9th June 2000
Luckily Tjololo was as exhausted as us and spent a fair amount of the night sleeping, of which we took advantage and did likewise. Don’t know why he should have been so tired after having an easy night last night too.
We found him at dusk heading east from where he had the kill last night. I’m not sure whether he’d been back to the kill but he sure hadn’t eaten, as his bulge was more respectable.
He continued on south all the way down the middle. Moving down the road his approach is always quiet with no grass or leaves to russle, so any animal close to the road is in danger of his silent approach. So it was with a steenbok and her youngster. As they fed in the dark Tjololo was able to sneak up on them effortlessly along the road. But what surprised us was he charged in after the steenbok at about 50m and nabbed the youngster. It was not much bigger than a hare and soon devoured.
Moving on southwest he rested up for several hours, moving on again in the early hours.
Next he was hunting Impala, when he suddenly surprised a male steenbok about 20m away. As it took off he gave chase while we listened to steenbok and leopard crashing through the undergrowth. It seemed at that distance Tjololo had no chance, but he was relying on the animal stumbling into bushes and losing pace and he soon caught it. More like cheetah hunting techniques than leopard.
With his carcass in a tree he rested up until dawn before feeding, as a hyaena lay patiently waiting for scraps from the boss’s table.
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