Kruger National Park, South Africa. November 2018 - 3. Kruger Predators.

A highlight of any trip to wildlife areas is seeing predators in their natural habitat although as many of them are only active overnight or during cooler days sightings can be frustrating when all they are doing is lying in the shade for hours!! The gates of the Rest Camps in the Kruger are open at different times depending on the season. In November (summer) they open at 4.30am so, quite often, we were up soon after 4am, had some coffee and a rusk and were out and about as soon as the gates opened.

Cheetah.
Undoubtedly our best sighting was quite early one morning when we came across 5 cheetah next to the tar road between Letaba and Satara, and only 1 other vehicle there. They were walking alongside the road and, to start with, only a few metres from the road. As we followed them they wandered along, occasionally stopping for a rest and gradually getting further from the road. We followed them for around an hour, by which time there were about 6 vehicles following them. Eventually they headed off into the bush.

Nice and close to the road for a clear photo.

4 of the five cheetah.

All five looked much the same size so we weren't sure if they were siblings or a female with 4 well grown cubs. We thought perhaps the latter when we saw one of them hiding amongst the grass and then running towards and, once spotted, jumping over another.

Lion
One morning Kevin wanted a lie-in so I went out early on my own. I was just approaching the place we'd seen the five cheetah when I saw 4 or 5 cars ahead. As I got closer I noticed a couple of lions in the road ahead , then I noticed more lions further along the road walking away from us. As we slowly followed they walked along the road and then moved off into the grass next to the road. Eventually I counted 10 lions and, as they were generally well spread out, all the cars were able to get great views. After at least an hour, as it was getting hotter, they stopped near a pool in a small river valley, some had a drink but most just lay in the shade.

Most of our other sightings of lions were in the Lower Sabie area when we drove out from Skukuza and were later in the day so they were much less active and there were a lot more vehicles around.

Six lions on an island in the Sabie River - one is almost hidden in the grass in the foreground.

After these 2 passed us they were followed by around a dozen vehicles so we didn't bother to turn around and follow them.

Leopard
we only saw two leopard in the 3 weeks and both times for only a short time. As they prefer to lie up during the day and tend to keep to the more dense bush they are always difficult to spot unless they happen to walk across the road in front of you.

Hyena
Undoubtedly the most common predator that we saw throughout the Park . Apart from seeing them patrolling the fences at several of the Rest Camps we saw them during the day on many occasions.

One of four hyena that we saw near Satara. This was was a heavily pregnant female.

Most of the time this baby hyena was out of sight but on a couple of occasions it popped its head up over its mum.

Crocodiles
These were present wherever there was water but the largest concentration was along pools in the Luvulhu River near the northern border of the Park. We'd left Punda Maria Rest Camp early and were in the Pafuri area before it got too hot so many of them were still lying about in the early morning sunshine.

1. From Richmond to Pafuri - via Blouberg Nature Reserve and Mapungubwe National Park.

2. Kruger - route and camps.

3 .Kruger - predators.

4. Kruger - other animals.

5. Kruger - birds.

top of page

Jackal
We were surprised how few jackal we saw. They are usually in the vicinity of waterholes but we hardly saw any.