In this blog post we narrow down all our favorite sighting which we have relished over the years at the Kruger National Park.
Lion Steals Leopards Kill While Leopard Is Still In The Tree
This is one sighting which we always reminisce about it, in December of 2016 while driving on the S21, we first came across 5 big male lions which we then realized were the Jock male lions, a few kilometers later another car informed us that there was a leopard in the tree with a impala kill, we decided to wait there. An hour later, from the side mirror we saw some movements and it happened to be a pride of lions, the next thing we know the lions crossed the road and made their way to the tree, one by one the lions climbed the tree while the leopard was left balancing in the thinnest part of tree.
The lions were feeding on whatever was left of the impala carcass, when there was nothing left they started clumsily climbing down the tree, by the way lions are not as gracious as leopard when it comes to going up and down a tree.
Lion Vs Hyena Vs Buffalo
This sighting occurred in December of 2017, we always try stay at Tamboti as well as the south of the park when we go for a long period in December, and that year was no different. One morning while driving down to Lower Sabie, someone told us about lions feeding on a buffalo carcass on the S128, on our way to the sighting about a kilometre away, we spotted a large heard of buffalos, and after we waited for them to cross the road we drove on trying to get to the lions.
Once we arrived, the lions weren’t feeding on the carcass, but not long after excitement ensues because one hyena arrived and started calling, and alerting more hyenas and a short time later a whole pack of hyenas arrived trying to steal the carcass, the lions weren’t having it and were chasing and growling at the hyenas.
The lions thought that they got rid of the hyenas but a while later the buffalos herd that we drove past actually came to the location where the lions were and the whole herd started chasing the lions away, the lions moved across the road, and the hyenas thought they had won themselves a free meal but once the lions made sure that the buffalos were gone they went back to reclaim their hard earned meal.
We had been at the sighting for about 5 hours and after we went back to camp we saw a notification that two males arrived at the scene and stole the carcass from the lionesses.
Jock Males in the Road
By 2017 we had seen the Jock males on a few occasions but we really wanted to see the whole coalition together. In January of 2017, we took our first trip to the Kruger to start off the year right and while on a afternoon drive from Skukuza to Lower Sabie, four of the five male lions were walking on the side of the road in the bushes and a few minutes later they came on the tar road and they walked for about 2kilometers without being bothered by the amount of cars.
This particular sighting stands out for us because the four of them looked so powerful and there was none that were upstaging the other because they all looked just as dominant and commanding.
Leopard Cubs
A leopard cub sighting has always been on our bucket list because they are so rare to see, and fortunately for us during our visit to the Kruger in September last year, we saw that on Latest Sighting someone had found a leopard den, throughout the time there we tried every day to find the leopard cubs, and only on one of the afternoon were the leopard cubs lively. The cubs were only a few weeks old but they were so adorable and we were lucky to have seen them when we did because the mom did end up moving them a few days later to a different den due to the amount of traffic in the area.
Leopard at Biyamiti Weir
We have been buying the Kruger Magazine since it first came out two years ago, and in one of the articles which was based on visitors favourite location in Kruger, someone mentioned seeing a leopard on the Biyamiti rocks, and we found that fascinating because both times we had been on a sunset drive at Biyamiti, the ranger let us get out of the car to go stand on the rocks, and on this last trip in September we went out looking for leopards which we had seen (you can read more on that here) we found a leopard on the rocks, and it was a perfect photography opportunity because it was the picture-perfect lighting and the background blurred seamlessly and the leopard put on a show for us.
Skybed Male Roaring
It’s no secret that the Skybeds are one of our favorite coalitions, the December of 2015 we came across them for the very first time on the H7 and we saw Scar from the coalition, when we visited in January of 2016 since we were staying at Tamboti we made it our mission to try find this group of males, specially Scar. Sadly we didn’t see him but the week that we were there the coalition managed to kill two buffaloes, the carcasses were on opposite side of the road, when we found them they were feeding on the one carcass which we didn’t have great visual of and the next day two of the males began feeding on the second carcass, and after eating started vocalizing and making his presence known.
Wild dog and Rhino Stand Of
This sighting is one of our favorite because it’s so special, we found two of the endangered species together. Spotting wild dogs is rare at the Kruger because there are only a certain numbers of them but to have seen them together with rhinos was truly magnificent.
Thank you for reading ths post
Subscribe to our Youtube channel here.