These past two weeks have be en the best big five(5) sightings. Although most of the best encounters were around the center of the park, over the last few weeks, we have had the privilege of encountering a big breeding herd of elephants which consists of over 22 elephants, and also small pride of Lions consisting of 4 lions just 600m to 1 km from Kwa Maritane Bush Lodge.

One of the factors that helps attract the big mammals around the lodge is the well-maintained water hole in front of our Kwa Lefikeng Restaurant. This water hole attracts animals like Elephants, Rhinos, birds, and even lions.

Sightings in the Park have been brilliant, with all the babies (calves) roaming around. The central pride has also been sighted a lot in the center of the Park, and a female leopard and her two(2) cubs with her, estimated to be six(6) months old.

Adding to the excitement Nkemele, one of the original elephant bulls introduced from the Kruger National Park, was also spotted around the center last week. His is now 57 years old.

Junior Ranger stories from Bakubung Bush Lodge

The Junior Ranger drive takes kids out into the park looking for tracks and signs of the bush, and recently we have come across some baboon tracks only to hear the Baboons alarms calling , we followed the tracks along the road and saw a new sets of tracks following the baboon tracks the kids worked this out to be a leopard tracks so we carried on following the tracks and we managed to spot the leopard walking in the grass , we then started following the leopard and got a great sighting of the leopard laying under a tree.

Another great sighting we had was when the kids spotted lion tracks on the road. We followed the tracs carefully and were very fortunate to find the male lion sitting enjoying the sun

On 3 December 2022 Tshukudu Bush Lodge celebrated Birdlife SA's big birding day, where our guests were able to identify more than 57 different species. The highlight of the day for us, was watching a black-winged kite feeding on a rodent. Key bird species found in the Pilanesberg include Cape Vulture, Secretarybird, Kori Bustard, Coqui Francolin, Giant Kingfisher, Crimson-breasted Shrike (also rare yellow morph), Short-toed Rock Thrush, Southern Pied Babbler, and Great Sparrow to name a few.