Leopard kill caught on camera

One of the rare sightings on safari is to experience a kill, even more rare a leopard kill! As we all know, every now and then we do get very lucky :) Rob and his guests certainly got very lucky on this drive! We hope you enjoy this amazing video clip, filmed by our guide Rob, of how quickly a leopard can get his food! Be sure to listen and watch until the end!

Makutsi farming

Although safari tourism and hospitality is our main business, Makutsi's roots actually come from the cattle and farming business. Years before we started the Makutsi of today, we were farming with cattle on a farm north of our current location. These farming roots don't simply disappear, and over the years the cattle and crop farming has stayed with us, and has grown to become an important part of our safari product.
Long before the "organic trend", we were already serving our guests fresh organic vegetable from our veggie patch, and farming with brahman cattle to serve our clients organic, pasture-fed beef.
This important fringe project, which becomes a unique fringe benefit to every client visiting us today, still continues, as these pictures show...

Rhino injury

The main reason for rhino deaths over the last few years has of course been the high amount of illegal rhino poaching. This however is not the only reason for rhino deaths...there is also a completely natural reason for the occasional rhino death, and this is the fighting between rhinos. Fighting between rhinos is mainly for territorial reasons. They all demand their own territories, particularly the males of the species. In order to ensure that they can secure their territory, certain behaviour has been established. This behaviour is sometimes aggressive, and sometimes displayed merely as a warning.
Recently we found one of our females who had been shown the "aggressive" behaviour by another male. We observed her for a few days, and then decided that the injuries were to severe to just "wait and see", so we called in the Vet. Lucky for us, we have a very experienced and professional Vet in the area (Dr. Peter Rodgers), and he came right away to tranquillise and treat the female. As you can see by the photos, she was doing just great a few hours after treatment, and back to 100% just days later.

Update: 6 March 2017

After the successful treatment of the female, mentioned above, we made sure to keep a close eye on her. Over the next few days we repeatedly observed the male showing lots of aggression towards her, and her calf. It seems he really wants to mate with her, but she is not ready, which does not lie well with him. So he lashes out at both the female and her calf. We also dug up the family tree of this male, and it seems that the father of this male also showed lots of aggressive behaviour towards female rhinos in mating season, and had severely injured several females. One of these injuries even resulted in the death of a female. After having observed this for several days, and consulting with the Vet, we decided that the only "safe" way to prevent any further injuries, or death, would be to de-horn the male rhino.
As there is no other dominant male in the area, not having a horn won't negatively influence him, and even if he shows signs of "frustration" towards other rhinos, chances are now much less likely that they will be injured.
Please be advised that, apart from some stress associated with the darting of this rhino, the male was under sedation during the removal of the horn, and removing his horn does not hurt him. It's almost like having your nails filed. As long as you don't cut into the horn bed it is not painful for the animal.

And so life in the bush goes on :)

Fotos, fotos, fotos...

At the end of the day, this is what we all come for!
Experiencing wildlife, on safari or in camp, and coming home with some wonderful photos to show off to our friends and family :)
Below is a selection of photos, shared with us by two clients who have visited us recently...Urs Niklaus (no stranger to our Newsletter) & Andreas Scherrer. Thank you very much to both of you for showing us what every client can experience at Makutsi.

If you are interested in seeing more examples of photos, videos and referrals from guests who have been to Makutsi, you are welcome to visit:

Friends of Makutsi

YouTube: Makutsi Guest Vidoes

Thank you for being part of our Newsletter, and wishing you wonderful weeks ahead!