Monthly Archive for November, 2006

Nuptial Feast: Video

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Wildcaster
on November 30, 2006
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A clear day was forecast, which it did eventually turn out to be.
I was with Chipfongwe and the herd at dawn right in the south east of the reserve near Makeche. This is that dreaded clay country but it’s dried up sufficiently to make for easy driving in the area.

Mom's food
And then it started to rain, a soft drizzle. The skies had closed in totally and it looked like it had come to join us for the day. Well it must have got bored with the company and left us about an hour later having really just been a nuisance and wet everything.
The herds were still in the mopanie when I left then in the late morning.
On my way past Banyini the nuptial feast was in full swing and more birds were arriving. These flying ants are so rich in protein and obviously so yummy that they attract the crowds. Not intentionally of course. But they come out in such numbers that many of them do still make it, thanks to all those that sacrificed their lives for them.

Feast
I didn’t return to the elephants today, as with them in that mopanie it just doesn’t provide me with much filming opportunities. But it’s at times like this that I feel I might just be missing some interesting behaviour. And yet I might also just not get anything.
I took the lucky dip and headed out after the wild dogs again. They were still right in the east lying up at Nyamsaan pan. And just as they got on the move the light came out in all its glory. Lots of pretty pretty stuff.

Nyamsaan pan
They headed south at quite a pace moving parallel to the fence line. They had purpose, and surprising a herd of impala close to the fence they chased a female straight into it and again success for them at dusk. They sure have mastered this tactic.

Fence kill
This use of fences for killing up against has been observed by wild dogs in other reserves too and has also been observed with cheetah.

Greeting time
I hope to catch up with the dogs early tomorrow again when they set out to hunt. That’s if they don’t hunt again this evening with the moon now being about half full (or empty).
Scruffy chap

Elephant bulls and thorns: Video

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Wildcaster
on November 29, 2006
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The rains have soaked up fast and my life has been made a lot easier.

Waterbuck herd
Already the heavy clays on the mopanie have dried up considerably making travelling in there a breeze and no concerns of damage to the environment.

Brave
The elephant spent their whole day here in the mopanie not moving far at all. Obviously the mopanie with its new flush of leaves was providing them with yummy fresh food but they spent most of their time breaking off twigs of Sickle bush and carefully stripping them of their bark. It must be pretty good stuff to warrant tangling with those nasty sharp spines for ages only to get a little strip of bark.

Getting personal
And the wild dogs had me totally snookered where they were resting up in the hills of Chiveve right in the very east of the property. Those just wasn’t any way I could get access up there.

Eley portrait

Elephants combat ozone depletion: Video

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Wildcaster
on November 28, 2006
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The rains held back today but their effects bogged me down.
I got reports of lions on the Binya road at dawn. Not having seen lions for some time I was keen to follow up, especially as I wasn’t sure where the dogs were. I have my own little rule, where I’ll nearly always go for the bird in the hand, as I did this time.

Nyala bull
But there was no bird. I didn’t even find any lion tracks although some impala did come scooting out the mopanie. I followed up taking the chance that the black cotton soils would have dried up somewhat. And they had. Until a little patch found me and down went the vehicle. While digging myself out and putting logs under the tyres, I wasn’t sure if the lions were around. A good friend came visiting though, a Spotted Hyaena. They will always investigate anything new in their area. He, well I think it was a he, stood around watching my antics for some time before moving on, bored.

Tall Camouflage
Having only just got out of there, another report of lions came in, different ones, much further north on the Binya road. Again I was out of luck. All I found up there were numerous vultures on their way catching thermals.

Diurnal moths
Mandlovu and her herd were back out of the ‘jungles’ of Malilangwe in the area of Chimbye but heading south. This area just south of the hills is sandy soils and easily traversable. But I only caught up to them in this mud wallow.
They are all well and Chipfongwe is becoming a real elephant by the day.
All well coated in mud the herd headed south into mopanie country and black cotton soils. I wasn’t about to risk it again and let them be.

Pachyderms on the move
It’s not so much the getting stuck each time that really hassles me, but when the vehicle bogs down like that it leaves deep damaging ruts in the landscape, an eyesore and ecologically damaging.
Right in the very east I found the dogs resting up near a lovely open pan. It was the ideal spot for them play in the water. Well it was ideal from my point of view for filming them in a great location.

Wild dogs were here
The non-ideal bit was they too were on clay soils which were fine to get me in there, but when they moved on south, without having a play session in my ideal pan, I had to abandon them too.

Pincushion perspective
Trusting the weather is clearing I hope to have more access into the clay areas and better luck tomorrow.

Red-banded Rubber frog

Wild Dogs take on Wildebeest: Video

Published
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Wildcaster
on November 27, 2006
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(Because of the rains today, I had to pull a new video clip I shot a few days ago.)

The rains arrived soon after getting back to camp last night. Sitting with the dogs near Banyini late yesterday I noticed this advancing cloudbank, which just looked like some cooler weather on the way. And yes it did get cooler but only after raining all night.

I had plans on getting out early to the dogs being sure to find them hunting on the open savannah country of Banyini. But with all that rain having fallen I was grounded. It had stopped raining by dawn but the roads would have been like grease and I would only have damaged them even more. And not to mention that there was no ways I would be able to travel off road.

By midday things had dried up or rather soaked up and ventured out. Every little conceivable depression was now a puddle. All the insects were out in force and this rhino midden got its own dose of dung beetles.

Beetle mania

But where were the dogs? They were nowhere near Banyini. I eventually located them far in the east, south of Lisillilije in mopanie country. Mopanie trees have a habit of growing on heavy clays, which in wet weather are just waiting to suck up any vehicle that would foolishly venture on them. I managed to find the dogs resting in the mopanie but could only see a few in the thick bush.

Portrait in Mopanie

Before sunset they performed their greeting ceremony and were off on the hunt.

Bushveld greeting

When they moved on I was happy to make it back to a road and from there I monitored their movements. Waiting for them to make an appearance on the next track I heard impala death cries. They had killed. But 5 minutes later they were on the hunt again crossing the road. It must have been a baby impala, enough for only one dog.

Rushing to greet

And just then the rains were back. I had to scramble to get my cover over all the camera gear in time and called it a day, not having even taken my camera out the box.