Good rains fell today.
I was out at dawn to catch up with the Mupanigawa pack and they didn’t look like they had fed last night. We headed south onto Banyini open area and still no sign of any impala.
The dogs followed up on a jackal calling to the west. But before they even got there a herd of impala caught their interest and the chase was on. But strangely some impala didn’t even run and the dogs ran straight past them standing about 20m away, as if they weren’t interested in anything if it wasn’t running away from them.
But the impala looked bewildered at all the goings on. Only then did I realise their dilemma. A lioness lay crouched close by and the dogs weren’t at any stage aware of her, but she was fully aware of them. (The jackal had probably been mobbing the lioness)
Luckily for the wild dogs the other impala took off north away from the lioness.
They eventually killed a subadult male impala in a deep ravine.
A lone hyaena, judging by its behaviour, came wondering in. At this stage only BB’s pups were feeding and BB was waiting in the wings to feed on the left overs. Luckily for the hyaena he wasn’t sent packing and ambled slowly in looking for scraps. He didn’t even challenge them and only took over the carcass once they’d left.
The dogs moved on east into the hills where I couldn’t keep up with them.
Around midday the first storm arrived. Good solid rain. An hour later another and then another. The place is now well soaked.
North of Bandama I discovered the Quelea nesting in their tens of thousands. This is going to become quite a spectacle once the chicks hatch in a couple of weeks and the predatory birds move in. And reptiles too!
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