African wildlife adventures live from the bush
Buffalo are very dependent on water and will drink when ever they get the opportunity…This huge herd paid a visit to Bandama waterhole a few days ago. What a spectacular scene.
Most animals are quite wary around waterholes as predators can lurk close by. The Buffalo were constantly on the lookout for danger and understandably jumpy.
Luckily we had a fairly tame night, definitely nothing as wild as the night Tjololo and Tjellers had.
Richard was still being attacked by his bug, so I took the reins myself shooting for the internet, shooting film and taking photographs. No wonder the night went so fast.
Usually courting leopards will keep on the move as they mate. But luckily last night with them having a kill they stayed pretty much in the same place, which made it a lot easier for me to operate.
The hyaenas continued to pester them through the night as they went through their bouts of mating. They would mate as often as every 5minutes for about an hour and then having about an hours break before getting down to it again. Exhausting stuff and they’ve still got a couple more days at it.
Having made this kill earlier, Khayeni was able to feed on it for a couple of days. Although she made the kill, A male leopard was aslo seen feeding on it and possibly the one who took it up the tree. Khayeni is too small and not strong enough to haul such a big prize up the tree. She was able to enjoy her kill, out of the reach of prowling hyenas. She kept feeding as the new dawn approached…
The courting pair spent the night not moving around much, but doing a lot. With the constant vocalizations of their antics hyeanas kept coming in to hassle them. Later in the night they bumped into some impala which the ever hungry Tjololo took advantage of killing an adult female.
Having fed and safely treed the carcass he was back to the more serious business of attending to Tjellers’ needs. Richard was taken ill by a bug, so Annette stood in for him getting behind the camera and adopting the nocturnal behaviour of some mad filmmakers.
Due to the temperature fluctuations we had lately, we’ve been treated with spectacular scenes of mist drifting through the hills of Malilangwe Game Reserve.
Even the animals were stunned by the beauty of the scene.
After the Mala Mala rangers left Tjololo he carried on hunting heading north of the Kapen river, but then suddenly headed south with purpose, still hunting if he found opportunity but without success.
His move south again, after only having left there last night, was possibly his hormones working overtime. As the eastern horizon started to glow Tjololo found himself in luck. Licking on some buffalo dung a leopard called to his west. Hardly spending a moment to listen Tjololo was up and running in that direction. When we located him after riding many rough dongas, we found him with Tjellers. He was apprehensive at her approaches and moved away each time. This went on for about an hour until he’d built up his confidence and they mated. Our thoughts of him having found a female in oestrus last night were confirmed. (They will mate now for anything up to 6 days).
It was another hard night as we battled with the eyelids. Tjololo rested only a couple of times and only for about half an hour. Two nights in a row like this is testing our systems, but hopefully tonight will be a little easier with them mating. Some extra sleep would be hugely appreciated.
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