Wilderness King’s Pool Newsletter – September 2024

The trees have shed their leaves, leaving the landscapes bare, with no grass and a scarcity of food for the animals. This has in turn delivered amazing wildlife sightings around Wilderness King’s Pool, especially of the elephants. We also still have great hippo sightings in the channel in front of the main area. King’s Pool’s guest rooms follow the curve of the channel and they appreciate seeing the hippos grazing in front of camp. 

With the heat of summer now here, the elephants are moving around in search of water, and our sunken hide experience provides an incredible opportunity for our guests to see great numbers of general antelope species and of course, the elephants – especially from so close, and where they are thrillingly eye-level with the water and animals.

The arrival of the dazzling intra-African migrant carmine bee-eaters has meant phenomenal sightings at their colony.

We saw Golden Boy, a magnificent male lion on two kills – a young buffalo and a waterbuck. Mmalebantle is our alpha female, and Phandane, a sub-adult male that killed a buffalo calf at the Livingstone Hide. Rralebantle and Caprivi are a coalition of two adult males also seen from game drives at King’s Pool. 

As far as leopard sightings go, Burrowpit the female leopard was seen on an impala kill, while Tladi killed an unknown leopard at Croc Corner. We have also had sightings of an unknown adult male and three other female juveniles.

Leopard tracks were sighted around camp in the early mornings, and they are believed to be from our slender leopard Sebaga, who along with Tladi, are two sub-adult females regularly spotted around the Linyanti Wildlife Reserve. Matimpe is another known leopard that we sight often.  

The wild dog pack of 13, with eight juveniles, is healthy and doing well. Guests particularly loved seeing their greeting ceremonies, as well as their hunts and playing.