We’ve had a fantastic start to the year with a plethora of exhilarating wildlife activity across the vast 25 000 hectares that is Shamwari Game Reserve. Ranger James Moodie provides us with this month in pictures. The cheetah sub-adults are thriving despite the abundance of lions with two of the prides recently increasing in size.
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September 2017 was a significant month for Shamwari. New life was discovered in the form of little lion cubs from one of the older northern lionesses. Although it is not uncommon on Shamwari to see lion cubs. This is the first litter of cubs sired by the new dominant coalition of two brothers in the
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The weather this week has been like a yoyo, one day it is boiling, where any chance I get I find myself gravitating towards the walk in freezer at Longlee Manor; and the next day its pouring with rain, the type where one really gets the feeling the universe is emotional, thunder and lightning can
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On a clear and cool morning of the 4 January 2015 we headed out of Bayethe lodge down to the southern areas of the reserve to follow up on 4 lionesses that we had seen on our previous afternoon drive. As we arrived in the area and switched of the engine to listen in on
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We sometimes see giraffe demonstrating an action called Osteophagia, which involves them eating bones. We’ll see a giraffe pick up a piece of bone from the ground, throwing its head around to reposition the bone into a comfortable position and salivating a little more than usual. They giraffe doesn’t consume the entire bone. It will
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Here is the 'behind the scenes' story of how the Lion attacks Giraffe video came about. If you haven't watched it yet, you can view it below. Please note it's not for sensitive viewers. It was just another day at the office for Ranger Jone’ who was on an evening game drive at Shamwari Game
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On Shamwari Game Reserve we are fortunate to have many different species from the tiniest little ant to the big and strong elephant. Each species and animal is unique to his role in the natural system. Each animal helps keep the balance in nature with their day to day life. From an owl catching a
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On Shamwari Game Reserve there is a coalition of two male cheetahs. They have been together for a long time and thus have perfected their hunting strategies. They will go hunting together and will use different strategies for different prey and landscapes. Their normal prey comprise of springbuck, impala, blesbuck and other small antelope. But
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This wonderful little tortoise is endemic to South Africa and is found specifically in the Western Cape and slightly into our area of the Eastern Cape where Shamwari Game Reserve is found. In my more than seven years at Shamwari this is possibly only the tenth time that I have seen one of these rare
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Just the other day after leaving on our afternoon drive, we came across a large elephant bull. We sat and watched as the elephant contemplated an even larger Sweet Thorn (Acacia karoo). After much contemplation and nibbling on the outer branches of the tree the Elephant went to work... Soon he was pushing and pulling
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