2 & 3 May

There are a few interesting observations to disclose and discuss today.

The first happened yesterday on Gowrie Main. We had stopped to watch a small family of dwarf mongoose when upon closer inspection of the family revealed a curious little individual with a dappled-white face.
Initially leucism was suspected (pure white pigmentation caused by a lack of melanin), however if you look closely at the picture you will see the eyes of the mongoose are red. Had it been leucistic the eyes would be blue and the entire creature white.
This now begs the question as to the cause of this strange pigmentation.

Later in the afternoon we drove all the way to the western boundary which we never see due to the mere distance, but were rewarded with some beautiful scenery and the mastodon elephant bull we’ve been going on about all week. He’s still in musth and as arrogant as ever!

Our sundowners were shared with a chorus of hyaenas both to the south and north of us, though we never got to see them...

Close to Safari airstrip we found Tingana walking along Seep-line and marking his territory. When he reached the airstrip there were wildebeest and impala for the taking. Tingana was more interested in territorial boundaries than food, though he did make an attempt at an impala ram on the outskirts of the strip. We opted to leave him to it, but his tracks were found all the way up Triple M north this morning baring evidence to his lack of success.

The second observation happened this morning on Jacobin open area where Mvula and Thandi were mating. Xivambelana was also there, occasionally piping in and vocalising in front of Mvula.
For some reason Mvula ignored the young male entirely.
Now, we have been watching Xivambelana marking territory in our area for some time and I assumed that when the dominant leopard in the east (Mvula) caught wind of this he would take affront and chase the over confident youngster away and thus ensuring his departure from his natal region.
Why then did Mvula ignore him the entire morning? In fact, Thandi was more offended by his presence and continually went chasing after him with murderous intent!
An interesting observation with a lot of consideration and any input anyone can offer.

After the leap of leopards we went to see if any hyaenas had showed up at the Styx double-kill.
Two hundred meters from the kill we could already smell the pungent odour of rotting carrion. Surely this would have attracted hyaenas from far and wide but there were none to be seen. Vultures were present in abundance and the lions finishing off the second carcass.

Elephant and buffalo were also seen en route home.