Travel Butlers African Safari Blog.

Sightings of spotted hyena are quite rare due to their low numbers, therefore any sighting of these magnificent animals is a special one - but recently guests at Lion Sands River Lodge and Lion Sands Ivory Lodge, in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, were treated to the most incredible sighting !

One of the rangers had located a den site about a month ago after following an adult female hyena traveling down one of the roads at a rapid pace. She followed the road for a while, then moved into the vegetation.

There the ranger found an incredible den site under a large rock, and there were 3 cubs at the site - 2 cubs of approximately 2 months of age and one cub was younger than a month.

Guests at the lodge have had several awesome sightings of these cubs playing around the den site but last week everyone noticed that there were now 5 cubs - 2 tiny cubs have now joined the clan and can be seen peering out of the dens site, still a little nervous to venture out …

These are highly social animals, living in clans whose size is related to the food supply available. The stable core of the clan is females and as a result males disperse.

There are separate dominance hierarchies among males and females and females dominate all males. High-ranking females have priority of access to food and to resting sites near the den entrance and as a result they rear more cubs than low-rankers.

All the females in the clan breed and their cubs den together but each female suckles only her own young.

Hopefully in future there will be several more exciting encounters with the growing cubs …

A particular female leopard in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve has become a regular sighting for guests at Lion Sands on game drives over the last couple of months. On most occasions when the she has been sighted they have seen her moving in and around the dry riverbeds and the thicket vegetation surrounding the riverbeds. She had been in the same area for about 3 weeks now and this lead the rangers to believe that she might have cubs in the area …

On Saturday morning one of the rangers located both the female leopard and her cubs sunbathing on an old dead tree stump in the area that she had been frequenting!!

This litter includes 2 cubs which are approximately 2 months old as their coats appear to be smoky gray as the rosettes are not yet clearly defined. This was an incredible sighting for the guests!

Female leopards are capable of breeding at 2 years and will produce litters of one to 3 cubs after a pregnancy lasting about 3 and a half months. Leopard cubs weigh around 500g at birth and their eyes open after about a week. For the first 2 months the mother keeps her cubs hidden in dense bush, rock clefts or hollow tree trunks to minimize detection from predators.

The cubs will venture from hiding after about 6 to 8 weeks by which time they are rather successful tree climbers.

Mothers leave the young cubs for periods of up to 36 hours while hunting and feeding before returning to suckle them. She brings solid food to her cubs when they’re about 6 weeks old and the cubs are weaned at about 3 months but stay with their mother for the first 22 months. Less than half of the cubs from a litter will on average survive to adulthood.

Following the success of the short notice offer that we ran with Lion Sands in April, we are delighted to be able to confirm a new Lion Sands Sort Notice Offer for May, June, and July 2008.

Vistors travelling in the next 3 months can save 25% vs the published price, and stay at this outstanding lodge for only R2650 per person per night.

There are no minimum stay requirements for this offer, however this special rate cannot be combined with the Lion Sands and Cape Town Special Offer.

We are delighted to be able to offer Lion Sands River Lodge for the incredible price of only R2500 per person per night for guests who are able to travel between now and 30th April this year.

This special short notice deal represents a saving of R1780 (42%!) per person per night vs the published rate of R4280, and the rate includes accommodation, meals, and 2 game drives each day.

Lion Sands River Lodge is one of the best know lodges in the world-renowned Sabi Sand Reserve on the western side of the Greater Kruger Park, and boasts a fantastic location right on the Sabie river with some of the best game viewing in the reserve.

The rooms have just been refurbished in the last 12 months, and with the rand now very weak vs other major currencies this offer really does represent amazing value for overseas visitors.

We are delighted to confirm that Lion Sands have announced that they will be repeating their special offer of 3 complimentary nights at the 5* Cape Cadogan in the heart of Cape Town for all guests who stay 3 nights at either River Lodge or Ivory Lodge between May and the end of August next year.

Combined with Travel Butlers low rates at Lion Sands, this amounts to a saving of over R8500 (approx £630) for guests staying at Ivory Lodge and Cape Cadogan or R5750 (approx £425) for guests choosing River Lodge and the Cape Cadogan.

The only restriction on this offer is that you must stay at both properties between 1 May and 31 August 2008, and both bookings should be made at the same time.

You can read more about this offer here.