I jreceived an email last week from my friend Dicks Tsima, who is a guide at Mapula Lodge giving me the latest from the field.

Lucky Letotse the Cheetah

‘Lucky Letotse’ Male Cheetah at Mapula. Photo by Bill Given.

Last week a cheetah who had not been seen in some time was found near the airstrip. Dicks and I refer to this cheetah as the ‘Lucky Letotse’ because I was leading a group staying at Mapula Lodge and the scheduled activity for the morning was to go on the mekoros (dugout canoes). We decided we would rather game drive and we found this brilliant male cheetah, who had eaten so much he could barely move, the Setswana name for cheetah is letotse. Since we were very lucky that we chose for another game drive instead of the mokoro we dubbed him the lucky letotse.

Lion Sightings at Mapula Lodge

Sub-adult male lion with porcupine quills on his muzzle.
Taken at Deception Valley Lodge by Bill Given.

They had regular sightings of two different lion prides. One in the east features a four male coalition. In the more remote west there is the Old Vumbura pride that inhabits a magical area around the border of Mapula’s concession and the Duba Plains area. Unfortunately one of the males in this pride has died last week from and infection due to porcupine quills. Often a lion can make due after a mistake with a porcupine but a quill in the wrong place or that gets infected can be deadly.

Mapula Lodge African Wild Dog Pack(s)

Alpha dog of the Mapula Pack by Bill Given

In last update from Mapula I reported that the members of the African Wild Dog pack appeared to have emigrated as 6 dogs had gone missing. The latest news is very interesting as 5 dogs have returned to the area but they had not yet rejoined the remaining 11 dogs of the pack. It is possible the dogs simply decided now is not the time to break off and returned to reunite with the pack. It’s also possible that there was a splitting of the pack and they are ‘budding’ within their natal territory. Often times when females emigrate and form a new pack they will overlap a portion of their range within the range of the natal pack who will give them some room to operate since their genes are involved but they will not allow them in their core territory. It will be interesting to see how it goes from here.