Safari Live - Day 194 | National Geographic

Good afternoon everybody, and welcome to the sunset Safari here on Sunday afternoon. I think it's a Sunday afternoon, anybody? You're looking at a leopard, believe it or not! That is Husana, the male leopard. My name is James Henry, this is my Sunday smile, and you have got Sinso on camera there. Those are three fingers; he only has three fingers, otherwise he'd show you the others. He does a remarkable job for a three-fingered man, well done Sinso!

We are not alone out here; Ralph Kirsten is tracking lions on foot, if you can believe it—a brave thing to do on a Sunday afternoon! Opar is using the grinder in the workshop. You might be able to hear that wonderful sound for a Sunday afternoon in the wilderness. And we have Sydney heading out towards Tandi and her cub at sunset.

Please talk to us using the hashtags #safariLIVE on Twitter; otherwise, you may use the chat stream on YouTube to ask us questions. Send us your comments; you may insult us if you wish to. I can't promise that I'll acknowledge your insults, but you can certainly try and send us your amusing anecdotes—that would also be quite good!

Ok, the reason you can hear the angle grinder, if you can hear the angle grinder, is that we're very close to camp, and that's because Hosana has been hanging around very close to camp. Let's go a little bit closer to him. I'm gonna try and spend some time with this special cat. Oops! Come on, Wendy! There we go, that's my girl!

Yeah, Amy, yes it is a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Wendy would disagree with you; that is the vehicle I'm driving. She has stalled. Luckily we're on a hill; as long as Hosana moves sometime during the day, we'll be able to put her out.

He's gently up towards the water, hopefully to get a better view. Hello, kitty, how are you? It's very nice to see you; it's heads up, which is—well, somewhat unusual for the last little while. He spent a lot of time with his head down. If you are perhaps a new viewer, this is Hosana, the male leopard aged two and a half. He disappeared about three or four months ago; he went off searching for his independence. Having to do that with my lipids, he's wandered back here to his sort of hometown, if you like, for a little while.

I don't think he's going to be here for very long because generally they aren't. Yes, K-6 is fast becoming that way. Isn't that? Hosana spends an inordinate amount of time with this pan. I'd be very happy to call this "Hosana's pan." Now just keep your head up, boy.

There were some Nyala here; I tried to get them and him in the same picture, but they saw him and made their barking noises and then wandered off. They decided they didn't want to be around him any longer. I'm going to spend an extended period with Hosana today, see what he gets up to. He's had a very successful time at this pan. He's killed a duiker; he's killed an Impala somewhere around here as well. He stashed them both in the same tree, giving us some magnificent pictures of him in his tree.

He attracted his father; his father then, well, either stole or asked him for and was granted a piece of his supper. She looks very content indeed. Oh yes, you just go back in there. Hmm, are you tired, poor little fellow? Oh, shame! And 'doze,' as they say—enough for 'cats,' which means sleep. I can't promise you a great deal of action from Hosana this afternoon. I might not be with him more afternoon, but we're going to spend quite a lot of time with him; then luck will have three cats or three cat sightings here before the day is up.

As I say, Ralph is trying to find some lions, and it would have been magnificent if we had them too. We might go and help him out in the vehicle if he finds them on foot. And Sydney is heading towards the magical, magical Tandi and her baby.

Alrighty, let's head across to Ralphy and find out how far he's got towards the unknown pride from earlier.

Well, good afternoon everybody, and welcome aboard once again with the bush walk and the sunset safari. My name is Ralph Kirsten; on the camera you've got Craig today. How's it, Craig? Okay, Batman! And hello once again to all of you. Now please don't forget to send us your questions and your comments on the hashtag #SafariLIVE on Twitter and on the YouTube live chat because we'd love to know what you want to know about the African bush.

Now we're coming to you live from the Juma Traverse in the greater Kruger National Park of Africa, and I'm heading towards the Uncohuma pride, where those of the lion pride that was spotted this morning right up in our eastern corner. So we're going to be heading in that direction because I went after the sunrise safari and I tried to catch up with him again, but it seemed like they might have moved.

So we're just going to go and check if we can't find the tracks and just find him a little bit again this afternoon. With this kind of heat to be having, it's rather warm. It's warmed up from the last few days, so I think there's every chance that these lions will be lying up in the shade.

As lions do, a little bit more lethargic than leopards might be when it gets warm like this, and with there being a nice big group of them, it should be quite easy for us to find their tracks. So that's exactly what we're going to be looking for. And Rickson, game scout, he's scouting out as per usual and trying to get these little tracks now.

Joe, thanks for your question; I hear that the Birmingham's they've hit it quite a lot further south down towards Londolozi or into the area a little bit further south in the Sabi Sands. So it doesn't seem like they're anywhere in the area. It looks like the Avoca males have now every opportunity to really stake their claim as the territorial males of the area.

And with the Uncohuma cubs—there were three tiny little balls of fluff that we received news of that have been killed by hyenas. So as sad as that is a mark, they still now have every chance that the Avoca males are going to relax with the young Uncohuma pride and possibly mate with them and then have their own cubs.

So it actually might be better for the Uncohuma's in the long run because they're not going to be having the space like they have been having when they killed it. But Valya near Vodka's coming in and chasing them off and really splitting them up; and then we had those two youngsters that were literally roaming the property looking for their family for a few days.

So that might all calm down if the Avocas actually cover some of these females and get some cubs of their own. So it's not such a bad thing in the long run, as I say, with those double cubs having been killed. So sometimes that's the way the wild works—a little bit of a sacrifice for some can make things a little bit better. Now we're going to get hot on the trail, and while we're doing that, I'm going to hit you back to James who is elated.

Well, look, he's changed direction, so we too have changed direction here. What a gorgeous winter's afternoon! I will tell you, unfortunately, that Wendy is having inordinate amounts of trouble there; her right front tire's gone flat. She's struggling to start, so I'm not sure how long we're going to be exactly where we are, but hopefully, you know, Sydney will get going soon. He's having some troubles as well back at camp; it all seems to happen at once.

Well, Hosana is enjoying very much being out on a Sunday afternoon. Lexy, we don't know where Tengana's gone. Tristan heard him calling at about 10 o'clock last night, what a long way south of where we are now. So he's probably just followed the Umrah might see drainage— the Oliphants river down towards the southern parts of Juma. He probably got tired halfway and went to sleep for an extended period; he likes to do that, so he's probably not too far away actually!

But see, it's very tired now, much smaller than his father. His father's a heavyset fellow at the moment; he's been really doing well off the scraps of others. I'm going to ask you to swing the camera around, Zenzo, because what we have there is a fairly rare event. You see there down through that gap; there's the Nyala bull and a Nyala cow.

It's not a rare event—it's an event we don't often see! It looked like they may have been about to get it on, as it were. Now of course they're on screen, and so their bit nervous and trying, but normally you don't see it—or you very seldom see it with the antelope because they're a very quick event of mating is what I'm talking about here and can some of you would be confused? I doubt you will, but that is what I'm on about!

Well, Hosana is pretty well hidden where he is, and if something does come down to have a drink on this warmish afternoon, you can rest assured that he is going to hide from them and then try to jump on them as they have a quiet Sunday drink, which is, I think, an unfortunate thing to experience on a Sunday afternoon.

Jennifer, you say it looks exactly like Tengana. Well, if you say so, I personally do not; I cannot see the resemblance between leopards that—oh well, that's not true actually! I'm not very good at discerning one leopard from the other, but I perfectly accept that many people are, and I've certainly seen evidence of it. So if you say it looks like Tengana, I take your word for it.

Am I ever going to ask you if you have ever described Tengana as beautiful? And I'm going to ask you if you have ever described a leopard as ugly because I suspect you have not. I think they're all pretty magnificent! I made the mistake of calling a leopard pug-faced once, and I was soundly chastised by various members of the Twitterverse, but they are, of course, all beautiful!

Something has set a whole lot of birds to flight—is there a raptor above us, perhaps? No, I don't see a raptor—yeah, there was not Hosana; he didn't move at all! There is the Sunday sky—not bad for winter, is it? It gets about 27 degrees out here, which is roughly 79 or 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

Hmm, that's an interesting one, Kosta. Could Tengana be tolerating Hosana because he provides food? No, I don't think so! I think he's tolerating him simply because he's his son, and I don't know how to explain that better you know. It's it’s not like he's not behaving in a completely under a toriel manner. I believe he was sent-marking the other day, although whether he was sent-marking actually for real or just sort of relieving himself is unclear.

So I'm not really sure, but I don't think that makes a huge difference. I think if he started to sort of mate with some of the females in this area, which would have to be his will, well his sister basically—sister and his, oh gosh! It's difficult to figure it out. Tandi is his sister and therefore Kochava is his aunt—well, his cousin, no, his niece. It would have to be his niece or his sister—which, from her deal, was impossible for it to work with the other cats, but isn't ideal now, you know?

I think he started to try and mate, then maybe Tengana wouldn't be quite so tolerant of him, but at the moment he is. He is tolerant, and you can see he just left him; he's gone off marking his territory. It hasn't felt the need to hang around here and make sure that he keeps an eye on Hosana; he's just left him!

Ah, marvelous! Sydney has managed to fix his technical difficulties; he is out on drive. I'm not going to get in trying to fix mine. A very, very good afternoon to you all! My name is Sydney, and welcome to the beginning of the game drive. I am NOT suffering alone this afternoon; I've got Fig as my camera operator. Our plan for this afternoon is quite very much easy. Earlier on, there have been quite a lot of different cat sightings, and I have decided this afternoon to go and see Tandi and Kolamba.

I will be going towards the central side of the game reserve, where I'm hoping to have a very good sighting! And for your questions and comments, you can follow us on Twitter, hashtag #SafariLIVE, and also on YouTube chat stream without any waste of time. I am now going to head towards the central area of the game reserve in order to see if we can find Tandi and Kolumba.

Sophia, the lions and leopards, if you can check. The lions are very much more active in the mornings, and their tracks are way much bigger than the leopard tracks. Leopards during the day, yes, they're nocturnal, but you will see them doing some of the activities during the day, with their tracks much smaller compared to the Lion tracks, and lions—they're quite easy to track than the lepers!

Leopards can be so very shy, and they can easily come off late. So lions are easier to track them. Yes, they can come off late, through the grasses, but they look much bigger, and they normally walk in big prides. So I am very happy with this kind of weather this afternoon. As I can see, that's very sunny, and there's not too much cold, so the chances of animal activities are really high today.

So I will be approaching the central part of the game reserve coming from the eastern side. The game reserve is a little bit much more towards the Kruger National Park. Orson, I didn't copy your question very well. If you can repeat that question for me, the hippie, they don't really fight for the food because there's too much. Yes, it was consisted of different groups of animals which have got quite a lot of different preferences.

Some of these herbivores are bulk grazers, whereby when it comes to feeding, they are not selective; they just feed on grass and leaves, whereas some only eat leaves, and some only eat grass. So this hippie was there; he was, but they fall into different categories. So now I will be driving down. Let's see if my colleagues on the other side are having something already.

Well, we haven't found the Uncohuma just yet, everybody; we're still making ground. Obviously on foot, we don't move as fast as we are with the vehicles. But looking at this little track that we found while we are—just giving you a nice scale of how big it is—and let's just have a check on exactly the length of it as well with my trusty live lemma in there. So we're looking at, what is that? It's about--looking at about five inches. What is that scale there? Centimeters? We're looking at about eight centimeters, between seven and eight centimeters there on this check.

What you can also notice is on each tile where we can see two flat tiles there. In each tile, very, very flat-footed or flat-tiled, if I can say that, and also it looks like it's direct registered once again. And down the middle, you can see a very, very faint line.

So these tiles are very tightly pressed up against one another, and so it does make quite a characteristic track. Now Rhonda, you say that's shaped like a heart? It is indeed! But, yeah, just a little bit on the outside there you can see where the front foot is actually pressed, and then the back foot having come and stepped right on the inside of it. So that gives us a good indication that it is one of the trailer fiends or the spiral-horned antelope, and when we're looking at this kind of size, we would be thinking between Nyala and Kudus, so that would be what we're going for there.

And another thing that we do want to just have a look at is where is the widest part of the track? This one coming up a little bit towards the back, so about three-quarters of the way. The widest part being about there before it starts curling again on the inside. So the twin Nyala and Kudu, and I would have to definitely say that I think that this is more so than a female kudu check.

And because just of the way that it's so pressed, it's so tight between the toes like that, making that very clear little ridge there between the toes. But a nice characteristic track between Nyala and Kudu, very difficult to tell between them. Now just to look at a very clear-cut difference—it's nice hard substrate, yeah, so we just put the same live lemma in here.

We've got a check, but it's almost like we can only see the outside of it there, and it's very indicative of an Impala track. We said that they walk on the rims or on the edges of the toes there. So this is an Impala check, and they do not direct register; they're not one of the tackler fiends. So quite easy to distinguish an Impala track as well.

Now there's also something— a little check over here. Now Robin, you say carrying a little lemma is genius? Well, I never leave home without it, Robin! So, yes, I would say it's genius, but it almost goes without saying for me nowadays, and I never leave home, as I say, with artists. Now looking at this little track, I left; they actually get something smaller because my stick is almost too big.

Here we can see a little back pad over there, and then we've got a toe there, another one there, another one there, and another one there. And on this back pad here we can see that it's slightly lopsided like that, and possibly even something over there as well. This is that of a little dwarf mongoose, so very, very nice!

And there's lots of little tracks along here; you just have to look very closely. And so from our eyes down on the ground, let's put your eyes up into the trees. Quite a very beautiful small animal! This critter is busy trying to have a little bit of a diet; it's right on top of the rusted bush willow.

So the squirrels are one of the very clever small mammals. They don't hibernate during the winter season simply because they can be able to collect quite a lot of food. They catch and they also take quite a lot of nuts, and they hide them somewhere here in between the trees and also on the ground. This animal has got a very interesting anti-theft precaution, whereby they dig quite a lot of false holes just to mislead their own Lucas when they are hiding. And they bury and re-buried their food every time—they've got good memory because if they're going to bury something by a prayer, this year, in order to use it now during the winter season, you can see that they've got to have a good memory.

So they also secrete some of the scent in order to remember where they are hiding their food. So I've got to take some questions now from the FC; I didn't copy nicely the name of the viewer who just asked me now a question about my favorite sightings since I have joined the wild.

FT Murphy, my favorite sighting since I've joined Juma, well, definitely the day I saw the lions together with Tandi chasing each other right by Central Road in the middle of the game reserve. That has been my best sighting because that day, it was punctuated with cats chasing each other, lions chasing leopards, three leopards also appeared. Two leopards were also fighting; it was very much interesting to see those kinds of activities, and I never saw it happening before.

It's only here in Douma where I got the chance. Yeah, so now the squirrel just got disappeared, and I will be now heading to Central and see what is happening there. And thank you very much Murphy for such a lovely question; that sighting is good memories to me.

Yeah, so now I will be heading towards the eastern side of the game reserve and see what we can find. Tandi is quite a little bit far away from where I am at this stage, so maybe before we get there, we might come across other interesting things on the road. I haven't seen yet any of the big animals here; maybe animals are now down at the waterhole.

Definitely, the African wild cats, the size of the track is quite very small. But if you look at it nicely, it does resemble the shape of the big cats. It has got the three antelope—the three loops as well, similar to the big cats. So it's not that very big, and it does confuse when thinking about animals such as the vets, so it means if I find it, I've got to look very carefully before I come up with a judgment—not even an Impala here!

So it's quite hot today, and then animals in order to avoid this kind of temperature, they go and find some nice shade and choose some card, and some of them they have got to go to the waterhole. Since I've started, I haven't seen any of the antelopes! Yeah, so now when I'm going towards Tandi, let's hear if Ralph, my colleague on the other side, got something already.

Everyone, we've just managed to find something very exciting! Now what I want you to do is just look through those branches of the—you're going to see the animal that we have been tracking just a little bit from this morning and just a little bit further into the quarry's but not too far.

And this looks like a young male; just what she looks like—bit of a sneeze there! Yep, another one. How is that? Walking lions on foot, and I can tell you what—there's another one up too in the background as well just gone off and will lay in the shade. Maybe it's getting a bit hot, but I can tell you what!

I can tell you what—it's one of the most amazing things to walk lions on foot, and it's normally a little bit of an anti-climax, actually, because I can tell you, if I were to go towards these lions, they'd probably just get up and run away from us. So it's not that we're terribly concerned to be in such close proximity; you can see the more the concern coming from the lions watching us.

So we've got nice brush between us and them—nothing for either of us to worry about, and we'd always just watch their body language in terms of how relaxed they are. If they had a nice big—would you own as well?

Now, Grateful Bed, you say I must walk softly and carry a big stick? I've got a little stick with me, and I will walk softly as well! But we've been doing this for years; it's absolutely fast, and I think I still love it. I still enjoy it every single time I do it, and it just makes me proud to be African and just to be with these guys on foot.

Oh, welcome! Welcome to all the viewers! Now we are coming to you live from the Juma Traverse in the greater Kruger National Park of South Africa. You're watching Safari Live! My name is Ralph Kirsten, and we've just walked in on a pride of lions on foot, and you can see they are relatively relaxed at the moment, just carrying on with their business.

And well, we've come in with the sun over our shoulders with the wind and how into our face! And now you can see that the lions obviously are just moving a little bit away from us. But it might also be as a result of the sun being quite warm today; you see it's not running away, so it's not like he's terribly concerned about us being here.

Look, he's just going to be joining the rest of the pride, going and lying down in the shade. This being the Kuruma pride, they also will probably be about five females or maybe six youngsters now.

Martina, you say hello, mama lions! I'm just going a little bit closer. That will keep this brush between us and them, just to make sure that they are nice and comfortable and also that we have a bit of a safe sign as well. So we won't be going any further than this point here because we've got lovely ground between us and them, and we obviously don't want to disturb them.

And we obviously don't want to put ourselves in danger either. Now, Patrick from Toronto—welcome, welcome! I hope that you can enjoy with us a little bit of a feeling of Africa! That really makes me proud to be South African and African at large, because well, where else could you walk with lions on foot? Totally wild, totally free—these lions are really in their natural habitat!

It's quite difficult through there into the brush to see them very clearly now, but it's not as easy to get in close proximity with lions on foot as it might be with the vehicle; they are a lot more relaxed with the vehicle. Now, Michelle, you're asking if you think that this—a yes, Michelle! They not only see us today; they hear me now talking as well! You can see some of their tails flicking away.

But this is absolutely no sort of aggressive signs towards us. Actually, stressful couple, little eyes just watching us. But we've got the wind in our face and the sun over our shoulder, so now obviously struggling a little bit to see us in fine detail.

But they definitely know that we're here, but with us keeping this bit of brush and very clear vegetation between us and them. If we had to break this, then they might get up and run away—either that or they could charge us! So it would normally be a fight or flight, but mostly flight.

Carolyn, you said that we're very lucky? Absolutely, I agree with you! And well, I think that every day when I'm out here, walking amongst elephants and lions and leopards and buffalo, it is absolutely fascinating. Now, there were some buffalo around earlier that it seems like these Kuruma's were following, but they seem to have moved off now.

Prashant, you're asking why we call them the king of the jungle when they actually live in the savanna and the bush? Well, I think they just use jungle as a term, like we do here in South Africa as a term before the wilderness. So I would say that it's just the king of the wilderness!

But also remember that lions used to be one of the most widely spread cats of all—they used to find them in Britain and in Asia and even in Russia! But they have all been killed in all of those places.

That's why it's the British lions, and they have that as a symbol for many different sporting teams, etc. So they used to be there, but they obviously now... Ryu say that the camouflage game is very strong, absolutely! Look at that; you do need to have a very trained eye, enabling you to see them, and it takes a lot of practice. And, well, if you keep on joining us here on Safari Live, you'll also get to practice with us.

So I'm just going to say goodbye to all the viewers on the different platforms, and please join us once again for another Safari Live!

Okay, so just welcome back to all the regular viewers. That was just a quick action broadcast—obviously very exciting for us just to come in here with these lions on foot! It's always special and always worth documenting, so if any of you want to send that little clip on over to your friends, you will find it on the Safari Live Facebook page!

And so nice to just send those little action broadcasts, as we say, but not too much action at the moment. Lots of sleeping, as lions do in the middle of the day. And I do believe that it's pretty much what they're going to be doing for the rest of the day.

Now at least James has got his vehicle fixed on up, so let's hear it! The team!

I've got my vehicle fixed, and I've got a little gear—the same repaired. We started the show now! Let us not become blasé about having a leopard lying on our doorstep; this is not something that is going to last forever! I don't know how long it's going to last.

I hope it's going to last for at least until the beginning of our TV show on the 27th of July. That's Friday evening next, for you lot in the United States, Nat Geo Wild, 11 o'clock Eastern Time PM. That is—there will be about 5:00 in the morning here in on Saturday, and then for the next five weeks after that, we will be doing a one-hour TV show from the Mara and from Juma! Very exciting! And we're hoping very much that that cat you can see there sleeping like a celebrity—he's going to be the celebrity of the show!

I don't know, Sharon; what's wrong with his right lip? Is he got an injury there? I'm afraid I haven't spent any time with him over the last few days. If he does have a cut or something on the top lip or bottom lip, it'll probably be from his father giving him a swat! Yeah, let's wait for him to stick his head out, but I don't know about any injury there.

Now distressingly, I'm not sure how distressing it is, but it sounds like Sydney's father scavenged—which possibly means that Andy has moved. I have got a very interesting sighting here—I have been led by the hyena! Hyena led me to a carcass, and as soon as the hyena got to the tree, a leopard stood up and come back to defend their food.

There is the hyena now moving toward this direction of the reserve, which is the western side, but just up there. So how I saw where the carcass is, it was very interesting because the hyena came closer, stopped, and he was sniffing from the air and was sniffing the air particles coming from the direction where the food is kept by the leopard.

You can see now we have Tandi there; she was not there when we got there. She came. As soon as the hyena got close to the tree—yeah, this is quite a beautiful sighting! I didn't see where the hyena could disappear to, but now I can see that Tandi is very much in the thick.

Yeah, I'm just going to try by all means and see if we can find Kolamba, so let me just try and pull a little bit much more to this side and see if we can have a better sighting. Yeah, from Giraffe Girl, that is true. Tandi is not a happy girl at this stage because she had to come and defend the carcass. I'm sure she was very relaxed; she was sleeping somewhere not very far away from the tree because she came very quickly.

But I can see the hyena is still in the area; it's also very relaxed, waiting to get his chance. So he's also lying down here, not very far away from where I am. You can see just the stomach breathing, you can see the movement there—the stomach is breathing. So that hyena didn't go very far; it's still waiting to get a chance.

Maybe this hyena is hungry as well? I'm not too sure if Tandi is with Kolamba nearby at this stage, but I will try by all means. And see if Kolamba is also around here because they seem to gather lions. Yes, they comment from Ivy that is very true!

Tandi is not going to allow anybody to take a chance when it comes to their food, especially when Tandi has Kolamba with her! You can see she's very much relaxed now, but the focus in her eyes is looking that direction! It's where that hyena is hiding at the moment.

So yes, that is true; the hyenas have just been all over the place trying to irritate and to try and get hold of all the food caught by this leopard! They are just on over Juma Game Reserve—get depending on this. The kind of case is fine, by all means! It's just that leopards are well much gifted! They are very skilled climbers, and they take their food up to a tree to avoid competition, which is a good thing!

Why I'm saying it's a good thing is because they don't hunt as a team! So they are very much solitary. So killing an animal for just one leopard is a big job! So they're gonna have to enjoy the reward if someone comes and takes the food afterward! To me, it's not nice, but that is how animals live.

Because they don't catch a lot, they depend on the other ones! That is how they live! Nature is like that; we might not see it as fair, but that is how it works! Look at that; so these cats can hear very well, and they can see very nicely!

I have got a question from Pauline. Pauline, since I have started now with this Game Drive, I haven't picked up any signal of the vultures flying around. I have been looking around here to try and get guidance from these natural factors, because when they say "kill," there's quite a lot of things that lead us.

If it was not the hyena, it was gonna be very difficult for me as well to see where the kill is, but the best at this stage is very quiet. Nothing is happening, no vultures, and no other big birds such as Bataillons!

I have seen the vultures and Bataillons in the past few days leading us to where the carcasses are, but today it's just very quiet! I can see Tandi is growing! That is very beautiful!

So much, I'm very worried because I cannot see Kolamba, and they have been seen together earlier, so maybe the little one is hiding somewhere nearby—yeah, let's now see if James has got Hosana on the other side yet!

Well, James does! Hosana has struggled to lose her son; even I would struggle to lose Hosana at this point, given how flat a cat he is! He has not moved one muscle, nor has he lost an inch. Cousin here, we might be moving his diaphragm very slowly; up and down, so he can breathe.

The light is slowly softening on this beautiful Sunday afternoon, and in case you're wondering, we're off two other game drive vehicles in the sighting! Oh, I must just call this in—sorry! I'm just going to quickly call in the Tandi sighting there, since Tandi is on-site, same place as this morning—the Lidwood Reed Junction, Drakensberg—there we go!

I didn't hear anyone else calling it in, so that's important. But our cat here is doing absolutely nothing! Gary out, I don't know—am I supposed perhaps if he produces offspring one day, they may have elements of his character?

Certainly! Leopards do seem to be genetically very different from birth from a personality point of view. They are, well, they seem to be born with a personality in much the same way as we are! And I'll have no doubt that experience modifies and molds that personality, and they definitely do seem to be different from the very beginning.

It's not a sort of blank slate, as it were! So I suspect there must be a genetic component of that attached to, you know, the cat, depending on what they take from their mothers or fathers!

I really get it at the deputies. Did they pin him in? Because I'm thinking to myself—do I know people who are angry with angry parents? You know, short-tempered people with short-tempered parents!

Actually just thinking of my brother—well, what? Short-tempered? Certainly there's a tendency to grumpiness! This is the failure! Am innocent of my father—I, of course, am never grumpy!

So yes, I would say that if his personality remains as it is—remember that he's still young yet—but he's not territorial yet, and his personality may not always be quite as confiding!

But yeah, you may well find that he produces offspring that are quite friendly, and like his sister Tandi, who I find quite unfriendly. Magnificent! Don't get me wrong before you all roll your eyes and say, "How dare he say that about our Queen?"

I do think she's magnificent, but I don't think she's the friendliest cat in the world! Yeah, Marguerite said what you'll find is that none of these animals sleep anything like as soundly as we sleep!

What happens is that they do! But if there's a cracking branch next to him or there's an unusual gust of wind or the snort of some potential prey animal, he will deftly hear it.

And they cannot afford to sleep soundly like we do, all of the sounds are taken here right now—our familiar terms! So it's not gonna worry about those. I started the car; he knows what that means! If I speak loudly, he knows what that means.

So the only thing that's going to make him wake up would be unfamiliar or potentially threatening sounds! Or potentially advantageous arts, like the snort of an Impala or the footfall of a hoofed animal, so that is possible!

The only other mammals that I've seen sleeping as soundly as human beings are lions, because they have so little to fear. They will sleep like the dead—ears not twitching! And I walked past lions there inadvertently who have not woken up as I've gone past them!

They probably don't sleep quite as hard as human beings, but they certainly do sleep well. I don't think they hear nearly as much as a leopard doesn...sleep for example, a cheetah! You seldom see sleeping restfully! Always lifting the head, looking around, closing the eyes a little bit, lifting the head, looking around!

It must be absolutely exhausting! I cannot believe this was Ralph Kirsten, who is still with his pride into the shade and sitting in the quarry thickets with these lions—probably between 30 and 40 meters away from us now!

Let's just watch him, and it's also quite a few little warthogs running around all over the place, so who knows? We might even sit out with him, and who knows, we might have a little bit of a hunt! Wow!

How lucky would that be? But I'm not gonna jinx it; he's just gonna sit and enjoy being in the company of lions! Absolutely fantastic! What more could you ask for? They are indeed quite curious about us, Margarita!

Yeah, I don't think that these lions would particularly take too much interest in us! You know, in the 20 years that I have been actively working as a professional in the field of water and done this many times with lions, you generally find that they like—you know, they can go from curious to being a little bit nervous to either getting a little bit agitated that you're around!

But I've never had the sense that in any way, things that are any kind of food for them! So it's never a worry in the sense of—they can eat us! The worry is always, if you go near lions with little cubs or lions on a kill, or lions that are making noise!

Wow, look at that! It must have gone very cool! So those are the three major things that you want to avoid—lions with cubs, behinds, and a kill! And mating lions!

And I've walked in on all three of those kinds of lions, and just they're a very light, large growl! Sometimes very short bursts of speed; they're not trying to get rid of you, that's all! So, they give you those warning signs!

But these lions, at the moment, they are very relaxed! I think a couple of these youngsters are a little bit curious about us, but they do keep their eye on us! And it's more so them being more cautious of us! Now, Carol, normally in this pride, I think it's 11; I think it's five females with six youngsters—and it's a mix of females and males in May! But I haven't seen if they're all together!

Yeah, I would assume so, so they scattered around a little bit in that in the brush! So we do need to just keep our eyes open, and we wouldn't be flanked by them! As I say, it's not for them to be hunting us.

They're more scared of us, which is always important as humans. We like to keep an also fear and natural fear of us because that's pretty much our only real security against them!

It's when these animals get habituated or used to people that they become more dangerous because you can get closer to them without them giving you a warning! And then, obviously your reaction time is less because you're closer to them, and it's also that they're gonna be much quicker upon you if they decide that they don't want you around anymore!

So the rule is, as I said earlier, always an animal's defense is going to be flight! And generally, I'll avoid conflict, and so they will run away using the fort! But, um, sometimes they can, depending on the situation, decide to fight!

So you just watch the body language, but with them yawning and now even looking like they might go back to sleep, they are definitely relaxed in our proximity to them! So I'm gonna stay here because it's absolutely wonderful to be in the presence of lions, even though they're relaxed!

Maybe there will be some hunting a little bit later, but it seems like Sydney's leopard is on the move! I think things are happening here on my side; we just had a little bit of noise coming from this direction, and Kolamba picked up the noise and started running away all the way up to this side, and Tandi woke up and decided to follow Kolamba.

So we are not too sure what these two are up to at the moment. Tandi as well is not too sure what he sees, that Kolamba is trying to respond to. But we hear the noise—can see Kolamba? There's a question from Danny about the leopards—I am not too sure specifically of the age, but these are playing activities.

A lot is taking place when they are up to 18 months; from 18 months is when they learn a lot of things, including hunting activities! So it's one of those animals that are getting all the knowledge from playing—you can see that now is playing!

I'm sure it's looking for some insects there! It means it was not anything serious! Jeff Smith would thank you very much for such a command! Yes, we all got cats at the moment! It's quite a very big achievement!

Look at that! If you look at the tip of that tail, it's white! That white color you are seeing there is used mostly by the adults when they are calling the babies. The tail of this animal can tell you the mood!

See, they use these tails for communication—alert! And the tip of the tail has got white, where the adults, they raise the fluffy! It has to show the little one we are going to decide!

You can easily read the mood of an animal from the tail! Listen to that—quite a beautiful kids! I'm not too sure if at this stage Kolamba knows that detail can serve a big purpose.

Nancy Lahaina, we left it right about 10-15 meters away from the tree where the carcass is held, so the hyena is still there. I'm sure now the hyena must be up sniffing, looking in the carcass.

It's a pity the hyenas cannot be able to climb up there. It's quite a very straight tree, no broken branches to support the hyena to get hold of the food! You can see they can easily become flinched!

It's difficult to see when it's not moving behind us! Ashley, the leopards! As soon as they get to 22 months, from 22 months on, when anything can happen, because that is when they're starting to mature. And once they get mature, that is when they start to demarcate territories and start now to establish their own families.

So the leopards—they can be together with the family between two to three years. That is where they're starting to leave those kinds of families!

Interesting to see Kolamba just playing, going over these broken trees! Ah, I can see where the hyena is, but I'm sure the hyena is somewhere not very far, giving some protection in case if anything can happen to Kolamba. Cats can be very protective!

A child of the universe! I didn't get the question very nicely! If the FC can give me that question again!

So if the question is about growing—the leopards can grow, and the way the fully grown ones can weigh up to 90 kilograms. Salamba has got a long way to grow; she is still very much young!

So let me see if I can reposition myself here so that we can have a better sighting! Yes, I'm just gonna reverse now so that I can give my camera operator, Fergas, an opportunity to give you a better sighting.

So now what I am reversing? Maybe we can see what other colleagues are having on the other side! I think James has got something interesting!

I have got the crested babbler! Look at him—is he not magnifique? A beautiful bird of scruffiness and beautiful colors! We've left for Hosana now just briefly; we'll go back to him at some stage. He is, of course, fast asleep!

And that bird is just too magnificent for words! He's got his little Mohawk up for Sunday! He's very pleased to be safe where he is! He’s very regal! He's trying, you know what—he's attempting to look regal!

I'm not full that a crested babbler could ever look particularly regal. They're just a little scruffy! Yes, Ali! I have found Tristan's angry bird! That is correct! My Angry Bird is the Bard Outlet, which looks very serious and very angry all the time, like the chicken hawk!

It's interesting; from time to time, my phone seems to think that I'm asking it a question! Shut up! I'm not asking you a question. Between two peeps, I'm sorry! I don't understand what you said!

Then the other thing that we have over here, other than the beautiful bird, is a somewhat macabre scene over there! Therefore there are fun little birds indeed—they're one of my favorites! Again, they remind me of sort of the touch of the wilderness that was allowed by the gardens that we used to have in Johannesburg, the big city where I grew up!

There is the carcass! There was so much angst about both between father and son, and of course it attracted the hyenas for a long time. They've dropped it into place, but they will not be able to retrieve it!

It's on some very thin twigs, and there's not much left, but that Impala are dead! The thing is going to come down from there until the tree releases it! I don't think anything's gonna be able to get up there to get hold of it—except maybe a genette! It may be a genette that would get hold of—be quite fun to watch!

Hosana tried; they wouldn't! Anyway, that's a bit miserable! Let's carry on! Oh no, it's not! Unfortunately, the poor old biographer has been chased by a squirrel! Goodbye, squirrel! Just go back off to the east! To the leopards and her baby! It's very much interesting to see Kalamba taking over the responsibility of where to go and what to do!

These leopards were very much in rags! And Kolamba, was he not there? Kolamba decided to go, and since then, she's responsible! The mother is just following everywhere! The mother is just joining her on what she's doing! You can see that the cub is so very much interested in playing, and the mother is not interested!

But this gives Kolamba an opportunity to learn quite a lot of survival skills! When they're playing, they can be able to learn to survive in the jungle, so they can easily adapt to the environment! Look at that; this is so beautiful!

So I just want to see what is going to happen and what is the intention of Kolamba, because she is the responsible here! She's the one who decided to come this side! So I want to see what her thought is now; she is taking the orders; she is following the mother now!

Tandi, you can see she is not going down there! Tandi is somewhere ahead of her! Look at that; you can see she's hazel! I did check; I didn't get the question nicely! I hear this about the sounds! I'm not too sure, Hazel, when it comes to the number of sounds that cats can be able to analyze at a time!

So that one, I have got to investigate and check how they do it! But what I know is that the cats can easily analyze, and they can hear very well; they can even see very well now! They are hiding; you can see they are getting very much camouflaged!

So let me just pull forward and see if we can have a good sighting! Oh, there's someone hiding somewhere! Somewhere! Oh, Nadia Paula, nothing is happening at the moment, because here it seems like it's all about playing! Kolamba just wants to have a little bit of some exercise, and I can see the mother looks very tired!

Not much interested in playing today, so it is very much quiet here! Not no bears, nothing, no small animals! So they are not hunting; they are just playing! So you can see there now; Kolamba is back again, moving towards that side!

You can see that Kolamba is very much interested in something! It's coming back again! Robin, that is very true! Their senses are very much sharp! Cats, they are well gifted when it comes to their senses! Look at that! That is cute!

It's looking at this side as you can hear someone approaching! You can see the ears are moving every time! So I can see now that she is very much camouflaged! Look at that; she's trying to hide away! From trying to hide away from a little bit of noise!

So I can see it now moving back to the bushes—moving back to the bush safari! South, the leopards! I'm not sure if the tongue comes very rough, but if we can check the females, there's something very interesting about the tongue they are doing to the cubs!

You will see, after birth, these females—they lick their little ones, and they always keep licking them when they're still very young! They do that for a reason! When they're licking the little ones, it's when they're helping for the blood circulation and also activate the skeletal organs!

The saliva of the mother also gives the little one a lot of vitamin D! So now God disappeared! So they are now all moving back to the thick bushes! Yeah, now let's see if maybe James, my colleague, on the other side, got something!

I have! The traffic jam is caused by an Impala! Look! It's not moving—it's a very full stomach! Well, that's not a particularly unusual sighting!

So they will get things in the car like we are, so let's see how far we can extend this host to the traffic jam! What other small colours, then?

I'd love to see what else comes around for the big cats! It could be glorious to see! And Tandi's kin—ah! What an evening it would be! Wouldn't mind having a big drink! I am feeling a little thirsty!

This is quite delightful! Thank you! I'm glad to wish everyone well! And a warm thank you to all! Catch you around! Bye now!