WILDLIFE REPORT SINGITA GRUMETI, TANZANIA

For the month of March, Two Thousand and Eighteen Temperature Rainfall Recorded Sunrise & Sunset Average minimum: 16.8˚C (62.2˚F) Faru-Faru 187 mm Sunrise 06:44 Average maximum: 28.8˚C (83.8˚F) Sabora 194 mm Sunset 18:51 Minimum recorded: 16.2˚C (61.1˚F) Sasakwa 203 mm Maximum recorded: 30.4˚C (86.7˚F) Our green season has arrived! The concession is a sea of green as we get into our long rains. Both Sasakwa and Sabora plains are lush and green, providing our resident game with some gorgeous green grass to feed on. The short grass plains of Sabora are teeming with game, making for some fantastic game viewing. The arrival of the rain has triggered our herbivores to start dropping their babies, most especially the impala, zebra and topi.

(Photo: Mark Nicholson)

Lions It has been a great month for our lion prides, with a total of 112 sightings seen. The Butamtam Pride has been seen on a daily basis between Sasakwa Lodge and Koroya Hill. They have really taken a liking to buffalo, with them taking down four throughout the month. With the pride totalling 46 members now, buffalo is a logical prey species for them as a single buffalo can feed the entire pride.

(Photo: Mark Nicholson)

With the pride making regular kills the cubs are growing up quickly and are giving all our guests some fantastic game viewing. The Nyasarori Pride is still spending a large majority of their time along the Raho drainage, but with all the rain we have had they moved onto the high ground of the Nyasarori plains. The West Pride has not been seen a great deal this month, the reason being the area they frequent is very wet and makes it almost impossible to access. Leopards We’ve had a total of 31 leopard sightings. As with previous months the majority of the sightings are made up by the Mkombre female and her cub. We are starting to see a clear separation now between them as the cub is slowly becoming more and more independent. Tulia and her two cubs have also been seen on numerous occasions this month. Her cubs are also at that age where they are starting their independence and, in the coming months, we are sure they will leave her and start their solitary lifestyle.

Cheetahs We had a total of 29 cheetah sightings this month. The two mothers and their five cubs have not been seen again and we are sure they have moved out of our concession into the national park. The mother and one cub that we have been seeing regularly over the last year have parted ways. The

young male has been seen on his own for the last week or so and on one occasion he was seen catching a scrub hare, which shows his hunting skills should be good enough for him to make a success of himself.

Elephants With the abundant grass and water now available the elephant herds do not need to spend great deal of time within our concession searching for water and food. Fortunately we have our resident breeding herds which are sighted on a daily basis, in and around Sasakwa Hill.

Special sightings Adas and his guests had a very rare sighting of a Patas monkey near Punda Milea camp. This is the first guest sighting of a Patas monkey in several years. They tend to favour the open grass lands dotted with small acacia thickets. Great to see them making a reintroduction into our area.

Mark Nicholson Singita Grumeti

Serengeti Tanzania

Thirty-first of March 2018