It was a day of comedy.
I was out in the morning with the girls when we came across this herd of wildebeest. As we approached they slowly moved off. But left this youngster behind.
At first when I saw him I thought he was dead. And even through the binoculars I couldn’t see any sign of breathing. But then eventually I saw an ear twitch. So what was wrong with this little fellow? Was he really sick and couldn’t get up?
We decided to investigate. As we left the vehicle the rest of the herd alarm snorted madly from about 50m away. Still there was no change in the calf.
We walked closer whispering to each other. Now about 5m from the calf it still wasn’t reacting to our presence. I tossed a small clod of sand onto its stomach, which also had no effect. Its eyes were open and seemed to be looking around. Now I was convinced the little guy was seriously sick.
The whole time now the herd were snorting madly. Then we decided to speak up normally. The little guys slowly got up onto his chest and then seeing us, he took a double take and realising he was in grave danger took off out of there.
The girls thought it was the funniest thing they had ever seen.
He must have been in a really deep deep sleep.
Then driving home later in the day a Francolin was running down the road ahead of the vehicle. Suddenly it decided to change course and in the process skidded in the loose sand landing briefly on its side before taking off into the bush. This too brought a roar of laughter from the girls.
But their laughter was short lived when came across a male lion on a buffalo kill. The carcass was old and very rotten with piles of maggots. But the smell was something else and nearly had the girls bringing up down my neck.
Kim has there been a problem with posting the video on iTunes? yesterdays and todays videos are not there to download.
Thanks for letting me know. will check it out.
Kim I know you must be busy but did you find out why yesterdays video didnt post on iTunes? todays finally did.
hey kim.
i know its very unlikely. but was the wildebeest perhaps deaf and so unable to here you, the car and the other wildebeest?
thanx
Sure that could have been the case.
Kim, a friend and I were watching previews for the NG story of Shaun Ellis. Without telling the whole story he has been living with captive wolves. As the alpha wolf. Quite interesting. so we were discussing him and you and your film “Hyenas at War”. The talk led to conversation on how it must become like a drug to him. Living so closely and giving up on the humans for a while. I dont see you in the same light as this guy by any means. the question though is, is it like a drug, that you just cant get enough and you just keep wanting to get closer each time you see the hyenas or any of your subjects? I love the idea of another hyena film. I think you should do a follow up film on, well anything. Just to see where the clan is today or Tjololo. That would be awesome. Especially for the fans that already love your work.
My mission was never to see how close i could get to the hyaenas. I just wanted to be accepted by them but in no way to compete with them over food, territory or anything. They never showed me any aggression and neither me to them. I wanted to become a part of the clan without affecting their whole social structure and as i said without competing with them. And by succeeding in that I wanted to get people to realise hyaenas aren’t the animals we love to hate.
Like a drug? Not really. Just wanting to understand this amazing animal.
Hey Kim I dont know if you were the one or not but thank you getting the video from the 10th up on iTunes! Or thank the person responsible for me
I think those babies are SO CUTE!!!
Thank you