Great news!
I was able to spend about 15minutes with Whisky before it got dark. He’s in such great shape. Actually looking better than I’ve ever seen him. Maybe this is because when he kills he has it all to himself. That’s if the hyaenas don’t arrive.
I had to leave him to move on to Khayeni, the young female leopard we’ve had a couple of guys following for the last few months. She had a radio collar on her, which is such a hindrance so we decided to implant a transmitter in her stomach cavity. It just sits there loose and the animals are non the wiser that it’s there.
Now that she is back to her natural beauty, in a few days time I’ll start filming her.
The other good news is that while we were busy with the leopard we heard 2 wild dogs calling to the north. So here’s holding thumbs Whisky has found himself a friend!
I left camp at dawn and was confronted with a very quiet morning. Which didn’t liven up all day.
Eventually driving along the Chiredzi river at dusk, none other than Stompie popped out the woodwork. Him and another bull were just chilling in the river.
But at Chekwa pan in the last few minutes of light, that truly ‘golden hour’, a herd of buffalo were on the move. The backlit dust with their silhouettes in front of it, were just so stunning.
And shortly afterwards I found a herd of wildebeest with some similar great photos.
Oh it’s hell in Africa!!! I’m just loving it!
(With yesterdays complications with technology we weren’t able to get the blog out. Not through lack of trying)
What could this long line of parallel dots be? There are no other paintings on this rock face.
Surely they have to be man made. Is this maybe a hunter notching off his kills?
15th June 2000
Tjololo had already left his kill at dusk, about 30% of the carcass left. Didn’t look as if he’d fed again since the morning. The lions were still in the area and probably preventing him from doing so.
He headed slowly south and then east meandering and marking but with no real purpose. After a few hours rest he headed off hunting after midnight.
Body tense and ready to pounce, with 4 impala only 10m away, the hunter suddenly became the hunted. A lioness was stalking up on Tjololo. Only when she was about 20m off did he become aware of her. He froze for a while but couldn’t hold his nerve and sprinted off into cover. Safe. (A different lion to those from last night).
The rest of the night he hunted as he made his way south where he rested up in Paradise Valley after sunrise.
With the very long hours that he’s been on the move recently we’re taking advantage of every little rest period he has, to rest ourselves. We even find ourselves resting as early as 21h00 sometimes, but only for a couple of hours and then Tjololo’s on the move for the rest of the night. “Sure making hay while the moon shines.”
14th June 2000
A night of true African drama and probably one that Tjololo wouldn’t like to re-live.
He was on the move at dusk as usual heading north along the Sand river. Then moved in east tracking a bushbuck without success.
While resting after this 4 lionesses arrived and Tjololo took refuge in a tree. Not finding any evidence of a carcass they moved on south.
Tjololo continued north. Near the Rockdrift donga he was hunting impala but seeing him they soon blew his cover snorting madly. This brought the lions back. Tjololo ran north again leaving them milling around.
At Mamba waterhole Tjololo struck success killing an adult female impala, but his triumph was short lived when 3 hyaeans stole the kill from him. Tjololo made a stand with the first hyaena but when the others arrived he backed off.
With the giggling commotion of the 3 hyaenas feeding, 5 others, from a different clan, came running and they chased each other to and fro over the remains of the carcass. The area was obviously close to a clan boundary as they contested rights to the carcass.
All this commotion again brought in the lions, but they were too late. There was nothing left. While they were following on after the hyaenas Tjololo came back to the kill site checking for scraps. With so many hyaena around there definitely weren’t any.
He continued north and rested up north of the Kapen only to again be interrupted by hyaenas.
This livened up his hunting mode and in very dense bush he killed another female impala but the hyaenas were on to him in seconds. He lost out again while the hyaenas stuffed themselves.
The impala in the area were now panicked in the thick bush. Tjololo took advantage and killed again, a young female impala, which he instantly hoisted into a tree. Impala in the area were now seriously panicked and snorting everywhere not knowing where the danger was lurking.
The lions returned but didn’t discover Tjololo in the tree, as he remained motionless, and moved on past. About 100m away we heard them too killing an impala. While they were feeding, Tjololo took advantage of their noisy bad manners, and he fed. But he was soon discovered and a lioness that lost out on the kill charged in and up Tjololo’s tree. Tjololo scrambled into the very highest branches of the tree with his kill. The lioness climbed right up to within a meter of him. Any advance she made he retaliated fiercely while holding on to his prize. The lioness’s footing wasn’t good enough for her to venture that last meter, luckily for Tjololo. She tried a last lunge nearly falling out the tree. This made her lose her nerve and she very clumbsily left the tree.
Tjololo had to spend the rest of the night in the tree with 4 lionesses and now an adult male at the base.
At dawn he tried to make a dash for it from his tree but a young lioness was after him as he touched the ground and he luckily made it up the next tree only 20m away.
Looks like that’s where he’s going to spend the rest of his day.
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