The other night the lodge’s ranger, Chris, and some others came across a baby springbok which had been abandoned by its mother. They rescued it as it was unlikely to have survived in the wild on its own – particularly given that the hyena were found in that exact spot the following evening.

The arrival of the springbok at the homestead was very exciting! It is about a week old and is just tiny and oh so cute with gorgeous big brown eyes. Nat has fallen head over heals with the little guy.

As mentioned in one of our earlier entries, we also share our garden with Lightfoot, a young male cheetah (see photo below). Lightfoot is currently undergoing some R&R to recuperate from an attack by Oscar, the dominant male cheetah on the reserve. Lightfoot is to be re-released on to the reserve in a few months time once he is strong enough.

Whilst one of our daily duties is to feed the serval cats, Lightfoot is fed by Will or Nyansile as cheetahs tend to put on a bit of a show at feeding time. However we have gone into Lightfoot’s enclosure at feeding time, standing a mere 1 metre away from this awesome animal.