with some general game and sometimes the rarer animals moving pass the watering hole.

Until next time