Safari Live - Day 32 | National Geographic

[Music] you [Music] [Music] this program features live coverage of an African safari and may include animal kills and carcasses. Viewer discretion is advised.

It's a cool breezy afternoon. There's some cloud cover in the perfect conditions for a young male Steinbach to roam around the open plains of Juma. This is safari live standing by five four three two [Music] Good afternoon and welcome to our sunset Safari my name is Tristan on camera today our what sins are socks monkeys who has decided this afternoon to wear his very finest pair of socks which we'll get into just now.

Now remember we are coming to you live which is hashtags fired live on Twitter the YouTube chat if you want to be able to chat to us or you want to ask any questions about what's going on. Now since uh since we've started with an S and the steelbook I think socks are a perfect time to come out. The clouds are starting to break there was a bit of sunshine aliases sins has decided to whip out his best and finest pair of socks this off soon come on sins a socks out I did my socks this morning you've got to do your socks now here we go.

So sins ur has got his socks out and they are very patriotic socks. Look at that! We've got the South African flag socks so we've got patriotic socks this afternoon. We also have another member of the crew driving around with us this afternoon and you might have noticed his little eyes sticking out in the dashboard that is pg me emoticon speaker that gives us a lot of entertainment and well it's just for a bit of vibe in us as Megan says. Before we go out and drive in the parking lots we kind of play a bit of music and get ourselves into the swing of things.

So PG is riding along this afternoon and we thought you look quite cool under the dashboard with his little white eyes poking out so he's going to be riding and hopefully he'll bring us some good luck because well there's lots of potential this afternoon. We're going to probably just do our time lapse quickly hello little male skin work you very relaxed! Are you going to run away from us or stay there? How relaxed is the steam book? That's ridiculous he's not running anyways this is my piece of grass I'm not going to run away and see he's got his nose down sniffing. I wonder if he's looking for his female companion who's around.

They also mating at this time of the year so much like the darker they're also looking to mate and to find females so that's maybe why he's sniffing so much. Maybe he's picking up the scent of where a female has walked and that's going to lead him to a mating opportunity TI smells all the little branches it's not actually eating maybe that's also why he's not running for us too preoccupied with the scent of a lady to worry about this big that is close by.

And like I said it's probably the most relaxed in what we've seen in a long time no way scared of us at all but I was saying that this afternoon is full of promise and hope we had hasanat twin dams this morning in Coomer with her hubs around us north of the lodge and the high Nadine was active. So lots of different things that we can try and schedule for this afternoon.

What I want to try and do is probably head towards the in kuma lioness and her fluffy little Cubs and see if we can get a view of them this often to start with because remember that sighting will close when it starts to get dark which will be fairly early this afternoon with the card cover that we've got. And then we gain to hit southwards towards probably husana and try and get a little bit more time with him in the last 2 3 minutes that we had this morning apparently he was left a very sleepy all curled up in a tiny little ball in the same place and there was lots of alarm calls apparently to the north of him so I'm pretty sure tumbles around and I wonder if we're not going to get Tambor husana 2.0 this afternoon.

So it will head in that direction a little bit later to see if we can find the two young gentlemen of Juma. But before we do all of the wet sand we get to interested in all of the other things what we need to do is we need to go and do our time lapse so I'm going to take sensor to do our time lapse so we can do that and then we'll have that out the way and then we can get into the serious stuff. Now I believe a lot of you are very very fond of sins Oh socks I know they are patriotic I do like them too since we've done a sterling it for today buddy well then so it's always good to be patriotic and I'm quite enjoy those one so those are fantastic and yes Pucci is a wonderful addition to the team he's puts right in as you can see he's got a perfect space it's almost like wendy was designed to house poogie on the dashboard.

So peih-gee sits there he's got his big white eyes and he just watches over what goes on and hopefully he'll like I say we'll bring us lots of luck. The other nice thing about Bujji is if we have some bird calls and things like that now I no longer have to kind of hold a phone to my head and pretend like I am kind of concentrating on looking at the backend of my phone I can play it from here and poogie will emanate that sound towards all of you into the camera and it will be much easier for all of us involved so he's a good addition I'm not sure if it to he or she it haven't decided Megan he or she Lou I don't know anybody not sure we'll have to think about that he I think he making goes she I go he synthesis our Megan it's a he Lou says he saw Megan you've been outvoted three to one we went so there we go crew G is a boy so he's going to bring us some luck this afternoon.

I'm can feel it in my bones okay Kanpur make him play a song I can feel it in my fingers I can feel it in my toes isn't it something like that yes I think there's a song that goes something like that now I won't be the only one out this afternoon it seems like we might have the Mara as well in full force it sounds like Brinkley or Smith is growing down the hill and so is Taylor and I think Jamie's also might even be out somewhere near a river somewhere and crossing that way so oh no PG don't fall.

So it seems as though we're going to have a full crew out this afternoon which will be wonderful and I'm pretty sure that it's going to be very spectacular given that this morning was anything well if we get anything to go by but this morning it's going to be really quite wonderful what's wrong sensor I'm supposed to park closer no we want to see your socks so sins are things that I was part closest that he can hide his socks but there's no chance and you can see since there's a colorful character not only does he have colorful socks he's got a bright orange jersey nice bright green t-shirt so he really is sporting some colors this afternoon and he is certainly adding some vibrance to our day so fashion guru my certainty sensor you are the fashion guru once again standing by is tree waving there we go.

So this is gonna become a thing now it's no longer the thumb of the afternoon it's going to be the socks and since are waving at the marula tree because we keep doing to him but he certainly is looking very very spiffy this afternoon and he's going to be impressing whatever animal we come across hopefully they will also increase she ate the brightness and bits of joyfulness that since I was bringing to this afternoon's proceedings I certainly have enjoyed it now well done sensor that was very quickly becoming quicker than say but this rates which is a mean feat so very good job now I believe that I was saying Lamarr a team out and that brain clear Smith is out and well he's raring to say hello to all of you so let's go across him and see what his plans are for the afternoon.

My name is on camera today and we're going to go try find that female cheetah that we were so desperately after yesterday but unfortunately the rain put an end to that now we're actually going down the road that was a river and looking a little bit drier today and if we fail with the female cheetah we'll probably head back towards this area and see if we get any luck with the gamma pride very exciting we got going a little bit late this afternoon we had a bit of early rain fortunately it wasn't too heavy so we are able to get out and let's hope the rain that stays away now Jamie is all the way on the other side of the river and hopefully she might have some luck with the amani girls or even possibly the Bella shaaka boys there's no other miny girls a pair of female cheetah and the village soccer boys are coalition of six male lions whoa here we go the first bit of fun hold on easy desert remember hashtag is Safari live if you have any questions from us we would love to hear from you.

It is a gorgeous our theme Taylor is going to be heading and down towards the southeast seeing if she can maybe catch up I heard there might be a possibility of some wildebeest crossing around look Hart crossings so fingers crossed there that it might be some bull these back in the Triangle shortly so we're gonna keep marching that towards so they're the Southwest so the complete opposite direction to Taylor we're going to move along against allah-allah escarpment and see if we can have any luck there with that female cheater of course it's also a great sausage Pride country Oh lots of muddy spots yeah so I'm gonna concentrate on where to go and and how not to get stuck while we do that sounds like trailer has got a special treat for you before I even introduced myself we're gonna lose sight of this Reiner unfortunately they're quite a few cars yes so I think let's have a little look at the Rhino first and then once we have to reposition of the nozzle introduce myself to all of you but isn't this fantastic isn't this incredible there we go you can see someone's head and screen it's very crowded yeah hello everybody my name is saya and on camera with me today is we're gonna go with cuts Roy Craig and be good I think we're gonna make that stick aka Batman sometimes people call him Craig but not really no this is live this is interactive this is happening right now from the Mara triangle in Kenya and we're very happy to have you so if you have any questions for us to remember hashtag did I say that already hashtag Safari though I think I may have said that a RHIB it doesn't matter and you can chat us on the YouTube chat I'm trying to figure out how we're going to get a view of these rhinos because we can't really go off-road here it's a high high usage area so we've got to stick to the tracks and there's many cars in front of us and I don't know everything you see praying me see if I can do a little bit of positioning but we'll try how's that get through these two cars I'll go a little bit more there we go look how incredible that is now the two of them yet one was most certainly a male I didn't really get to have another proper look at the other one but it could be either way it could be oh there we go we can have a look on the left this will give us a chance to zoom in double-check well yes that looks very much like a female so it is a male and a female that have obviously joined up perhaps this lass is coming into Easter's and the male is perhaps starting up in the courtship process very cool to see I've only seen rhinos mating once before and white rhino it's not even black runners so wouldn't that be quite exciting and it's the first time I've seen them out in the open like this this is really really amazing oh my goodness you won't believe our like a gap has opened up Wow so we're just gonna be a little bit patient one more vehicle is moving and then we're just gonna let them reverse and then we're gonna jump back onto the track Shane we're gonna dip flat not we're gonna steal the sneak spot and we're gonna stay on the track to okay we're gonna pass back this so they keep walking away from us but that's okay and we're gonna keep our distance we're actually not gonna follow them for too long and the reason for this is because our plan is to head to the far west where rumblings from I don't know harbouring gets all his Intel but brent has whispered to me that apparently there's some will to be sort of crossed back from the Mara National Reserve back into the triangle so we gotta go see if we can find them there are lots of lines down in that area so it could be quite exciting will tonight be the day that I get to see my first tank down from start to finish in the Mara because can you believe it I have not seen a kill yet not that it's necessarily my favorite thing but um it's still quite interesting to learn about the various hunting techniques of the different lines using the different areas so that'll be quite nice but I thought it would be a great way to start our day off with one of the endangered species of Africa and you can see they're living quite well here they're nice and healthy there's lots of vegetation for them to browse on and you can see that these runners have actually well a part of research they've got notches in their ears so they were obviously darted and blood samples were taken and I'm sure they have their own ID somewhere hidden safe it's very cool there Wow and I really hope you're taking as many screenshots as you can because it's not often that we get to see them out in the open for such a long time either absolutely beautiful and I could spend all day with these animals one of my favorite things to do down in the Eastern Cape under sit and watch them a huge horse fan are you wondering how long are they pregnant for you just wondering you glad to wonder as much as you like well the gestation period for a black rider is just a month less than the white rhino so it's for 15 months it's quite a long time white rhinos 16 months and but really it's it's so close I mean what's a month they've been wallowing as well they look like they've obviously sat in a bit of mud during the day another up and feeding isn't this great now James how long is the courtship process for a black rhino I'm trying to think and the reserve that I worked with actually and he had males who didn't have any females what we did and unfortunately she died of natural causes not from poaching or anything so I wasn't able to witness that courtship of a black rhino and I wouldn't imagine it would be I need a couple of days maybe three to five days or so and maybe quite similar to the white rhino and I'll have to have a little look I did see quite a few black rhinos in the sabi sand in the South but they were so skittish as always at a distance and all charging through a lion sighting I just suppose is pretty good how's that scenery all those tall trees the grass is lovely and green fallen trees there really is stunning archer well on the fact that you've also got two black or white - how's that - black white rhinos walking to your screen look at those pointy lips perfect for nibbling off the leaves I wonder what shrub they're eating over here has anyone ever seen their round nose when they eat euphorbias it's something that I used to watch them do quite a bit it's one of their favorite foods in fact that you'd quite a large amount of the euphorbia and that is present in this area - no Larry you said that they are beautiful and they're prehistoric looking there are rhinos haven't really changed much in their design for millions of years so if they really are one of the prehistoric creatures archaea always armor-plated but what we said they are going to have to move off from here we've got a long way to go still to get to the southwestern corner of the triangle and hope to find some wildebeest which would be nice because I've seen a total of 12 wildebeest today and they were up on the escarpment and that beautiful oh she's got a bit of a he's got a bit of a split yeah my favorite we recognise him right I'm going to see you all a little bit later hopefully once I've arrived at my destination I'm going to send you all the way to South Africa now - dear Tristan and I wonder if there are any clouds looming in the sky there are some clouds looming in the sky tailing akuti but they are fairly innocuous at the stage they bit splits part but sort of broken up there's nothing really too threatening in these clouds so I don't think we're gonna get too much more raining it was just that little bit that we had this morning which was really not enough like I say it's even settled the dust after the dryness that we've had over the last few months so at this stage then we're gonna have nice weather the soft and at least the wind has dropped so the difference between yesterday and today and why probably today has been a little more successful in terms of the types of animals that we're seeing and then and the sort of crop more species that are there or what we're seeing is because the wind is down so if the soon as the wind gets up a lot of the animals try and find cover we got lucky that we had the income of Pride and that the sticks made a kill but if we didn't have that it would have been quite a difficult day at the office but today no wind and we're seeing that the leopards are out because I believed in Ghana was seen this morning quarantine was seen this morning husana was seen this morning there was tracks for Tomba as well so there's a lot of lipids moving around and hopefully that means that we will find them at some point this afternoon as well and I'm right near where this lioness was this morning buttons you are asking about the Buffalo if they came in to Juma unfortunately not what happened with the buffalos they went back into Manya Leyte so they crossed waste into Manya lady but I've just heard the update now that they've come back again into buffers look and they are slowly kind of moving in an easterly direction now in terms of how far they are away from the boundary they're not they're about 800 to 900 meters north of the boundary itself and there's no visual from our boundary with them but I believe the herd is big big big the guys say it's a very big herd so I don't know exact the Owlman using it but they say very big which I'm hoping means at least 300 plus in that herd which is good news now the interesting part about it is the way that they walking they're about to walk themselves into an unknown pride of lions that is hanging around in Buffalo right on the money lady boundary at the moment call and they think it might be the telemetry's which is the first time I've heard of them in a long long time apparently there's three sub adult males that are around so two and a half three years old and then there's some younger Cubs around a year old and then three or four line is something like that so you're interesting to see how many they are and to see what the actual story is and whether or not they walk straight into those lines and if those lines then push the Buffalo hood southwards back towards us which will be quite nice right no let's see there's the termite mound over there so I'm hoping she's moved slightly out of where we had her this morning because this morning wasn't so pleasant where she was lying it was really quite dense it was nice when the Cubs were suckling because we could see their little faces and we could watch them moving around but I'm hoping that this afternoon she's moved a little bit she's gotten herself into a place where we can see her quite nicely and that the Cubs will be there as well. I have an idea that you might have left in these cool conditions like we see now she might have moved on and if that's the case then we're gonna be leaving the area immediately with these Cubs we're not here to try and stress them out in any way we just want to come and view them with mom and if mom's not sure then that's the end of that I'm afraid and we have to leave the area and leave them to themselves.

Okay, so doesn't look like mommy's home at this stage so when we go forward a little bit mm I don't think she's yep once you just check around slightly because there she is I can see it in Co Senza now if you want to see what camouflage is like on a line do you see which is you see how long it takes Enzo to spot this but since oh if you go that big tall tree in front of me right over there is where she's sitting in the long grass so she's just can see her face ever so slightly much from your angle be a bit tough but if you zoom in for me just over there you'll see just how camouflage this line is is go go go go go a little bit up to your left up up and there she is you see her just behind the trees there miss her back and her head incredible it's amazing the camouflage of a line is you can see why they're difficult to spot sometimes but luckily she puts her head up first and that's why we were able to see her I wonder if the little Cubs are the site or if she's left him behind me here in the drainage and she's now gonna start a movement back towards the in Karuma pride and back towards the west where the rest are but it would be nice if the little cubbies are our chair because it's going to be very open and we will get a nice view of those little ones from here these she's around I mean it's better that she's around she might do one last suckle but I don't see any signs of the Cubs and also I should be in first year not in third year otherwise we're going to stall the little Cubs I don't think are here we would have seen little heads popping up already so I think they behind me and back at the den sites where she was suckling them and she's now starting her movement back towards the rest of the pride.

So there we go she's just lying on her own and is taking it a little easy I'm sure she's been suckling them she's groomed them she's made sure that they well fed and is making sure that they're going to be okay and once they're alright they fed they groomed looked after then she's going to now start like I say heading back to the pride to be able to see if she can go and get some nutrients for herself remember these are cool ones are going to you drink from her and they're going to absorb a lot of the nutrients that she's able to produce and therefore she's gonna have a tough time of it and she's starting to yawn which means I think she's gonna start moving already I don't think it's gonna be too long that she's gonna be up and going man oh you want to know how long until the Cubs join the pride permanently probably another I would say six to eight weeks until they'll be joining the pride and moving around and even then they'll only join four caucuses in terms of actually walking with the pride generally it's at about six months that they'll start to kind of move with the pride all the time and there we go up she gets you can see she's a little on the skinny side which is because she's having to move a lot more than the rest of the pride she's having to go back and forth probably fine she's also not getting as much nutrients because she's missing out on some of the kills and so it's a tough life being a mom but if she goes now she's going to start striding her way I think back towards the west and towards where she came from last night so it's going to be a long walk back that way unless the Cubs are hidden somewhere there but I don't think so spark so you're asking what time they usually hunt well there's no specific time for our liens or leopards or any other cats to hunt they're opportunistic animal to opportunistic animals which means that they will hunt as soon as they can when they can any opportunity that comes along they will take it whether that be nice day sunrise sunsets hot cold doesn't matter they just hunt whenever they can and whenever an opportunity presents itself so it'll be could be now she might start hunting if she sees an Impala by herself you never know she might try and hunt it by herself but in all likelihood she's probably gonna go to the rest of the pride and they'll then want to start hunting this evening so we saw last night when we got to the inn Coomer pride around sunset that's when they woke up and started to move but she's definitely left the Cubs now the Cubs must be in the den they must be happy there and it's okay we got to see them this morning and I'll be interesting just to follow her along.

I don't think we're gonna be able to keep her for all the time because she's gonna cross a very bad drainage at some point so we're going to just follow her anyway though and see how she goes and whether or not she goes all the way to the west because that's going to be a very very long way to get to where that is now while I follow these all her let's go back to Branson see how he's doing on his quest for some of the tawny cats what we went looking for cheetah and we've come across lions - lovely ladies of the sausage pride as I said you never know what you're going to find and as you can see there's some potential meals in the background walking through some zebra in the distance now I haven't seen these girls stand up here so I'm not sure the skinny there oh wow hungry there there goes madam mccurdy rushing past us at a rate of knots nice you guys here we go let's have a look yeah you can see Taylor here she goes I thought you often we actually see each other out our check because it is so big and we cover such vast distances that that we can sometimes go a lot a couple of days without actually seeing another vehicle down on the valley floor by Taylor now Taylor said is heading down to the southeast and she's hoping that some of the wildebeest have cost around and look out hill and I think we're gonna sit we're gonna stay local we're gonna sit with these girls I think Jamie had the one has ever kill a few days ago but there could be hungry they do have quite a few Cubs to feed last counter he was nine in total between the different lionesses of the sausage ride so we've only got to dine this is yeah the Cubs are probably closer towards the escarpment there's a couple of others a few spots that they're really likes you like to hide the Cubs in and who knows and maybe they'll hit that way or maybe no wait for the zebra to come a bit closer now he is there are quite a lot of zebra around so there's by no means a shortage of food for the sausage bride although some babies as well in the distance we got all happening yeah okay so yeah elephants missed just a little southwest of us you can hear lots of wonderful sounds apart from the wind lots of frogs after that massive amount of rain we had yesterday you can hear some endorphin paddle frogs here a natural toad somewhere Oh Ferg's found a bird oh yeah guys it was a looked like your green or wood Sandpiper I didn't get a good enough look what's his figures found odd you found a frog I'll show you out of water this is God he is wandering there zebras not see the lioness not if they're not if they're not moving if they're sitting still like they are at the moment in that distance they're probably not gonna spot the Lions you never know zebra argument going on over there the back with that little group in the family and discussion about where to go now that'll be the stallion there we go kick kick kick there'll be the stallion trying to sort out his ranks so with zebras it's absolutely fascinating the oldest female must lead and if she doesn't and one of the younger females tries to lead he will bite and kick the the rest of the harem into place so even once that all those females were out in front and there will be a set order that he likes the rest of the herd to follow in and the stallions were generally bring up the rear but it's not always the case but quite often the case especially when they're moving in straight lines and there will be lots of at the back is he's sorting someone else again someone's out of place kicking and biting making sure they stay in place those efforts to be really really aggressive and see we get them waiting and see if anyone steps out of line I'll get sorted out quickly we can never be a hundred percent certain but it's generally thought that the oldest female leads she's got the most experience in avoiding predators so that's the reason why she to the front that's why the stallion wants to try and make sure that his harem isn't a less one come time that they come into East hrus and of course he wants to have as many babies as possible as there was a bit far at the moment for the Lions to sort of spring up immediately and start stalking also the terrain isn't in their favor you can see especially now that it's still light very short open grass there and that would be there would definitely be spotted as they got up and started walking towards where the zebra heading.

Oh Dee Dee farming is wondering is there tourists on the back of a vehicle with it no Eddie that is our Ascari wild Ranger when we operate after Park times we have to have a park ranger with us so the third person on the back of Taylor's vehicle was Sammy who's one of the Rangers and who comes out with us at night so no visitors just cameraman and news oh no it's Craig and Teller and that Sammy the arranger for the evening when these lines look like they're going to hunker down for a bit and he has upset black wings in the distance Scotty you would like to know will the zebra herd assist another zebra that's being attacked depends on situation a male or female zebra from the same harem will attack something small like a hyena or cheetah or even a leopard and wild dogs sometimes that attack are attacking a member of their their their herd but with lions that they're white they'll they'll generally move off as fast as possible and I'm sure as it gets oh what's that is that a water walking this way now you see what I'm looking fake so just to the right of the Lions so zoom now a little bit more to the right here we go about Center for him now what is that there oh no that's all it's a secretary bird and she's getting bombarded that's what all the commotions from the lap wings are so of course if they've got little chicks their secretary bird is a predator and although they normally eat snakes and lizards and rodents a baby lap wing would have go down quite the treat you can see how upset all the birds are it looks like I can't see it this distance what the smaller birds are probably so stick Euler's also very upset with their presence in the area you can see how that crown is up agitation flustered from being attacked here comes the next next load of bombardment - coming I think she's out of the danger zone obviously where the chicks all the eggs are and the secretary bird has moved beyond so they're not attacking her as aggressively so and its head all the way back to South Africa to find out what Tristan is active lioness has gone stationary for the time being she's just having a little sit down we haven't gotten too much further than where we were just now she kind of moved along lay down and they nose up again and now that down for a little bit I don't think she's gonna be down for too long you can see she's still looking around and he's quite awake she's staring into the distance and checking what's going on and she's really not that sleepy quite wide eyed as you can see there so I don't think she'll be down for too much longer I'm pretty sure she's gonna be up and moving and she's got a long way to go from where I gather the income a pride is there close to the simmer Amelie arethusa cut line but quite far to the west so she's got a long long trick in order to find them I'm sure she's hoping that they're going to come East.

I spoke too soon it's now down to sleep again but I'm sure she's good they hoping they come East and then I wouldn't be surprised if maybe a buffalo is on the menu at some point hopefully like I said that pride of lions in the north chases those Buffalo south and into the waiting jaws of the increment pride here on Juma because that would just be the perfect way for our evening to play out of course the ink uma pride and would probably only hunt that Buffalo way off to drive but tomorrow morning even it's fine there in Kumar Prada can wait until the morning and as we get going in the buffalo can come and we can have a showdown between the two of them in judging by the looks of the pride they really could do with a nice big meal it's amazing though how lions can go from emaciated and thin and looking a little bit on the sort of side of skinny to completely fat and healthy after one meal.

We saw the sticks pride yesterday and how they were big barrels after they water back and it would be the exact same for the income as if we had to get a buffalo carcass for them they would be massive by the time they finished it they would be really in great condition again so muscular structure is really good it's just that she's a little bit on the skinny side because of all this moving that she's been doing up and down so I'm pretty sure she will hope for a buffalo carcass because it means that she can have a good feed come and suckle the Cubs go back feed again and keep that nutrient level up for these little ones so that they stay fat happy and healthy which is what we want as well we want our Cubs to be healthy and to survive and you know she's in a period now it's the most dangerous part for these Cubs the the first three months is very difficult for a lioness she's got to go back and forth and she explains masses of energy trying to look off to these little ones and trying to keep up with a pride and keep nutrient levels up and install supply that to the Cubs and make sure that they surviving well as well as choosing the right places to leave them in order for them to stay safe you see now she's leaving those Cubs all on her own she's gonna go and try get back to the pride and those Cubs are gonna have to fend for themselves for the next 24 hours or so until she comes back hopefully she won't be 20 files they generally should be coming back every sort of 12 hours we see them moving backward and forth but it could be 24 hours a full day until she gets back to where they are and then you'll find a situation where you know she's got to provide nutrient-rich milk for them to survive and who knows what moves through here at that time they could be hyenas that comes through leopard other lions and so those Cubs are really at a dangerous point in life.

The other problem that she's got is that she's the only lion is staining remember last year in the increment pride end there was two lionesses pretty close together that then and then a third one about a month later so it wasn't really too long until the third one was and so those three could help each other and share the responsibility and they also moved around as a unit which meant that hunting wise they were able to bring down small prey animals and also the droughts halton that they could bring down buffalo and that meant that the Cubs grew quickly because these guys were providing nutrition for them and they were able to kind of stake when close proximity which is a little bit different to what we're seeing this year.

Od farming you wondering why she's the only lioness with the Cubs well it's quite simple is that the three lionesses that we know have the Cubs currently so those sub adults and they still dependent on those lionesses so those lionesses are not going to come into Easter's probably for another I would say six months to a year maybe even longer until they'll come into an e stress and start mating again so it's gonna be a while if those all those Cubs survive all those sub L survive so the design isn't gonna be a while the only other two lionesses is this one and amber eyes amber eyes we don't know we've never really seen her with a cub there was that one mystery cub in the middle of the year I think was in June that no one's really sure what happened or where it came from or what its outcome was but that could theoretically have been amber eise's cub and must have been a mother's cover if we think of the time frame because this lioness must have been pregnant at the time and so that cub unfortunately is no longer there's no ways that that cub is alive and it means and Amber's really is the only other female that could potentially have a chance to have Cubs and she would have had to have mated which means that she's falling outside at the time that this female is having Cubs so even if she's mating now it's still gonna be three months time until she gives birth to hers and so it's a-you know they haven't been quite in sync so that's why she's the only lioness with the Cubs currently or new Cubs there's no real there's no real sort of other lionesses that can potentially produce now and in the timeframe while she's having her so I mean amber eyes would be such a nice thing if she did produce Cubs but as far as we know she never has and it will be really interesting if she ever will because I suppose that little cub was hers I mean it can't be anybody else's if we just do the maths it has to be her cub because this line is there's no way she could have mated and fallen pregnant and had these Cubs in that time frame we fought too close to that time for her to have mated again in that Club so it has to have been amber izes cub and and maybe she can produce cubs and in the future we will see her bringing cubs up and raising Cubs when we saw her yesterday she did have signs that she'd been mating but a few bite marks on the back of the neck and so I wonder if maybe she hasn't started mating again and we'll see her falling pregnant it would be nice if she did and we be also nice for this female if she then deigned in the next sort of six or to eight weeks if she had fallen pregnant from the mating and and was in this area and helping this female arts because it's interesting that a Myers and his female must have had a very tight bond last year because when the income of pride spent so much time here on Juma and we used to find empires and this female often roaming around to give in random places even the beginning of this year used to see these two around tree hosta moving around all over the place and so they seem to have gotten on and have formed a bond over the fact that they didn't have Cubs and so it would really I think hopeless female vampires was around with her and I'm sure the two of them together would really do very well in raising Cubs should they want to so it would be really nice if she did for pregnant and have Cubs and in this sort of time period and obviously for the growth of the income of pride the more females that have Cubs the better but either way it's out of five lionesses there four of them with Cubs currently is really very good there's a testament to the birmingham's ability to defend the area.

Our Larimer is saying you wonder why Lions don't bring food to a lioness with Cubs you know wolves do it and the painted dogs or wild dogs they also will do those kind of things well the thing is about it is because the lioness is it depends at the moment the the rest of the lionesses they trying to protect their cubs that are at the carcass themselves so coming back all the way here expending the energy leaving their caucus unprotected or bringing bits of that carcass all the way here is difficult to remember also that Lions are hunting big animals they hand something like a buffalo there's no ways that's the in boomer pride can drag a buffalo from some amelie all the way to where we are now that's over sort of seven eight kilometers and a buffalo weighs almost 2,000 pounds so even if the entire pride took turns I can guarantee you they wouldn't even get halfway in a day so it's gonna be that's the other side of it is taking food like that is almost impossible and then the third thing is if you take food to a den you are taking a scent to a den so you're taking the smell of meat and rotting meat and that means that that mean sort of predators and scavengers are going to follow that scent and come in and then it's going to bring things like hyena lion leopard into where the den site is for that female and it's going to put those Cubs at risk so rather than that they eat they make sure that they consume meat that then gets pushed into the milk the milk nutrients then get transferred to the Cubs the Cubs grow very fast during that first little period and once they reach that 3-4 months phase they then starting to be taken to the carcasses so the mother comes and fetches them and then walks them all the way to the carcasses and then they will stay and spend time there and then they'll follow the moms around so it's much better system that way she can look after them a lot better and they're not also being at caucuses where things like hyenas can arrive and they then endanger this way she's bringing no scent she's not having any vultures around she can suckle him in peace and there's really little that's going to follow her you'll also find she's gonna use different pathways to get you she's never gonna walk exactly the same and that means that the hyenas won't be able to track her scent every single time so she'll take maybe she'll go west this time tomorrow she goes south the next day she's north and so it makes it a lot harder for the hyenas to pinpoint where she's got coming and going from and therefore the Cubs survive so here's all method in their madness.

Remember also with ten animals like wild dogs and and wolves there is generally one member that is left permanently with the Cubs or the pups or sa and they can then sort of disorientate a predator and need a predator away from that area Lions don't have that ability to do that because they are needed with the hunting and like I said they roam quite big distances and they don't use a central point for the den the den is fairly mobile and gets moved all over the place as opposed to what we see with things like wolves and wild dogs where there's a central bin and then the pack moves around that area so just slightly different with them and it works for both species lions are fairly successful we've seen that you know the numbers within the sabi sands are doing okay it's just that we've had a lot of different males come through and that's what's affected them in terms of den sites and actual females keeping cubs alive it's actually not been too bad the sabi sands most of the females are pretty good at what they do.

It's just unfortunately the coalition males have been such a swift turn over that that's led to a decline in the population of lions and the decline in all the prides throughout the sabi sands really. There's not many prides that have actually grown in the time that I've been here in fact the only prize that have grown since I've been here is the Hmong gained pride the Hmong gained breakaway pride and the salal as those are the only ones that have actually in some way expanded every other pride has actually reduced and as no longer there's the same numbers as to when I started here so it's an interesting dynamic and like I say it's because of the change in coalition males that keep coming through.

Lolita you're asking if lionesses from the pride will come back for these Cubs if this lioness dies in all likelihood no and the reason why I say that is because none of those females currently have very small Cubs if there was a female that had very small Cubs and it's possible and and they have been sort of applying cases where females have adopted the offspring of sisters or aunts or mothers or whatever the case of may have been and we know the Charleston female down the south she adopted her sister's Cubs and raised them so they do do it sometimes but in the case of the Charlestown females she her Cubs got killed and I think that mothering instinct when her Cubs got killed plus the mother of the other Cubs meant that she took on Cubs because she was still producing milk that that instinct to mother was still there and that's why she did it if it was a lioness that has got older sub adults that she's stolen too dependent on her she's not going to now have the burden of trying to suckle Cubs because she's not producing milk remember she's got her own cubs to worry about and so these Cubs are still too young to survive without milk they still need milk up until they're around six seven months old so they need to have a female that's producing milk in order to save them they're not gonna survive just on meat at this age they need that milk and they need all the antibodies and the all the bits that of nutrients that the mom is passing on that's going to help them fight infections get the digestive tracts working properly and and all of those kind of things that's all needed before they're able to start consuming meat full time and it means that you know she's got it unfortunately in this there's another lioness and as Cubs fairly soon is producing milk these ones would then be unfortunately left by themselves and not looked after at all right Arun Kumar female is out cold so I think we're gonna carry on we're gonna leave it be I was hoping that the Cubs would be here and we know that brains neo Smith and amaras but two lionesses then it seems like they're on the hunt so we're gonna try and find a spotted creature of our own and while those lionesses look for food well we're still with the two girls from the sausage pad they have not moved a muscle there she's moved a muscle I think it's the biting insects that have caused her to move lots of biting flies and we had a hot date today after the rain last night which would have caused an absolute exposed explosion of insect life and speaking of that right next to us and making art there are thousands of little midges of course we're right near some water as well so with water and rain and Sun comes lots of course so those you don't know what horrors are cause are they sort of a South African ism sort of a nickname for bugs I'm trying to think well this why Healey they're called doot Doo doos that is a swipey word for insects or bugs Doo doos when we were little kids we used to call them new news now notice as that tail flicks occasionally out of the grass it's got a very distinct black tuft.

ELISA is wondering why is the tuft of a lion's tail black well it's lots of different reasons actually said but all of them to do with that non of non-vocal old non vocal communication as so and their will to signal cubs are able to follow that through thick grass and when they're hunting the back black behind the ears and the black tips of their tails are used as ways to communicate.

Now I was talking about bags just look on here Betty there look at that and I said that the biting flies aren't and force after the rain and fortunately for us there are on the lines and not on us because I think I'd be slapping myself silly trying to get rid of that many flies on me there you go you can see she's getting a little bit faster by them and that's one of the reasons why quite a few different prides in the Mara liked palm trees to try get up into the the the breeze and away from all the biting bugs.

Oh very pretty on the horizon fig a tipple sketch it's gonna be silhouetted against ortley and see I'm walking they're very very pretty giraffe walking a little bit to the left they should go there we go a little bit to the right there it is weighted against that lovely orangey pink suit of the western horizon.

Now come on keep walking for the pretty shot don't stop for a snack yeah female Masai giraffe I was a few there now I could only see with my naked either the one that was silhouetted and there's quite a few snacking around that area difficult to see what they're eating on from this distance I'm afraid. They're probably seven or eight hundred metres away from us Paul is wondering do we wear any specific type of bug spray while we're on Drive we don't Porter um bug spray is pretty much ineffectual against most of the really nasty biting insects occasionally I might use some mosquito repellent but very very seldom and not really here.

Here we are at lovely herd of elephants as well having a late evening snack it's amazing how much you can see if you're sitting in one spot and you just carefully check all around that's exactly what I'm doing now having a quick scan with my binoculars saying if there's something we might have missed it doesn't look like it just some zebra topi and an Egyptian pair of Egyptian geese you can hear that that's a bubbling cocina starting to wake up as I said we're right next to where lugger drains are since the old Geppetto swamp so we're probably going to hear lots of frogs this evening you can see you know a great spot to be if you're a frog and the frogs are probably one of the only things that are celebrating after all the rain last night therefore you found their fig yeah I think algae I thought very good found a frog tick tick tick taking of stream frogs and it sounds like paddle frogs and then you've got that lovely sort of liquid jewel over the bubbling Cocina and not so lovely where where where of one of the toads not sure exactly which sounds a little bit too soft to be guttural raucous and of course they could be all hosts of Toad species for me to learn in East Africa our Lions are still not moving at all a spiky head up every now and then but looking like they're about to charge off and go look for something else now quite often at this time of the day it's not good to be a warthog and quite a few warthogs sort of get snapped at this time of the day because they're on their way home and the home could be amongst any of the mini termite mounds that are around here and they can stumble upon a lion that's fast asleep but of course these big cats can wake up in a split second it's not even that oh here we go as I said now let's have a look at the belly oh not too hungry but definitely could eat actually think that I didn't have a good luck the fact that might be carrying that weight quite far back who knows maybe she's pregnant but I think it's the flies that caused her to just move and flop a few meters away the spine is is practicings in with the fly's incomplete.

I'm trying to completely ignore them no of course and they said there's quite a lot of zebras and things around and you can actually see the we're on the edge of the ears from the biting flies so that the animals have bitten so prolifically that the hair starts to fall out in certain spots where those flies are biting I'm glad they're biting her and not me they can't be quite painful those little biting flies I said isn't not even a breath of wind we're starting to get some lovely birdsong coming through I can hear Rufus nipped lark I can hear yellow-throated Longclaw oh we can hear black belly busted or as I said that the wind is picked up and I can't hear any more of the birds well it's use like Tristan's being on such a cat streak he's decided to go see if he can find something else.

Let's go find out ah so thanks very much for that sins Oh because my comms are not working once again our broken earpiece seems to be at its finest if it's once again so it's interesting though to see differences between the lines and the Marr and the ones yes it's watching some footage this morning they look absolutely massive some of them some of them look like cubes as Lucy's walking through the grass and it's been amazing to see how different the dynamics are and how fluid the movement is is during the migration it's a lot more fluid than what we see from our lines are lines tend to be very stacked together so quite interesting sort of differences that side and I'm super jealous of Taylor this afternoon already because she's got to see those black rhinos and well obviously black rhino here is the most rare and special thing possible so we see very very very very very very few black rhinos in the kruger national park system unfortunately so and she is very fortunate to have got to spend some time with him this afternoon which is good like I say I'm envious of her although I'm pretty sure she's going to be envious if we find her sana just now because we know Taylor also loves her spotted cats as well I believe she got to see a leopard in the Mario the other day which is fantastic and she's seen all kinds of interesting things the serval with the bullet with the hyena on the wildebeest and the striped polecat and lots of crazy things have gone miss McCurdy's way over the last little bit and I'm sure she's having an absolute blast that side as well as and Jamie and Brent and it's one of the more louder groups of people together now Ellie hoping to find shadow and her cub yeah I know the guys check for her this morning so the guys had a little look and they checked in those areas around Mendoza road and and in pilot planes Triple Aim but unfortunately no sign of her at all so I think she might still be in either arethusa or in Hoffman's somewhere in those areas it's difficult though to know for sure we know that she can be quite elusive so no sign on our side though at the moment and it would be nice to find her they certainly would love to see shadow and the cub again but I think well the one that I want to see the most right now is probably Sean Gilda that's the female that I would like to see more than any other.

Didache say last night that if we don't see her and she's staying safe then that's absolutely fine but I would really like to see her and really like to spend some time in just see how she's doing it just to know that she's okay and just one sighting would be fine and then she can go back to being elusive again. Now before I go anywhere there is something that does not belong here in the sabi sands and certainly does not belong on the grounds or in the bush and that is a plastic packets and so I don't know how this has gotten here but it is going to not be picked up by us quickly and Iceman purified ice is certainly not what we want to see Archer like I said I'm not quite sure how the Scott yeah but well it's going to stay in the car from now on and we make sure that it doesn't blow away sins oh so if you can tuck it in there somewhere so that it just stays that would be pretty good as well sometimes what happens is with the wind I mean the the guys come to fetch the rubbish because we're trucks are coming in sometimes a little wind gusts and off goes a bit of it or monkeys raids have been or hyenas raid a bin and then these plastic bags end up unfortunately archers it's our prerogative just to kind of pick them up and make sure that we keep this as clean as possible and litter free this is ultimately the animals home not ours and so we should not impose ourselves too much on them.

I thought we were gonna have a lot more of a sort of Sonya afternoon it seems as though it was a lot more was clearing up at lunchtime but it's now gotten all overcast and dingy again and if we will get a sunset I'm hoping that the clouds do clear because if we do get a sunset then we're gonna have a situation where it's gonna be very pretty with all these cards lighting up the different colors and we're gonna get a really nice clear kind of view of the Sun are you're asking if the roads are made randomly if they made by the Rangers well our our the roads are made by the basically the landowner and some of the ecology guys that come together and they try and work out where the best places for roads are unfortunately in the back in the day we didn't quite understand a lot of the dynamics within the bush environment and what it takes for roads to be built and where they should be in order to not cause environmental damage and so some roads are not quite in the right place but generally there's some planning that goes into them and then they are built by the ecology teams or even the Rangers sometimes as well so it is a planned thing these are not just by mistake and not just tracks that are made and these are all planned roads you will see sometimes little two tracks that go into places so it looks as though vehicles are driven there that's generally when we've had a big sighting that's loss of a few days in a road develops which is generally because there's been multiple cars going in and out and the grass gets squashed but as soon as the rain comes that all rejuvenates and spruces up again and up comes the grass and everything looks of all rights and wonderful.

I'm just trying to adjust the blankets that I sit on because the blankets that I sit on or helping me I don't know I'd like to be a little higher and the seat on windy and rust here both of them I seem to have lost a lot of this sponge and you kind of sink into them and when I got out there the blanket and quite go right and so just adjust that quickly my apologies for me bouncing around in my seat like a hooligan the reason why I've come down this road though is because I want to quickly just check on our Wahlberg's Eagle pair if they at the nest I did see them on my way home this morning after drive they were sitting in the nest and it was the pale form individual that was there the dark form one was flying above but the pale form one was actually then that's the one that seems to be on the nest a lot more we saw it yesterday on the nest and so hopefully in this kind of weather being a little bit sort of dingy and gray and dull maybe one of them will be somewhere where the nest is and hopefully we can get a view of them they are beautiful birds particularly pale from one sheet she or he depending which one it is very difficult to 6 or Bugsy there's no difference between male and female and so it would be really nice in fact both of them are here I can see them already I'm just gonna try go a little bit forward so we get a better view of them hopefully they won't fly away stay there guys and they unfortunately gonna be a little bit silhouetted because of where they sitting and the white sky that we've got a gray white sky that we've got today but there they are sitting on top of the tree itself although they look like both pale form individuals where am I wrong they do look both pale are they both pale certainly looks that way as our dark form male been chased or dark form female been traded for a pale form individual looks like it looks like the plot is thickened that's interesting it's definitely too pale form individuals that are busy grooming each other and I wonder if maybe the dark for male has been ousted which would be very unusual generally Eagles pair for life so really quite strange I'm not sure why the dark form male would relinquish this area or even there would be territorial baths between them that's very strange noise he said it's the first time I've seen it was the Wahlberg's Eagles because generally all the nests that we have in these areas are the same pace every year you come and you see the same groupings I mean obviously it's quite difficult to tell individuals apart but you know the combinations are normally you can tell because they have these different color forms and can normally tell who's who by just looking like those kind of forms and where they are and like I said we know for sure that there was a dark formed one with this light formed one yesterday in the morning and in afternoon and this morning so very confused as to why those two are together I hope something bad didn't happen to our dark form well bears that's not good well I suppose too pale form ones are beautiful but I would have liked it to stay the same and to have the same pay as we always do but interesting dynamic I'm gonna have to do a bit of research on this I wonder if Wahlberg's Eagles do you fight for pays and we'll try go after each other so makes I cannot hear you at all I'm getting is every half a word with every three four seconds which is not our deal so we're gonna try and see if we can fiddle with these comms and try and get this right because otherwise I can't answer any of the questions that you're all asking which is not ideal makes can we try again maybe we can do a little Russian are you saying a triangle love story there we go I can copy Megan now it seems like it's a dark the dark for males games more females going to be very impressed with this triangular love story it's given that it's not here but very strange like I say I'll have to do a little bit more research.

It's the first time I've seen the situation where there's been a individual user ping another and taking over and list this is a different pair and they've taken this nice for themselves and the dark Foreman and pale one that we normally see has moved to a different section that potentially could happen maybe pairs Fortin we've now just got a new pair in this area but very strange indeed and I'm gonna like I said I have to do a lot more research on this and see if there's any documented findings on Wahlberg's and whether it's pairs that fight or whether it's individuals within the ranks that will chase one another art and form a new pair but it's unusual to say the least.

Rebeca they only mate once in a year so they mates now and then they have the young one and the young one then obviously develops develops and Ellen leaves here at the end of summer and then flies northwards but they only breed once a year and at the end of the day birds of prey they Lodge which means that they've got to incubates eggs for a while and then the birds gotta learn how to fly and that takes a bit of time we know with vultures it's pretty much almost a year and a half I mean just over half a year for them to kind of get them out the nest and so it's the same thing with the Wahlberg's Eagles it takes about 3-4 months for those birds to get up and moving and flying and being able to look after themselves and so it's only one chick in the summer months and then they don't breed when they go to the northern hemisphere they just breed down here in South Africa.

That's very odd nice to see them though they are beautiful birds like I say the pale form Wahlberg's are incredibly pretty so nice to see them and I'll try to get a little bit closer so we can get a bit of a closer view and see if we can get some sort of pattern on them that we can recognize them in the future and whether or not they individuals that will stay here and maybe some of you that are very clever and can see some sort of pattern or recognize some sort of markings on the feathers can work out whether it's one of the birds we saw yesterday or it's a different pairing of birds it's definitely not the lights now that I'm closer they most certainly are pale form both of them it all fluffed up obviously because it's cold and I was saying that it's not good conditions for flying and that's why you'll find both of them are down at the moment and just resting on the tree and look at the size of those talons on their feet and long long long long long rectangular tails that will help them to be able to stabilize in flight because remember these birds hunt other birds they birds that hunt on the wing really and so long tails need to stall them be agile it's much like a cheetah has a very long tail helps just to be able to turn on a dime and be agile as they move around and so that's why you see such a long tail.

And these beautiful hmm another mystery that jhummer if I'm not 100% sure why these two are here interesting that three the way try get round and see something quickly because where they sitting is off the nest a little bit that's now I've got no comms again there we go I can just share Megan every second word which is getting worse unfortunate is not good right so we can quickly go across to Taylor because I've missed my link completely so let's go to her. We're gonna stay this side in the Triangle we just need to figure out whereabouts the world to be crossed Khan remember friend said their crops on the eastern side of the bridge versus the side of the bridge we do have a quick repair on hope you were able to find ourselves upon a vantage point of some sorts and then use our binoculars and haven't seen any lines and plenty elephants around although the liens haven't seemed to have acquired the taste for elephants wildebeest several walk behind our chair and that's very specifically warthog now with their most of the animals moving out of the triangle they've got to go back to catching pigs you're just gonna keep looking as I keep reaching up on these Ron Rises I'm starting to see the trees you must be getting closer and closer to the morrow of that quite exciting our check we can find some herds of wildebeest I haven't read he's been much time massage brain Tesla this is one of his favorite areas hopefully it'll become my favorite area - speaking of Brent let's go back to him and see what he stands off the rest of the evening well as you can see our lines have decided it's much better to nap then do anything else for the moment at least now you got to remember that patience is the most important thing when you're out in the bush and because you never know what's going to happen next and suspecting Warthog might come careering in unknown pride of lions might come careering in and cause absolute havoc so sometimes we have to play the patience game and sit and wait for those incredible sightings and not much else has changed and we've actually lost that our elephants that were near us they've moved off the giraffe have disappeared the only thing left is the egyptian geese that are grazing comfortably out on that lovely short green grass where the little ziege empties out into the swamp all stretching and I think we're going to lose them shortly as well as they fly off to find somewhere to roost now the one thing a lot of people don't realize that an Egyptian goose is not in fact a goose at all it is a form of shield duck it is actually what they are but there are grazers so they eat grass so you will find them munching along on any lovely short green grass now I've seen something quite amazing and I've only ever seen it once and it was here a few weeks ago or probably maybe in a few months ago now and and that was an Egyptian goose eating the stomach contents of ávila bees that have been killed by lions and they're not quite a fresh kill so they're the the geese were eating that undigested grass that was left behind now being the vast open grass and that it is these beasts might not even have files to find somewhere to roost they might just stay right where they are Alana is 14 years old would like to know have we seen any odd in the Mara oh I've seen about four or five and we actually did a Facebook live once on that Lions hunting art and that was quite special that's definitely not something you get to see every day Lions hunting art and that was actually just over the horizon over there and it was the Egyptian goose pride and nearly nearly got that I'd he managed to get down the hole and then while the young male was trying to dig him out and the art was digging at a much faster rate and distance and into the male's face it was quite funny but yes no we've seen quite a few art seen on both sides of the river in fact I've also seen the other art that lives gentleman's is the art wolf so one of those way down south near the Tanzanian border seen a striped polecat or Cirillo which is a African form of skunk I've seen a edge hogs what else have we seen lots of funny little things at night caracals serval seen both sides drive and black-backed jackal bat-eared Fox white el Mongoose water mongoose I've seen quite a lot of the the smaller nocturnal critters and Janet's Bush babies the like these lions are truly truly flat as I said they're reasonably well fed not too skinny and I was hoping that all those ever around which have now gone might prompt them to do something so we might take a little wonder just now and then come back here a little later but it really doesn't look like these guys are going anywhere too soon winds starting to pick up but fortunately not bring any rain towards us just yet well we've got a new viewer who named Dakota who is 15 years old a big welcome to you Dakota lovely to have you on the vehicle with us and Dakota wants to know how do we get so close to the Lions well Dakota when were in a vehicle the Lions don't know that there are people here that do not have an evolutionary instinctive response to the vehicle so the vehicles only been around for just over a hundred years so if you drive carefully and considerately and it doesn't smell like anything nice to eat it's too big really and they pump just ignore you after time but it does take time to obituary them to vehicles but if I were to get out of the car and start walking we would definitely get a reaction now it is still light so they would probably run away so lions are actually quite scared of people during the daytime hours but at night they become a different animal and they are the dominant nocturnal predator and we are the dominant diurnal predator so they'll eat us at night but normally unless you corner or put pressure on Cubs or an injured lion during the day they will try and move away from you on foot that's why we can get very close to to them in vehicles because they don't recognize a vehicle and they recognize the human shape as the dominant daytime predator now something we've got quite used to here is ominous skies they seem to be around every evening since I've been back from leave but it sounds like Justin has got an ominous sky of his own all the way back in South Africa not really been T it's not too bad like I said this morning it was ominous and this morning there was big dark clouds and it really did look like we were going to get some rain at some point and we got a few droplets here and there but nothing too major so it wasn't too bad this morning but I'm it imagine now it's starting to sip right Alton and I think that's the end of the rain for us the more I look up the less likely it looks that we going to get any more rain and the fact of the winds dropping and there's really no solid bank that's being gusted in by the wind means that I think we're done for the day unfortunately remember we'd love to have more rain we need it I'm looking very carefully because this is the area where I had those tracks for that's young male lipid that was moving and I had lots of alarm calls in this section so I'm just checking very carefully as I'm going in case little tumba is maybe somewhere in this general vicinity as well and just hiding out we know he likes it in this area so just having a look around checking some of the termite mounds and some of the trees and he doesn't seem to be a cat that spends much time in the trees in fact I don't think I've ever seen him in a tree have I no I didn't think so didn't think I've seen him in trees but I think we are going to get a nice sunset it looks as though the clouds are breaking on the western side and a little bit of color starting to creep in that side so hopefully we will get a good sunset I'm just making my way towards twin dams as I go along and like I said looking for Humber as we go but we our main goal is to get back to me I had a sauna this morning and see if he's sitting in the same place I would imagine he is I don't think he's gonna have gone too far he's an individual that once he's at twin dance generally spends the afternoon fairly relaxed and sleepy and doesn't actually move around too much I would guess he's going to be there whether or not he is is well we're going to be all revealed in the next two minutes so George you're wondering what happened with sunburn husana the other night when they faced often what the outcome was well George it seems both of them just splits amicably where we lost him fairly soon after the drive finish so I was looking and I was trying and unfortunately they were instant a really dense thicket and there was just no way to keep up with him given how fast they started moving they were kind of trotting at him after each other and so I lost them with that regard but they seemed fine both have been seen since I've seen both of them neither one is support sporting a scar a scrape a scratch any sort of limp so I think what happened was tumbler ran into thickets husana lost him him completely and the two of them then just kind of splits amicably and that was the end of this there was no major threats in it and given that they neither one is territorial yet I don't think they're going to go after each other right we are you little Hosanna I don't see him anywhere though it's not where we left him this morning so he's not here where we left him he was just on the left hand side when we left him this morning he's trying to check for him we have you gone he's lying on the other side of the damn wall who is he in front here somewhere interesting we're going to have to scratch around and check for him but I don't see him anywhere oh there is this sitting right in front of us if he was a snake as they say he would have bitten me so I'll just try and get down a little bit but he is fast fast fast fast fast fast fast asleep at the moment he's in his usual spot that he seems to favor which is just along the edge of the banks here and on this wall itself I don't know why he likes it so much there but he seems as though this is where he wants to spend his time it was exactly the same place a few weeks ago or a few days ago he was lying really in the same way just on the edge and and you can see he's still very relaxed how we've missed him from far away I have no idea it just shows you their camouflage because I was looking at the damn wall and I didn't see him until we got a little bit closer and that's where were you sitting just resting and he looks fast asleep at the moment but you can see no scratches on him anyway on the ramp area so seems as a human tumbler just had a little faceoff investigating each other a few snarls and hisses and growls and to say you're not my brother you're not my relative and I'm going to move on and off I go it was such an interesting interaction though between the two of them because tumba or seem to just really not care at all he kind of sought time by approaching and I mean saw us on approaching and just carried on drinking and then once a sauna got really close then he started to spread display a bit submissively and kind of lie on his side and growl and hiss and show his teeth but otherwise they weren't too aggressive to one another it was a bit of sniffing going on and then they kind of chased each other around so I think they still in that young phase where they're not quite sure how to handle those interactions when they see one another and when things get a little bit sort of hairy and they just do what they used to doing which is chuffing and being submissive and keeping themselves alive that way so it will all change though once they start scent marking and once they start to go into that adult phase and testosterone is flooding then you'll find that they'll be far more aggressive to any opponent that they face it might not be each other but they will end up having to face off with some male somewhere and you'll find that interaction will be a lot more aggressive and a lot more teeth and claws and all kinds of other things as they try and defend a territory or gain the territory first before they defending anything some males have it easy some are like quarantine where he just bosses his way in doesn't have to really fight with anybody he just calls and st. marks and there he is in position and has himself a territory others have to fight for it and earn the right to be territorial and that takes a bit of time and effort and so it's interesting just how the differences work between some of them and so hopefully for a sauna and Tom bear I really hope either one of them that they get a nice territory and they don't actually have to worry about fighting too much and they can get nice and settled and get big before they then actually start competing with other males.

That's what I hope Chacma you say such a beautiful cats wasana is beautiful he's looking ever-ever prettier I think he's starting to lose the cub look but he's starting to gain that sort of steamy male look that they get the more serious look but he's got a nice colored coat I always liked her sanas coat it's a yellowy color and as long as gold is what you see on tumblr tom attempts to have a darker gold color than what Hassan and does but I like the color of his coats and he's got these eyes that are becoming more vibrant by day by day and they really enjoy watching and lately he's been endearing himself a lot more to all of us by the way that he's played around and messed around and done his thing he's been very entertaining to watch that's for sure.

I remember him the other day with the stick that he had in his mouth and he was playing the stick and biting it and so he is a very cool cat and like I say whoever ends up hopefully it is in this area but if it's not somebody's going to inherit a very very special little chief in their area and hopefully he'll become the big chief somewhere somewhere close by and if not here so that we can monitor him and know where he goes and what he gets up to because I thought the worst thing about having young males is that kind of invest all this time and you get so emotionally attached to them and then they shift off and especially when they go into places like Kruger and the sightings and the updates on them become so slim and and few and far between that it's most frustrating in a way because you want to know how they're doing and want to know how they're progressing and so it's nice when they end up inside a sabi sands system or a timber Vaati system where there's a lot of the commercial lodges that have constant updates on them it really makes it a lot better and a lot easier for us to kind of know okay well they're doing all right wherever they are and I think that's the hardest part we know miss you and do nourish of amber Lana all of those have just burst into Kruger and that the sort of updates on them are very few and far between there's one every now and then but it's not exactly commonplace to see them it's not like now with asana that we see him probably every sort of have some sort of update on him every day if we're not seeing him we know exactly where he is or somebody else is seeing him on another property so we can work out exactly what's going on but look at the size of that massive front paw it's getting bigger and that head as well starting to get a little bit of a dewlap for me you can see his skin is starting to hang a little bit from the chin so he is growing and slowly but surely becoming the male that he needs to be and so while we watch her sana let's go back to Brenton see what he's up to.

We didn't go for a bumble because there was some zebra distress calls in the distance and the lion heads popped up like they were going to move but unfortunately it was very very short-lived before those heads that went straight down again gosh I'm tired Kitty's probably had a few unsuccessful hunts and sleeping off the tour at a time they might have might have been having not being able to catch anything so I think we are going to leave them nap and go on a little bumble and come back to them a little bit later.

I have one cloud over us that it was that one it also rained all over us not really too hard but enough to start start me worrying slightly because it sort of came out of no and that happens quite often in the dark so you're sitting there with lions the vehicles open everything's wonderful and then you have this on your roof and you go I can't see any stars this is the problem and then you get to come to me then you have to rush to pull the tent down and that generally means you've got to drive away from the Lions of course we don't want to be running around putting our tents down next to the Lions and sometimes can be quite comedic you think of it Chilean shook her over my legs now as most of you that know I like my Birds quite a lot and Russian years wondering how different is