Flavour of the Month Dec 2011: Nsemani Dam

[Richprins]

Wow, tjololo!

What a rare location for eland!

Was it in the early nineties??

[Penga Ndlovu]

My rarest sighting there was a family of bushpig in 2009

[Peter Betts]

My rarest sighting there was a pride of lions that came into the road lay down for about 2 mins next to us and then dropped down to the dam and drank and pushed off...The rarity aspect was that we were the only car ..ON THAT Road and in THAT AREA

[Bushcraft]

Had some nice sightings at this dam 2010:

Impala herd with big croc




Few Rhinos



Lion brothers





Rest of a big buffalo herd - about 500 animals

[Peter Betts]

Nsemane is a great dam..My late dada and I saw a juv waterbuck with short horns running for his life from the dam and up the bank and across the tar road and down the otherside..For the first 200metres he had a cheetah running on each side of him looking for breakfast..End result 2 panting cheetah in the road in front of us and waterbuck on his way to Tshokwane..also one of my all time lows happened here and contributes no end to my love hate relationship with Satara.. No cars Leopard on one side of the road watching a herd of impala 70 metres in on the other side..5 mins later 3 cars behind me all behaving by switching off their engines as I videoed the cat who began its slow belly on ground stalk across the road in front of me Then I heard it loud and clear a big delivery truck was approaching from behind from Orpen at speed..Changing gears ..airbrakes and then hooting..all on tape thats why I gave up videing because of the idiots on the road..The Leopard turned tail and ran
Anyway a few years later I made up for it and shot this little cat at Nsemane..not often seen in the day in Kruger

[ossendryver]

hey were chasing an Impala herd that came down to drink.

[Richprins]

Saw a small pack of wild dog resting east of the dam about 8 years ago. Also one of my biggest leopard ever on the tar road back to Satara.

This is also where the unfortunate incident took place of a leopard attacking a tourist in an open game drive vehicle a few years ago. Anybody remember the incident?

[Richprins]

Aha! 2003


Johannesburg - One minute the leopard was walking alongside the vehicle, the next minute she was inside, biting a guide's leg.''We are completely in the dark about the reasons for the attack. It happened just outside the Satara camp. There were about three or four safari vehicles and about 15 to 20 'ordinary' tourists," said Francois Grove, owner of Safari Direct in Hoedspruit, on Monday afternoon.

Henry van Eck, the tour guide, stopped with other vehicles on a tarred road near the Nsemani Dam on Sunday afternoon to look at the female leopard, who had been walking around the parked vehicles. The dam is 7km from Satara camp and is en route to the Kruger Game Park's Orpen Gate."One of the other vehicles indicated that she was behind Henry's vehicle. He switched the engine off and told everyone to remain dead still. The next minute she jumped in and bit him on his left calf."One of the other game rangers jumped out and threw a water bottle at her but she just moved off and sat down," said Grove.

He said he would meet with the management of the Kruger Park again today to discuss the incident.The leopard was later shot dead by one of the park's game rangers. An autopsy will be done on Tuesday at Skukuza in order to determine whether she had been ill, perhaps suffering an illness that might have sparked the attack.Van Eck was taken to the Nelspruit Medi Clinic where his wound was treated. The wound has not been stitched as "it needs time to drain. He was still in hospital yesterday", said Grove.Raymond Travers, spokesperson for the Kruger Game Park, said on Monday the park was still investigating the incident.

Reacting to Sunday's attack, Dr Gus van Dyk, a carnivore expert, said "a person must first look at all the factors before a possible reason can be sought."I doubt the animal was 'caged in' by the vehicles because people cannot drive just anywhere in the Kruger Park. The fact that she just jumped in and bit sounds more like a nervous reaction than a full-scale attack," he said."There is also the possibility that if she was an older animal, a male could have been in the vicinity or she might have had cubs nearby. This will still have to be determined once all factors are known," he said.Grove said he has decided that in future if a guide feels an animal's "space" is being restricted, he can leave the scene rather than stay to watch. Van Eck's vehicle had been parked-in by other vehicles at the time of the attack. He had been unable to drive off when the animal started prowling.

[Bushcraft]

Yip that was quite a scary experience for all involved. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then, the only other open vehicle incidents that have occurred have been driver error related. Henri the guide was bitten, recovered well and continued guiding for us for many years after (2007) I think what we learnt is that people are a problem not the animals. I still use the example as part of training when we train new guides, which happens on an on going basis.

Obviously as in all such cases there are official enquiries, and it was found that Henri was not at fault at all. He was not allowed an escape route by other tourists, there were 27 vehicles on the wall at the time. I recieved pictures from one of the tourists of the leopard actually jumping "into/onto" the vehicles door, and then slipping off and falling into the vehicle. We all know what happened after that. A while later we recieved pictures that were taken a week or two before that where the same leopard was pictured standing up against a rental car looking into the window (closed) as if looking for food. Aslo having spoken to all guides and related persons, there was a guide that regularly did walks, and night drives for Sanparks, and did "sundowners" there quite often, and that leopard would approach the group withing meters whereby they would gradually but briskly embark and drive away. Even later I recieved a report from a gentleman, that was in the park towing the preverbial Venter trailer, his braai grid was attached to the top of the trailer, and the leopard was actually photographed ontop of the trailer licking the braai grid, unfortunatley the chaps camera was affirmatively shopped further down the holiday, so no pics there.

Now after all these reports and talking to a lot of guides and people that know the area, the leopard was one of 2 cubs that grew up in the area, the young male was seen about 7 to 10 km's towards Satara on a regular basis, the mother of the cubs was seen mainly on the western side of Nsemane, so it appears as if the young female had esatablished a little bit of a territory here. The first time I saw those partcular leopards was about a year before that when the cubs were very young, on the loop which leads to the watering hole behind Nsemane. We saw them regularly, and never did they ever show any signs of agression towards any vehicle or person.

She was merely inquisitive, jumped up onto the door fell in and was kicked out by the guide, a fright from both and pure reaction from both sides. If she was intent on killing him believe me I think she could have done it!

Later on when Henri was being taken to Orpen Gate to meet the ambulance by Corrie (local traffic cop) they passed the scene, the leopard was still there, playing with a water bottle that was thrown at here during the incident. What happened after still leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but yes she was shot, the person that shot her needed training in shooting and in crisis management, but I will leave it there.

We waited for autopsy reports on the leopard, as we needed to ascertain whether she had rabies or not, so that the doctors could treat Henri accordingly, but never got such a report, the brain needs to be analised, but the carcass dissappeared before this could be done. So unfortunately many questions can still be asked, but a good lesson was learnt by all.

Incidently the person that sent me photographs at that time was back in Kruger every year since then, with us, and again this year in October, he actually travelled in the exact vehicle that the leopard "jumped/fell" into.

This was also the year where a giraffe ran and fell onto an open vehicle in one of the private reserves, injuring many of those en board, aswell as the elephant that overturned one of the Sanparks vehicles attached to the walking trails.

Sharing is caring!! if you get my drift!

[Wild Dreamer]

According to "A Dictionary of KNP Place Names", Nsemani/Nsemane/Simana etc. (Tsonga) has no meaning and is possibly the name of a (historical) person.