I didn’t expect much out of the Nduna pride last night but I was wrong.
Nduna was still looking after his girl and they kept to themselves in the hills.
At dusk the rest of the pride, were still resting up where I had left them in the morning. And so they stayed.
Eventually around 2am they headed north travelling about a kilometre straight into a herd of buffalo. These lions are known to do quite well at killing buffalo, so my excitement levels rose. Looking for action!
The buffalo were already aware of the lions and drawn themselves into a tight herd with the bulls and cows facing outwards and calves in the middle. There was no chance the lions could penetrate that mass of meat.
Whenever they got close, they were quickly sent packing as a bull or cow charged down on them.
Then the lions tried another tactic. They needed to get the herd to stampede so as to be able to single out the calves or the weak and lame animals.
Knowing that their cover had already been blown, they started roaring. The whole pride was at it and close as I was to them my car vibrated with this amazing volume of roar! Was this to intimidate the buffalo and hope they would stampede?
Initially nothing happened but for some reason a while later, and after much roaring, the buffalo moved on. A tiny calf, only days old lagged behind its mother. One of the lion cubs managed to grab it but was instantly chased off by the mother.
This went on all night as the lions tried grabbing youngsters and even adults. But by dawn the lions hadn’t had any success and went to chill out at the pan close by.
Is this man possibly climbing this tree to seek out a beehive for honey? Otherwise there is little other reason for them to climb trees unless to get to birds nests. (Well unless he wants to commit suicide)
16th April 2000
Tjololo has been injured. He’s got about a 3 inch gash in his chest. A 6 inch cut along the side of his neck and several holes in his head which must be aching as he keeps his ears flat the whole time.
What happened?
We presume the other night when we got stuck and heard a warthog squealing, that it was possibly a large animal and fought back fiercely. This was evident by the long period of time that we heard it squealing. Although warthog have long thick tusks that come out of the top jaw, they do little damage. But the smaller tusks in the lower jaw are razor sharp as they are continuously sharpened when the animal is chewing. It is these tusks that do major damage to an attacker and have been known to kill leopards.
Tjololo was obviously in pain the way he carried his head and wasn’t able to give a fully extended yawn. But otherwise he seemed fine and went about business as normal. Marking territory and hunting.
We found him resting next to the road and were sad to see him in that condition. Suddenly he sneaked off. Was he hunting? He climbed a tree and looking down was growling at something to the east. 2 lions had approached. (the same lions that stole his nyala carcass). His state couldn’t be that bad if he’d heard them approaching along the road. They soon moved off.
Tjololo left the tree and continued east. Following, we got stuck again and picked him up later in the Kapen river, the remains of an impala carcass in a tree. Obviously not his. He disappeared into the thick undergrowth on the far bank where we couldn’t follow. Then we heard a leopard yeowling and chuffling. Tjololo must have arrived at the kill of a female leopard. This chuffling is common when male and female meet and they are both a little apprehensive about each other.
Again we just had to listen as the elements kept us away from them. And again we got stuck. Seriously stuck. While grovelling our way out, the same lions arrived and we had to chase them off.
At dawn Tjololo a long way south resting up and still looking sorry for himself. Will he tackle a warthog again, and if so such a big brute?
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