Safari Live - Day 110 | National Geographic

48m read

·Nov 11, 2024

Generally, with me today is Ferg, and we are fighting and braving the African weather just to be able to go and find some animals.

Now, if you've got any comments or any questions, please send them through using the hashtags #WildEarth or use the YouTube chat. We are not too sure where we're headed; we want to go perhaps see the last area where the tracks were in this morning for a pack of wild dogs.

We perhaps, by any miracle, they've come back, and I think that's our plan for the afternoon. Other than that, perhaps we'll head later on to see good old Boto in Ghana, the male leopard. Hopefully, he will be roughly in the same area where we saw him this morning, and we will be able to share some time with him.

Now, I'm hoping that'll be the case, and other than that, like I say, just braving the wind. We were scheduled to do a walk this afternoon, but the windy conditions often make it very dangerous, so we've decided against it just because of our general safety.

Now, as you can see, the wind is all around us. If you look at all the grass, you can see how everything's moving; all the trees, all the branches. Now, the weather has been quite puzzling, and we had this massive storm predicted for today, lots and lots of rain. But as the day has gone through, we still haven't had any drops, which is a good and a bad thing.

So, I wonder if perhaps later on during this afternoon we're gonna get all that rain. Really interesting to see, although you're ready for the rain! Ferg and I, we've got all our rain gear, so we're not scared. We will brave the weather, as well as the impala. I hope they were being clever, and we just went past one breeding herd, and they were all tucked away in the bushes, all standing together, trying to seek or find some shelter from all this wind and the possible gloomy weather ahead.

Now, there is a blue sky to our right, so towards the east, so I am hoping that the beautiful blue skies are gonna carry us with for the rest of the afternoon. I think we are actually going to start driving onto the blue skies. That sounds like a wonderful plan for the afternoon. We'll just pretend and leave the dark skies ahead of us behind us, so that way we won't even see them!

Right, seems like Tristan is looking up at some tracks, so let's head back to him and find out what he's after.

I am looking at tracks. I'm looking at tracks of probably one of the biggest snake tracks that I've seen since I've been at Juma. This is seriously large! As you can see, it's kind of twisting its way. I don't know what the word would be, sort of going from side to side across the road. You can see the big mounds of sand being pushed away from the backside and going... so the snake was moving towards us, with the sand being pushed away from us a little bit.

What I wanted to show you is just how thick this snake track actually is. It looks about the size of my forearm. So, where's a good clear one here, VM? Let's do this side. So if I have to put my forearm inside there, there we go, it fits just right. So my form would fit inside of that section right there, which is... well, there we go, that's how wide that snake is. That gives you an idea of how thick the snake is and how big it is.

Now, snakes that get this thick are very few and far between. There's only probably three candidates that we could take for this: one would be a puff adder, the other one would be a python of some size - I mean that wouldn't be the biggest python but it would be a python - or an incredibly large black mamba would be the other option.

But, given the small gait of the twist and turn, it probably in all likelihood is a very big puff adder. Puff adders get a wide, wide, wide body and that small kind of gait like that would be a short snake but very wide. But still amazing to see!

Now, it's gone towards a little section here behind me, that's fallen over trees and stumps, and these tracks are actually funny enough on top of our vehicle tracks we came down just now, which was not long ago, maybe about 45 minutes ago. So, I want to just check back here and see maybe we get lucky and we can actually find the snake and track it down.

Probably went in somewhere here; lots of little snake hidey holes here, this little termite mound that it could have gone in. So, Captain Awesome, you say please go look for the snake? Well, I mean, we can't try and track it down. Of course, it's going to go to a certain point and I think it's probably going to hide away.

If it's something like a python, then they go underground quite a lot so they'll find a termite mound and hide out. Something like a mamba is going to be very quick and move off up into the trees, and gonna be quite tough to find. Puff adder is probably our best bet in terms of actually finding the snake.

We would have to walk through this grass and look very carefully and try and see if I can spot it somewhere here, but they also will get in under things and get into a place where they can hide.

You might find, because of this temperature change that we're getting and this wind that's blowing, maybe the snake is on the move and just trying to find a better, more sheltered area in order to spend the day. But I'll try and follow the track now and just see where it goes and try to work out exactly the point that it disappears. If I can follow the track, I should be able to work it out and see if it's gone into the ground or something like that, if it's gone into a mound obviously I'm not going to be putting my hands down there or doing anything like that, and I don't really want to get a surprise from a mamba or a puff adder!

Thank you very much! They are not very pleasant snakes to deal with sometimes, so I'm going to try and just have a little look around, see if I can find it for you, and see if we can get some sort of semblance of view of the snake. The problem with that is that I'm going to need to track it, Kirsty, so I'm not going to be able to do that while I'm live, because I'll have to follow it via my feet, and that means that I'm not going to be able to really talk to you guys or see what you see.

So, I'll have to just try and reverse a little bit first and see what I can see with the camera. Ah, so we've got no signal with Byron and Ellie's got low signal, so you're all stuck with me. I don't have to do this with a vehicle! Let's see if I can manage this with a car and this should be quite interesting.

Okay, there's lots of little hidey holes here, VM. Did you see exactly where that crossed? I'm trying to look if I can see the snake track on the ground itself. We obviously don't want a situation... so it came along there and it came straight to... Oh, VM is saying just on my left-hand side."

I wonder if it didn't go into this little termite mound. Yeah, there's a little hole that is straight down. Let's have a little look. Oh, that's rather deep! There's a movie! A lot warmer than what it is!

This cold wind has come and so for a snake, going inside, that is like a little oven and keeps them nice and warm, and if you're a cold-blooded animal, warmth is what you want! That keeps you active, and able to then hunt and find food. So, I think that's where it's gone.

I just want to do a little loop around the bush on the left or the southern side and see if I can see anything. Obviously, I also don't want to drive over the snake of course; the snake will move, it's not going to sit still. But like I say, the track is very, very fresh. It's from 45 minutes ago, maybe even later; that's just the kind of timeframe we've got to work with.

So, I mean if that was a leopard track, there would be as fresh as you could possibly ask for and you would bet your bottom dollar you'd find it. But a snake is a completely different story. Looks like you might have some company if it's continued all the way through.

Hmm, going to be very tough to find it in this... I don't think unfortunately, we're gonna get those rides with that termite mound there. I think it's gone straight down inside.

I mean, there's no sign of its anywhere I can see in these trees when we should be able to spot it quite quickly if it was like that. So unfortunately, we're going to have to abandon that search for now and brave the winds of Juma.

Tenace in terms of tracking, hardest things to track? And it depends on what we're talking about, you know. You've got species like the big animals, which undoubtedly the hardest big animal to track is leopard, by far!

It's why when you do your tracking assessments, leopard is the one that you follow in order to become the highest level of tracker that you can be. So you have to find the footprint of a leopard and follow it and try and find that animal.

So in terms of big animals, I would say them. In terms of smaller animals, well, I mean there's a lot of different ones; there's things like wasps that collect mud or spiders or crickets scorpions, those minut little tracks. Because they don't really leave big sort of traces on ground other than them crossing roads or pathways, it's almost impossible to follow their tracks, so you'll find those very tough.

And what else is a difficult animal to track? Things that move very fast and very far! So while dogs are tough to track, hyenas is funny enough are not easy either, and that's also because of the amount of hyenas, archers often criss-crossing of tracks which makes it very difficult.

What else? That's about it. The rest of the big animals, elephants, buffalo, rhinos, they fairly simple in terms of the tracking process; they leave big signs for you and the nice thing with them is that they leave very large areas where they've fed. So it's not only their footprints, but it's also where they've fed and broken branches, pulled that grass, and those kind of things.

Now, VM has spotted a little surprise in the grass there! It's very well camouflaged, but there's a little scrub hare that's come out quite early enough, probably because the clouds are out. It's a bit dingy already this afternoon and so a perfect time for a scrub hare just to come out and nibble.

You can see the nocturnal and why they are so successful at being nocturnal! Look at the size of the eyes and the ears in relation to their body! Massive, massive, massive eyes, big ears that allow them to hear and see what's going on even in the dark of night, and so they can thrive in that way.

They've also got a very sensitive nose that accepts a lot of scents, but this poor animal will probably be as petrified as it looks! It looks very wide-eyed at the moment, and that's because of all of this wind.

It's not going to be an easy night for any of the prey animals. When it's windy like this, the predators have an absolute field day, and they can get stuck into all of these prey animals, and it makes it much harder for the prey animals to be sort of find out where the predators are - wind swirls, noise, and those kinds of things.

But did you see how well of camouflage is amazing that the camouflage that these little guys have! Good little scrub hare, stay safe, be careful! I saw a martial eagle flying around jail earlier, so scrub hares in danger from martial eagles! I must be a little careful of them.

Seems a little quieter today around; it doesn't seem to be all the ellies, and I'm not surprised elephants hate wind. So when the wind kicks up like this, they get into the thickets as quick as possible just to get out of the breeze that's blowing, and they try and kind of stay as sheltered and protected as possible.

So much surprise we're not seeing too many elephants around in the afternoon! We're gonna try to find Tiny! VM and I are going to try and find Tiny, that's what we are going to go into. So we're going to sit out into the eastern, southeast, and beyond and try and see if we can find this leopard that's been hiding.

And while we do that, it sounds as though Byron Tardi has got his speedos sorted out; he's tucked his shirt in, he's all sorted, and is now ready to finally join us for the afternoon's drive.

Oh, that's not very fair, Tristan! I do apologise for being late, but good afternoon! My name is Byron, and on camera with me is Senzo. What a good start! I found a big bull elephant!

Now this one looks rather large, so let's go have a look! It's very very windy, I know Tristan has been telling you about it, but wow! It's just how the weather's changed! Wind's actually blowing from that elephant to us!

Wow, this is a big bull! Good look at this male and see his reaction to the vehicle! Wonderful! This is a great start for me! You all know how much I enjoy spending time with these big elephants!

Seems very relaxed. I wonder if this isn't the elephant that's got a hole in his ear; can you see the other side? Oh no, on his right, yeah! Let's see...sorry, the other one, it's just not turning enough. I don't see a hole! Not so it's not the elephant that Tyler knows as Dara, but he is a large male enjoying the fruit at the moment!

So, many fruit care! I'm just gonna sit still and see if this male decides to come over closer to us; it could be, could be really entertaining! I'm sure I saw this male the other day because they've got a prominent hole in his left ear. Small little one, and he looks similar!

I'm not sure there are a lot of elephants that come through this area, Bobby! I'm not sure the largest elephant I've seen; I did see one or two really old bulls on Londolozi a few years ago passing through, and some samples as well.

One male, a really really old male that had these massive tusks, they almost touched the ground when he walked, and that was magnificent to see! So, I'm gonna sit quietly! Let's see what this male does. Is he gonna come closer?

I'm sure he's enjoying! There's a cool breeze at the moment; he's not showing any signs of aggression; seems very relaxed!

Alright, I must be honest; I really do feel privileged when we get to sit with these magnificent beasts. To think that this elephant is probably thirty, or maybe even closer to forty years old, it's quite a large male!

He's got some amazing stories growing up in the Greater Kruger! Now, my plan this afternoon is actually to go to those lions that are in the Inka Huma pride. I'd like to try to get there fairly soon because it is quite cool; maybe we're lucky, and they start moving around!

Apparently, Justin said they would look quite hungry this morning. Who knows? Perhaps as lions decide to get up and move! I think we'll leave this magnificent bull. Wonderful start for us!

I saw that snake track that Tristan was looking at; that was amazing! I wonder where that snake disappeared to because that was a really large track!

Okay, let's go! I'm gonna go and look for those lions! Let's go to Ellie, who is heading down towards Chitra!

We are, and we've taken a bit of a detour! We've decided to take the northern boundary then go down to the cut line just to see what's been happening around here, obviously all in the hopes of finding Tandi!

But perhaps somewhere to approach to an open marula tree. Although the chances of any leopard being on top of a marula tree today, I would say, are a little bit slim just because it is so windy!

So if it's very windy, and our vehicle level, I would imagine that on top of a marula it's even worse! So likely they're all gonna be doing the same thing as Dingaan was doing today, and they're gonna be down on the ground probably hidden, tucked away in the bushes while they stalk something or carry on with their afternoon nap!

Now, we haven't really seen all that much up here, oh you couldn't even pick up tracks for Tandi, so I think he's probably still somewhere in the bush!

Probably trying his luck, he was hunting yesterday, so I'm hoping he managed to get something! Perhaps a tiger or a see a mok! That would have still been a good meal for him!

Now there's always the hope that all of the leopards are gonna catch something bigger this afternoon, because it is very windy! It seems like this type of weather condition is normally favorable for the predators to catch something! So we'll see!

I think maybe tomorrow morning or the day after, that's when we'll really be able to see what's been happening after the night! Because that's when they're gonna have the premium advantage!

All of these beautiful! I think we're gonna go past Hippo Pool down, we might be coming down to the water and last we went there, which was hippos, which was there's our normal good old friend and the other one who I don't know who it is!

While we get to the buffodam though, we're gonna head back to, I believe is on the lion search!

I am indeed on the lion search! Let's see! I think they were around here some way! Let's keep our eyes peeled now!

Again, this weather is tricky because they may have already got up and started moving, which would make it a bit harder for us to find them! So I'm just gonna scan very very carefully as we go through here!

I think they were around here this morning! Have a look! Obviously, a lot of vehicles have been through already in the course of the day, so it would be difficult to find fresh tracks of them hitting the swim!

Maybe, maybe if they've started to move, we might find fresh tracks of them moving this afternoon! I don't think our birding is going to be very good this afternoon!

Generally, when it's very very windy like this, then the birding is not great! I'm trying to have a look and see if I can find any sign of these lions!

Anything yet, Senza? Right! I think Tristan mentioned something that they were near the old Hyena den, which is, which is right near the line!

There we go! There we go, fantastic! Let's have a quick look! See what the pride's up to! See a few heads up! Already this is great!

Well, that is wonderful! No?! Yep! Couple of heads up and then some lying down, not moving! Oh, wonderful! It looks like the whole pride is here!

I can just see some of them are behind some trees! I don't think you'll see them, but this is much better weather for potential movement compared to yesterday afternoon!

When we were sitting with that Sticks pride, the other pride of lions, remember how hot it was yesterday afternoon? And those lions hardly moved!

They moved out of the drainage line where they were all that dry riverbed and went and lay on the bank and just carried on sleeping! It was so hot!

I think I probably only got active much later! Now there's a very cool breeze, and also with it being so windy, these might be good conditions for these lions to hunt!

So possibly, if we're lucky, we're gonna be patient, we're gonna sit with these lions! Maybe we get them getting up, moving around, and possibly trying to hunt a bit later! But for now, they are resting!

So we're gonna sit tight! Let's go across to Ellie, who is apparently heading towards the dam!

Well, we are, and we have arrived unto Buffo's Back dam! And much to our surprise, there is not one hippo, but three of them!

Now, I'm not too sure which one is our good old friend that's normally in here! I am slightly tempted to say that it's not the one that is standing on top of the water just because I can't seem to remember that discoloration behind its ear!

Perhaps I just haven't noticed; perhaps this is the same one! But it's quite interesting to see that there are two more around here! What it could be is perhaps the two young bulls have come into this particular waterhole looking for a place to conquer a new area!

Maybe they've come all the way from Chitra Dam; maybe they've come from one of the dams and Buffo's Back! There are quite a few dams all around us, and it wouldn't be surprising if they started moving in this weather, just looking for new places!

Now, there has been a little bit of display involved! The big bull that's in here has been opening his mouth; there's been a little bit of defecating and spraying of their dung, which is normally all done on a show type of thing just to advertise that he's the big one and he is the owner of this particular area!

Now the little bird behind it is a little green, which obviously now has decided to try and fly again for the win, which is not working too well for it! And then we've got this three very puzzling... I'm hoping that they're gonna do something as well!

They were a little bit more active a few moments ago, so we're gonna stand still and just see if perhaps they get off to what they were doing earlier on!

Now, I wouldn't be surprised if these guys only arrived today because yesterday afternoon, I mean Byron and I were here and they were definitely only two of them in there!

So, there's a newcomer, and perhaps that's what's throwing a bit of a spanner in the works and altering them! First, lady, yes, if you do, made underwater, and their calves are also able to suckle underwater, which is quite interesting!

Of all the things that hippos can do! Yes, they do it underwater! I'm not too sure these guys are even interested in that, and I think that middle one, I want to say that he's a new one!

And he's a much older bull in comparison to the other two that we're seeing here! I'm assuming they are bulls because they don't have little ones attached to them! But I don't know!

Seems like new things are starting to change with this wind! Are you going to tell them who's the boss? Definitely approaching one of the youngsters!

A little bit of tension going on! They’re gone all the way down in the water! Okay, there's a bit of submissive behavior!

Normally when animals make themselves either look smaller or where they put their heads down, it's a way of admitting almost defeat in terms of territorial of hierarchy of dominance, as in a way of saying, "Fine! I know you’re the boss! Let’s be nice! You’re in command!"

So I think perhaps that's what we just witnessed! This one to the left, a little bit smaller than the one on the right, just putting his head down, and being like, "Fine, you are the boss! Just we're fine, don't worry about it!"

Now, I was hoping that he was gonna come out and open his mouth and show his big tusks to us, but it doesn't seem like he wants to do it just yet!

Fail? I'm not sure if hippos ever drown, perhaps if they cannot get to the surface and get air, and I'm pretty sure that would cause them to drown!

That's part of the reason also why they seem to prefer areas where the current is very slow, and normally if there's a pod with babies, they either prefer lakes or rocky areas, but you'll never find them in a river that's flowing too quickly.

Probably because if they cannot fight the current to try and get to the surface to get air, yes, they could potentially drown! In this particular case, I'm pretty sure that their standing or lying...

I don’t think Buffo Dam is that deep! I think it’s gotten in the surface! Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to have as much of their body exposed and out and about!

Seems like Tristan has found a creature that is perhaps just as pretty as a hippo, so let's head over and see!

Well, I think it's a fake contest between the two of them, so hippo versus warthog! Whether I feel like I would give hippo a cuter factor than a warthog is tough!

I suppose maybe baby warthogs aren’t too bad! But these guys, these big male warthogs are not the prettiest things in the world! You can see they've got big, big warts on them, which is how I know that they're both boys, as well as well you can see the male testes underneath the tail of the one facing away from us!

And the one on the far side is a little skittish! The one closest to us is not too bad; it doesn't worry about us too much, but you can see that one's keeping a beady eye on us and is covered in oxpeckers at the moment!

Both of them! And so these guys, I’m sure, are getting quite a bit of food off the oxpeckers, and off they go, the warthogs trotting away!

Everything's going to be a little bit like this! I think everything's gonna be a bit shy, a bit reclusive, when the wind is howling the way that it is this afternoon!

Most of our prey animals are going to be a little worried about some predators and therefore are gonna be a lot more shy than they normally are! So it'll be, I think, a day like this where we're gonna get brief views of our antelope species before they trot off and try and get away from where we are sitting in case there is a predator around!

Now we've just driven a sneaky little route along the Muwa Watty all the way from just south of the dam wall, and then down towards Tembi Dam just in the hope that we maybe pick up some sign of Tandi moving around in the Muwa Watty!

Maybe she's kind of moved back into the section and just keeping a low profile! But nothing! There's not a single track for a female leopard inside there that I picked up, and we looked quite nicely and we checked all the spots that she's used before with this cub!

There's no sign of her visiting any of those areas, so she's not this side! She must be further to the east!

And I think maybe she's spending more time on Torchwood than we actually realize at the moment! So I'm gonna just kind of check you out, Stan, quickly down to Tembi Downs, and then we're gonna really work the eastern side quite heavily for Tandi!

So drive around, and we'll try and listen out for some alarm calls!

I'm hoping, because it's overcast like this, that if she is around that she's an up-and-moving. Or maybe she's hoisted a kill or something if the conditions from last night was suitable for hunting!

I'm pretty sure Tandi will take advantage of it, so go and check around there and just have a little look and see what's going on! So that's the idea anyway!

Hopefully, it's all work out, and we will find her somewhere in this area with a little cub! It's been so long since I've seen that little cub! I'm pretty sure it must be about triple the size that it was previously!

It's going to be a bit of a shock, I think, when we see it! Hopefully, it's doing well and everything is okay and that it's managing to avoid the drama that is the male leopards of the northern Sabi Sands at the moment!

Good! Talking about sort of drama and things like that, well Byron is sitting with the Inka Huma pride, and I wonder if there'll be any drama this afternoon with the pride hunting!

Well, at the moment, it doesn't look like it! Now I'm trying to make a decision here; I think it might be worth us driving around a little bit and then coming back in about half an hour or so, because there hasn't been much movement!

And possibly these lines are still just trying to rest! You can see that that wound on that lion's foot. It's not looking bad, but still, that's not ideal!

Pralaya! Nice! That's... you know what? I actually don't know what caused that! We know that... what, I would assume it was from hunting something! I'm sure you can hear the wind at the moment, and it's quite strong!

I don't know if it's going to rain this afternoon, maybe this evening! Maybe this brings in the storm! Often if it is very windy, it could just be very windy and not rain, so I'm not sure!

But I was speaking about it earlier in bed where the leopards or when it rains, lions and leopards often do go out and hunt! It's a little bit easier for them to hide, mask, they smell the sound and everything!

So they can stalk up really close and hunt whatever it is they're looking for! I don't think... I think I'm going to leave these lines! I'm not gonna sit here now for too long!

But I will come back a little bit later! I just think for the moment they seem quite relaxed, very comfortable! Possibly just trying to conserve some more energy until a little bit later!

So let's drive around a bit; it'd be fun! I'm gonna check some clearings! You never know, you could get quite a bit of general game in that area now, especially because of all this wind!

But let's see what else we can find in the meantime! I think rather than sitting here with these sleeping lions for too long!

I hope all of you are having a wonderful weekend wherever you are in the world! As has been great, actually! It has been lovely, nice and relaxing today! As I said, I don't think our bird-watching will be very good today because of this wind, oh wow!

At least found something really small she wants to show you! We did! It's the smallest, cutest little scrub hare! Now it's about the size of the palm of my hand, I would just see!

You know, and I don't want to get too close because it might start running away, but I wonder why it is in the middle of the road!

You should go and hide in the bushes; a bird of prey is gonna find you! There we go! You have to carry on running! You didn't run far enough and you're still on the road! Beautiful little thing!

Now during the day, likely, they spend most of their day... they don't burrow like rabbits do, but rather they go into basic vegetation, especially underneath thorny trees or thorny bushes where it might be harder for any potential predator to get to them!

Why this little one has decided to be in the middle of the road in such a windy day when pretty much a lot of things can get it! I'm not too sure!

For all houses it got flush from where it was hiding due to something else walking around, but you are not in the safest place! Look at that fluffy little white tail running around! That was super cute! That was very special!

Paula! Yes! That was super tiny! That was very, very cute! It was about the size of my hand, I would say, without the ears, obviously, but about something like that!

So, so cute! Wonder where it's gone off to now! Now it's very thick in this general direction, where it ran! So I would assume that perhaps it's gone back to those bushes, back to where the yellow flowers are!

That's a raisin bush, so maybe it's hiding in there because it's quite bushy! Very complicated to get in! If I were a little scrub hare, that's probably where I would be hiding!

That was a very cool little find! It's amazing how sometimes the wind confuses them, and it brings out the rest, or some unexpected things onto the road!

I hope big that this will be the day where we also get a pangolin and a caracal! They can all be in the same sighting! I will not complain if they all are! But that was very sweet!

Now here's our mostly nocturnal animals, so the fact that we've seen it out and about during the day is also a bit of a strange thing!

And this little one has got to be careful if it wants to have a good chance at making it into adulthood because it might not be the best thing to be out in the middle of the road during the day!

Joy! Its mother is probably somewhere else! They develop quite quickly when they're little! So, very likely, its mother is just away doing its own thing, and they don't spend all their time with the little ones when they're tiny!

Obviously, the mother, when they're about this big, the mothers will come and suckle them a few times and then go and forage and so on!

But I think this one is probably already on its own, or if not on its own, at least if the mother has gone in a certain direction and that one has been left behind, as it would normally happen!

Perhaps another is not too far away hiding somewhere else, and this one was just being probably a naughty teenager and going out of the house before it should!

Monster party! I was in the wind! Now, what are these tracks over here? Seems like I'm imagining things because there are no trucks on the road! Maybe that was just wishful thinking!

Should have actually stopped in most of the tiny little scrubby here tracks, but I didn't think of it! And talking about tracks and little things, let's head back to Tristan, who I believe is looking for leopards!

I am indeed looking for a spotted cat somewhere! So far, no signs or any tracks that will indicate that there is a spotted cat around, but you can always live in hope!

Mostly just looking for anything else really, just kind of puttering about, and I believe Ellie was telling me today that she had tracks for a male lion somewhere around for the ones cut line, Rebecca's area, and that the Sticks have a random male lion lying with them!

Now I'm not sure who the male lion is or what his story is, but apparently the Sticks seem completely unfazed by this male lion's presence! And the other thing about it is that he apparently has got some really nasty fresh wounds that have been created!

Now, Ellie told me that when she saw the tracks this morning, that there were places where there were tracks for a male lion and blood drops on the road! And so I wonder if the Birmingham’s didn't get hold of him last night, and that there's another male lion that's still sitting somewhere on Juma!

So just kind of wanting to try and see if I can find those tracks and just see how much blood was on them! I think Ellie is sitting somewhere on Rebecca, so I might have missed him, but let's just see how we go!

I'm going down towards tree house, I know she said it was some tracks that came from Chios! Here they are, here they are, but they've been so driven over by vehicles, gonna be very difficult to make them out!

Pretty! These are tracks also for the Inka Huma pride, so it seems as though maybe this male bumped into another male, maybe even the Inka Huma pride, who knows what's happened to him!

But apparently he has got some nasty cuts and scrapes on him now! It's an interesting situation because I would have thought if it was a random male lion that the Sticks didn't know, given that they've got cubs and they're on a water-bike kill, that they would be less than friendly towards an intruding male, and that they would try and chase him away as quick as possible!

But he seems to be just sitting there, and they're not too concerned about it! He's just kind of sitting off to the side, and everything is okay!

So for a second I thought, I wonder if it's maybe not one of the Sticks male lions that they used to be around this area! When was it? It was back in... I can't even remember now, 2015 was it? 2014, 2015? They were the two young Sticks boys that were around, and I wonder if it's not one of them bears!

I think this is the same male lion that was seen on Kirkman's down in the south of the Sabi Sands recently! I actually have a photo of him somewhere, I'll try and find it!

A very pretty looking lion! So, I'll be a bit sad if he got beaten up because he looks really quite nice! Unfortunately though, this is the trials of being a young male lion, is that you've got many, many, many different coalitions to deal with!

And it would be the first lion that's really come into this area since the Birmingham's have taken over, and the first one that's probably been dealt with by the Birmingham's properly!

But if it's this guy, then it'll be interesting because this is the one that was seen down on Kirkman's! I'm not 100% sure if he's the same one that was seen with the Sticks last night!

But maybe some of you out there that have an idea of who this lion could be, we'll give you another photo of him! There it is! There we go! That's the photos of the guys from Kirkman's that they sent to us to try and ask!

Now Karen, you say that it could be the ginger Matimba that could be with the Sticks! Interesting! I'm not 100% sure! Well, I guess I'll try and ask the guys!

If it's an older lion, maybe it is! I'm not sure! I know that the older male, ginger member of the... of the members has broken apart from Harry Billies, been left in the Kruger somewhere and very badly injured, and he's kind of moved on!

But this lion is a much younger individual that was seen, and this was taken three days ago down on Southern Mala Mala, and so if that comes straight north, pretty much puts it right...

I wonder if it's maybe the Matimba! Or is this individual? But if somebody saw photos and is the Matimba, that'll be quite cool to know! Interesting that it's back in this area and surely not a good sign for that individual!

Because I'm sure the Birmingham's will try and get hold of him if he is around! Yeah, and like I said, he's got some nasty cuts apparently on his forearms and all very fresh and bleeding!

And then apparently lots of flies on his back! So maybe it is the Matimba! I know they got into a fight recently, Dean, towards the end of last year and just inside the Kruger with some other males!

And I think they both took a bit of a battering in that, so we just interesting to see how this all plays out and whether or not that Matimba makes another appearance on a live Drive!

He was such a big part of safari life when it first got back up and running in Juma, and many of you will remember lots of very fond sightings of those two massive boys walking around!

Yeah, they really were impressive specimens! Both of them were incredibly large! The track size of those two males was much bigger than what we see from these Birmingham's at the moment!

So, always remember those two Fondy! And they certainly did a good job here for a while, but it was just never gonna work! Two against five when the Birmingham's arrived!

Now, triage! Not really much happening! The store hasn't produced many leopard sightings this summer! It's interesting how winter tree arson twin dams were just absolute gold for leopards!

Now in the summer, it just goes to show the leopards do not use these dams nearly as much because there’s really so much water everywhere that there’s no point for them to come to a big dam and lie and explain so close!

But in winter and there's no water, they have to come here and they become hotspots for leopards! So nothing really much happening at tree house! I'll carry on and see what else we can find!

I see there's the impalas! Yep! Now from our impalas that tree assets are looking a bit petrified to go down to the water! It seems you across to Byron who's got some others that hopefully look a little calmer than these ones!

Well, it's very very windy! But what I wanted to show you is exactly what I thought was gonna happen! We're gonna get to these clearings and we're gonna see loads of animals!

Or just Impala! But animals aren't in the clearing! Look how close all these Impalas are together! A whole herd is staying very very close to one another because they know these conditions make it very difficult to listen out for predators or smell predators!

So they stay a lot closer and be very very aware of what is going on around them, but it makes sense for them to stay in the clearing! I can keep a lookout for any potential danger!

Just before that, just saw some other movement. There are one or two warthogs moving through! There are two just to the left of those Impalas, and actually moving through! Three of them! So also quite clever, they're staying close to the Impala!

Polanco water will be alerted that there's a predator around! Hearing some Franklin's calling! I'm also gonna listen out for any alarm calls! Any sign of that lion or impala alarm call or anything like that!

Maybe a kudu bark! But interesting behavior! This is what I wanted to show you! It's amazing how when these animals know these conditions, they need to stay close together! They need to be very very aware!

Wonderful to see those tails! All swishing around! Getting flyers off of them! A number of little flies at the moment! Bush is very green, and especially after all the rain that we had!

All are very very active now! This is exactly the spot we had those wild dogs yesterday! Last night these wild dogs came, and they lay down here, exactly withers in Pala! It's amazing how one day you can have a predator and the next day prey in exactly the same position!

I wonder where those dogs went? I think I ran north! I think the general consensus was that they ran north across our boundary into Buffalolook!

And I think even all the way up into Manny Leyte, which is not that far from yours and Crow flies! So, Scarlett, you actually asked that, just what I was explaining about the tails and you're right!

It is because of the flies! I mean, you saw... I'm not sure if you caught this morning's safari, but we were on bush walk! The amount of flies next to around us while we were walking, it was quite unpleasant! So I know what is Apollo going through!

Right, since shall we continue? Let's see what else these clearings have in store for us! Gonna head a little bit further!

It's funny how animals all take a bit of shelter in weather like this! It's not very pleasant to be out! They know it! They choose to hide rather than move around too much!

Okay, let's head back over to Tristan! I wonder where he is now! I'm not sure! I'm down on Weaver's nice barn! We picked up the checks for this male lion during... sort of southwards towards Weaver's nest!

And now hitting South in this direction! So I just want to double-check that there's no male lion lying somewhere here! And it might be that same one that's maybe a treehouse damn on little Gauri!

Because that's not too far! What you can see is big dark ominous clouds that are being blown in at a rate of knots at the moment!

They don't look ominous from a point of view that they look like a lot of water, but they look like they're bringing a massive cold front! And the air temperature is dropping by the second, and it's starting to get quite chilly, Archer, quite quickly!

Now off on my left-hand side, there is a big bird sitting in a tree! So it looks like a pale form Wahlberg's! Yes, pale form Wahlberg's!

So probably the one that makes us close to Twin Dams, and is being absolutely blown about all over the place! You can see how it's kind of leaning into the wind a little bit, so normally the Walberg sits a lot more upright than that!

But this one is having to sit quite horizontal and kind of duck its head a little bit to try and just balance itself! And see how much the tail is actually moving up and down in order to keep that bird balanced while it's sitting on top of their tree!

It's getting blown about all over the place and feathers are being a bit windswept! And this cold wind that's coming in, I think it's a situation that's going to need to a lot of birds of prey being down on the trees this afternoon!

There's no thermals to be written! And in wind like this, they aren't really going to be effective in hunting, so then we're gonna find a lot of our birds of prey sitting on top of trees and taking it easy!

Now what I want to do is just try and check in these male lion tracks! See where they go and see what they got up to last night! Dail burrowing birds of Juma, other than all of the birds in FC that burrow into the choux cases and all kinds of other blankets when it gets cold, no, there are no real burrowing individuals that go underground and spend a lot of time and then come out!

So all of our birds pretty much all either tree nesters or there are individuals that will miss on the ground but not underground!

Now there’s some disturbance on the road! I just can't see nicely! The light is so soft! And there's so much wind that a lot of these tracks end up looking quite windswept!

So I'm just trying to see what's going on! Yes, there's the male lion tracks, he's here! But there's no blood on this particular track at all, that I can see!

I'll try and just move a little bit so VM can get it on camera! But you can see what I'm talking about! How difficult tracking becomes in soft lights!

Now, VM, let me get out for you! So I can show you exactly the track that I'm talking about! In fact, I've even lost it a little bit, but no, there it is! I can see it now!

So here we go! This is the track! Now, I'm trying not to get round it! So there it is! Now you've got the toes at the front, yeah? Like that! And then here is the back pad on that area!

Now that is one track for this male lion! And he's going up the road and walked down the road! So I think it must be the same individual that we had well that is under little Gauri!

But let's just double-check on the fire break! Maybe it's one of the Birmingham's! It was tracking this male down! It's interesting to have a little look! But tracks are really tough to see! They're not easy at all!

It almost just looks like a plain white surface at the moment! So we'll try and kind of follow these and see what we get! But I think these might have crossed south into little Gauri already!

So Samar, the reason we have fewer big male lions than lionesses is because if you had as many big male lions as you had lionesses on safari in another situation where there'd be just complete chaos all the time, the amount of females that would be around, it'd be so much fighting for those females, and to be able to mate with them!

Then inevitably males get killed! And so that's why there's less of them! Is that the competition over females is so much more, as opposed to females fighting over females doesn't really happen!

You know, you don't have a situation where you have females fight with each other and nests! It's two different prides! In which case, they normally come together, fight a little bit, and break apart!

Whereas male lions will actively chase each other! Will actively try and kill one another in order to bring those females back in or to be able to take over and dominate! As well as they’ll then go in and kill young male cubs, and they’ll chase some adult males away!

And so that's why you only tend to see a lot more lionesses than you do male lions! Also, lionesses can move around in a smaller section than what big male lions can!

Big male lions will try and expand as far as they can and have big territories! Whereas a lioness typically will try and have a much smaller area and be encompassed by a male that has multiple sort of females in his territory!

So that's why you see less of them! Good! While we carry on and see where these lion tracks go, that sends you back across to Byron, who's got something that lions hunt!

Every so often, we do indeed! So again, lots of antelope are in the clearings!

Now, there must be one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, at least nine! No, ten kudu that I can see in this area! All standing very close together!

See how they're all facing different different directions! Really interesting behavior! And all to do with the weather! And almost change their normal behavior depending on the weather!

And those females will be very careful and alert to protect those young cubs and calves! These animals are looking... that little one if some flies were biting it!

I'm just gonna move forward slowly just to get a better view of those kudus! See, but they're all standing very close together!

And I usually... you've seen kudu! They tend to move around! Oh, Justin's... medicine found a find! A chameleon!

Let's gather, look quick! I'm the winner! Whoa! We had a bet who could find the first chameleon! And well, Valdi is actually the winner! He spotted the chameleon before me!

So, thought, let me try and go forward a little bit and see if we can get it a little bit better than the angle that we've got now! What a chameleon is doing walking around in weather like this, I'm not quite sure! Where did it go, VM?

It was right here somewhere! So, I'm gonna try and just get off and look at him! He is right here! There he goes! Hello, little one!

How cool is that color on that chameleon?! It's got the most epic coloration because it's kind of probably out on the road! I was trying to just show itself to this big vehicle that was coming down!

So it's got these browns and whites and electric greens! And it is really a very pretty female by the looks of things! It looks like a big female!

And actually looks as though she might be carrying eggs! Look at how swollen her tummy is! You see how her body is?

I wonder if maybe there are some little ones inside there that she might be wanting to lay! But how cool is this little chameleon! It's the best thing!

Now, I know you, I get very excited about this, but we haven't seen many chameleons! You see, look at how deep her body is at the moment!

I wonder if maybe there is some little ones inside there! Interesting, but the coloration of this particular chameleon is absolutely phenomenal!

It is really super bright, and the kind of camouflage then it's trying to show is very... where are you off to? You must be careful now!

A chameleon out in the open like this is in a lot of danger! There's a number of birds, Hara, that go after chameleons! So particularly things like the grey-headed bushshrike!

They are very dangerous to chameleons! They come out, and they'll grab him! And then a number of different snakes too! So Boomslang vine snake, numbers of cobras!

They'll all go after a chameleon! Look, it's just peering at us through the grass! You see that?

They are the coolest things, and they've got these incredible eyes, where they are able to manipulate each eye individually or from the other one!

Now Jeff, you say that's a first for you to see! Well, Jeff, I hope you're enjoying it because they are super cool little creatures!

And like I say, not something we get to see every day! So that's very cool, and I didn't expect to see a chameleon at all in conditions like this!

This is not really chameleon weather! We find them out on warm evenings, but that was super cool! So I'm glad we got to see it!

And so while we carry on and see what else we can find or what other mysteries they are in the bush that scene, you bet across to Byron, who’s got something that lions hunt every so often!

We do indeed! So again, lots of antelope aren't in the clearings! Now there must be one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, at least nine!

No, ten kudu that I can see in this area! All standing very close together!

See how they're all facing different directions! Really interesting behavior! And all to do with the weather! And almost change their normal behavior depending on the weather!

Those females are very careful and alert to protect those young cubs and calves! These animals are looking! That little one, if some flies were biting it!

I'm just gonna move forward slowly just to get a better view of those kudus! See, but they're all standing very close together!

And I usually... you've seen kudu! They tend to move around! Oh, Justin's... medicine found a find! A chameleon!

Let's gather, look quick! I'm the winner! Whoa! We had a bet who could find the first chameleon! And well, Valdi is actually the winner! He spotted the chameleon before me!

It was right here somewhere! So, I'm gonna try and just get off and look at him! He is right here! There he goes! Hello, little one!

How cool is that color on that chameleon?! It's got the most epic coloration because it's kind of probably out on the road! I was trying to just show itself to this big vehicle that was coming down!

So it's got these browns, and whites, and electric greens! And it is really a very pretty female by the looks of things! It looks like a big female!