African wildlife adventures live from the bush
Wow, what a great morning we had with the dogs.
They were all out there on the hunt before dawn.
Leaving the pups playing the adults were able to hunt successfully and then headed back to their den in the hills.
See “Wild Dogs – All over the Place” video clip.
Its all happening in this segment, the dogs have mad a kill, a black rhino comes to investigate and lions are on the prowl
Last night turned out to be a long wait. While parked at the base of the hills we had visit from a lone hyaena just curious to see what was going on. It paced around the car a few times and then decided to join us for a sleep.
In the early hours we were awoken by the signal. The dogs were on the move. We couldn’t stay with them as they headed south along the base of the hills. Far too rocky for any self-respecting vehicle.
Waiting to see what their next move was, they popped out at our vehicles. All the adults were there in good shape and all the alpha pups. Not having seen them for a few days it was good to see all was still well in the ranks. But they just weren’t getting their act together and maybe it was the alpha pups being a drag on the adults. They all lay in a pile to rest but the adults weren’t having any of it and headed back north towards the den. At the base of the hills the adults took off east. I don’t know what happened to the pups. They probably went back to the den.
I also don’t know what happened to the adults. They quickly got rid of us in thick bush. Soldiering on in their general direction we came across the Alpha female having just killed an adult female impala. She was nervous continuously leaving the kill to search the surrounding area.
A black rhino, confused with all the commotion, came trotting in not knowing what was going on and left still none the wiser. Well so it looked and at least he wasn’t about to give us a closer inspection with that horn.
The Alpha female fed well and left. About an hour later she returned with Sash to feed again. She had probably been to the den, fed the pups and come back for more and Sash followed.
They both left well fed again and the carcass was left to the vultures.
When I returned this afternoon they had stripped the carcass leaving very little sign of anything.
This morning I was surprised to find a lioness on the move around 10am. It is unusual to find them moving in this heat, but she had purpose and I lost her heading determinedly east into the hills.
Stumbled across a huge herd of buffalo today plus lots of other interesting stuff - enjoy the video
I’m beginning to realise how lucky we’ve been with the wild dogs up till now. Again at dawn they were in their hide out in the hills well out of reach in a vehicle. But for the last 4 months we’ve been lucky to have them denning in the mopanie, an area freely accessible, and so allowing us to document all their goings on.
With them in the hills there’s not much I can do while they’re resting all day and then they’re hunting at night at the moment. So that’s them basically out of reach. Well not from tonight when we’ll be waiting for them to come down from the mountain and hope to join them on the hunt. That means back to night shift!
With the dogs out of action it was still early when I headed down to the Chiredzi River to find a huge herd of buffalo numbering 400 to 500 strong. They weren’t too happy to hang around with me trailing. Standing like soldiers lined up in their ranks they were staring me down and testing the wind.
The wind changed, they caught my scent and stampeded, thankfully in the other direction. How the little calves don’t get trampled is a miracle. The buffalo took off into the dense brush leaving me with clouds of dust to contemplate.
In the mopanie woodland on the lower Chiredzi the elephants have taken destruction to a new level. The bulls, equipped with such strength are pushing over tree after tree to get at any green leaves. Such massive destruction comes about when elephant numbers get out of hand as is the case in large parts of southern Africa.
This bull was feeding on a mopanie tree with the bodies of other trees lying around him. It was like being in the middle of a war zone.
And inquisitively making his way around all of this was a little Four-toed Elephant Shrew. (Well of course you wouldn’t expect a Lion shrew would you?)
Cooling off in the afternoon I was down at Malilangwe dam. Again I went walking up the Nyamasikana riverbed, which was truly pleasant although I didn’t get to see much. A lone kudu bull crossed the river ahead of me always on the alert, always hesitant to make the next move. And so majestic too. I sometimes wander how these animals get through life when they’re so highly strung expecting danger around every turn. I’m glad I don’t walk around the bush feeling like that. I’d have to be on all sorts of medication to survive the stress.
Walking back to the vehicle I passed by a young elephant bull feeding on the top of the bank. He wasn’t too phased with this thing trespassing past him.
In the shallows at the top end of the dam a Marabou Stork was standing sentry watching and waiting for fish to come in range. Then right next to him a small crocodile popped up. Neither was concerned about the other, both waiting for dinner to be served.
At least I know mine is served!
As planned I was down at Malilangwe dam at dawn. It’s just such a great place to watch the sun rise.
As usual it was alive with bird activity. White-breasted Cormorant chicks demanding more food from their parents, a Great-White Egret patrolling the shallow waters for fish, Pied Kingfishers doing their kamikaze dives after fish in the shallows AND being successful.
Egyptian Geese causing their usual riot when anybody tried to invade their airspace.
At dawn some hippo slowly made their way to the water. A few impala were sprinkled on the green flush coming up along the shores, but they felt cornered between the water and me and took off to safer ground.
And still no sign of the dogs. So they weren’t going to venture down to the dam as I hoped. I was imagining all sorts of things with the youngsters chasing after those oh so tempting geese and ducks waddling along the shores. Alas another dream trashed for which those birds are happy I’m sure.
I decided to venture right to the top end of the dam where the Nyamasikana River comes in, somewhere I’ve never been before. The dam narrows in the upper reaches and looks more like a river and the higher up I went it eventually dried up. Stunning countryside up there.
The muddy shallows up there are alive with fish AND ‘fishermen’. Marabou Storks, Yellow-billed Storks, Great-white Egret and a Darter were all delving into this ‘honey’ pot.
Where the river dried up I abandoned the vehicle and went walking, barefoot as the sand was nice and soft. The sandy riverbed was alive with fresh tracks of elephant, rhino, hyaena and baboons. But none of these provided me with a sighting. Elephants had dug a hole in the sand to get to fresh water about a meter and a half down and many other animals had taken advantage of this.
Being out here walking the place had that very wild air about it and I was happy to be on my own. Then I saw a couple of animals on the bank ahead but couldn’t see what they were. At first I thought rhino but putting the camera to my eye I was surprised to see they were bushpig. These animals are strictly nocturnal and I’ve never seen one in the day and only twice at night. I wanted to get closer for a better look. Sneaking up on them I was doing well until about 30m away, in my stalk mode I was confronted by a carpet of paper-thorns. I didn’t see them but sure did feel them and trying as hard as I could to keep my composure I had to keep going a couple more steps before I was able to relieve myself and pluck away removing these tiny irritations. By now the bushpigs had moved up into the hills and with a little more stealth I was able to get another glimpse of them before they scrambled up the hill. Just seeing them was such a jackpot!
By now it was already getting warm and I was sure the wild dogs would be resting up. I picked up their signal in the same area as last night and managed to drive a little closer but was soon brought to a halt by a sandstone ridge in front of me. Desperate to know how the dogs were doing and to see if the pups were up there I took to the hills on foot. Not far over the top the signal got really strong and then they blasted me with their alarm barks. I saw a bunch of adults and some alpha pups scatter from an overhanging rock. That was enough to tell me they were all there and fine and I left them in peace not wanting to torment them any further.
On the way back past Sosigi dam I encountered the same pair of Giant Eagle Owls from yesterday.
And coming down to the dam was a good-sized elephant bull with fairly impressive ivory.
Joining him for their daily drink were zebra, impala and a few eland (the heaviest antelope weighing up to 940kgs). Eland are not common in Africa but occur in good-sized herds on Malilangwe but have always remained slightly nervous not standing around for their photos to be taken.
It was yet another wonderful day in Africa and if only I could spend more time walking. And that is one of the reasons why I want to do the Ground Hornbill film ‘cos then I’ll be following them on foot everyday.
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