Daily Archive for May 7th, 2007

Lions regroup after the hunt: Video

After a sensational first 2 weeks with the Nduna pride, the last week has been rather bleak and tough going, for them and us.
Alpha stretch
But the good news is the wild dogs are back. The Mupanigawa pack were up at Piccanini James yesterday afternoon when I found them. I wasn’t able to do a good count but counted at least 15 dogs. There should be 17. I really hope I just missed them.
Anyway all our key players are still there and going strong. The Alpha Female is now huge. Surely she must give birth very soon.

Pregnant
Sash’s ear is looking so much better.

Better
One-eye’s limp has almost gone.
When I left them after sunset they were heading in the direction of the den they used last year. So here’s to hoping they use the same den and soon.
It was then a long haul from the very north of the reserve to the very south, some 25kms to pick up on the Nduna pride. They were heading north over the Malevula hills. The whole pride now beginning to look lean but all in good shape.

Young blood
They missed a few attempts on impala and zebra just north of the hills and rested up here a while.
Then in the early hours they continued north-west. Crossed the Mahande river and were in the area they were at a few days ago where they encountered a herd of eland.
Just before dawn they were into stalk mode. Again it was eland and zebra they were targeting.
But again they came up short. Eventually the whole pride regrouped at dawn to rest up for the day.

Regroup
I was hoping to pick up on the dogs in the morning too but with 3 punctures to fix had my time cut out. But I will be tracking them down this afternoon.
Long

Chidumu B No.19

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Chidumu B 19

We always imagine bushmen to be short with slim frames. Their hunter gatherer lifestyle doesn’t give them a chance to become overweight. Why is it then that these women are depicted so differently? Is this maybe what they wished in a women?

Tjololo 7th May 2000

The Tjololo Diaries

7th May 2000
There’s a little water on the roads but the rains haven’t really set us back this time.
Tjololo was back from his travels into Kruger and keeping control of his territory with a “squirt” here and another there. Most of the areas are traversable off road but last night he spent quite some time moving through seep after seep, while we looped the loop intercepting him the other side of each seep.


On one of these loops, impala snorting alerted us that Tjololo had done another dirty deed. We found him strangling a young impala. After feeding he treed the kill and only about an hour later did a hyaena arrive, too late, having to make do licking blood off the grass.
The rest of the night proved quiet with Tjololo having no other disturbances.
At dawn as he moved south along the Sand river calling and salivating we heard another male leopard calling on the opposite bank. Their calls carried on parallel and eventually both leopards moved away from the river in opposite directions.