The Sabi Sands Game Reserve is a 65,000 hectare private game park that is now incorporated into the Greater Kruger Park, which itself is being incorporated into the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which will eventually cover 35,000 sq km.  Formed into a private nature reserve in 1950, Sabi Sands has since the sixties become one of Africa’s foremost destinations for wildlife enthusiasts and photographers.  Within the reserve there are over 30 camps and lodges, mostly commercial, though some are privately owned.  My trips have concentrated on the Western Sector of Sabi Sands - an area covered by a number of lodges:  Exeter, Idube, Inyati, Leopard Hills, Savanna and Ulusaba - all of which share common traversing areas.  To date my trips have been based at Exeter River Lodge, Exeter - Leadwood, Exeter - Dulini, Inyati, Idube, Savanna or Ulusaba Rock Lodge.

The Sabi Sands Routine:

When staying in Sabi Sands the routine is a well designed to ensure visitors get the best wildlife experience.  A pre-dawn wake up call is followed by coffee and rusks and then its out for a three hour game drive.  A gentle mid-morning bush walk follows breakfast.  Visitors can then relax until lunch.  Afternoon tea leads into the afternoon game drive, which in turn becomes a night drive after a sundowner stop.  The rangers and trackers find animals by following their spoor, listening for alarm calls, watching for eagles, vultures or other birds that might mark a kill and using their intimate knowledge of the area as well as by communicating with other vehicles by radio.  All the rangers and trackers are well trained and have an enormous fund of information regarding the local wildlife.

Leopards of Sabi Sands:

The resident male leopard in my study area is Wallys, named the farm Wallingford where he was first seen.  He has been the dominant male for several years now and there are around five females resident in his territory.  Of these three are extremely relaxed with vehicles, being Makwela, Pinknose (aka Day One) and Shangwa.  Makwela's last litter have all survived to adulthood and have all set up territories near to Makwela.  Now named they are:  Tsonga, Mambhirri and Sindile.  Makwela currently has a new cub (one or two siblings from that litter have not survived), Shangwa has two cubs and Pinknose also has one cub.  At times other itinerant leopards also cross into the area and may interact with the residents.  Individual leopards can be identified by means of their spot patterns.  Just above the whisker line are a number of spots on either side of the face.  These few spots form a unique pattern which can be used to identify each cat.  The rangers and trackers assign names to resident leopards when they attain independence.

The Sabi Sands lodges provide the world's best leopard viewing.  Many parts of Africa and Asia describe the leopard as "elusive".  In Sabi Sands hardly a day goes by without leopards being seen.  I have seen leopards on six out of six game drives and in some cases was able to watch six different leopards in a single game drive!

Lions of Sabi Sands:

The area has three lion prides, Sand River, Othawa and Castleton prides with relatively young males.  The pride structure is in flux at present while the young males seek to become dominant and keep out newcomers to the area.  The young male from the Sand River pride (around 6 years old) has formed his own pride with four of the Castleton females.

Cheetah of Sabi Sands:

Cheetah do occur in the area.  However, due mainly to the large number of other predators, they are mostly nomadic, keeping on the move in order to avoid confrontations with the resident lions, hyaenas and leopards.  Quite a few young cheetah have been lost to lion and leopard predation in the last year or so.

Acknowledgements:

My thanks go to the rangers, trackers and staff of Exeter River, Exeter Leadwood, Exeter Dulini, Inyati, Idube, Savanna and Ulusaba Lodges, without whose dedication and assistance my photographic trips would not have been possible. 

In particular I thank:

Rangers:  Andrew (Leadwood), Andrew (Savanna), Cornell, Craig, Dean, George, Hanri, Kotze, Paddy, Rexon, Ryan, Sam, Trevor, Warren & Yolandi

Trackers:  Abraham, Alfios, Chris, Dynamos, Fickson, Godfrey, Isaac, James, Joseph, Patrick, Patrick, Remember, Rual, Solly & Victor.

If you have any comments or views on the photos or leopards in general, please do email me at the address below:

phil@pperrywildlifephotos.org.sz

© Copyright Philip Perry. All rights reserved 2007.