Daily Archive for June 17th, 2007

Elephants drinking at Nduna ‘Bar’: Video

Shattered!

Striding
No, no shattering news, just my own physical status. Sleep deprivation getting the better of me. I’m just not made to cope with about 4 hours a night. AND it’s all work. Promise!
A big herd of buffalo came in to drink early at Banyini but didn’t hang around and were off again.

Buffalo herd
Also a Lichtenstein’s Hartebeest came to drink. It’s the first time I’ve seen one on Banyini. Usually they hang out right in the south of the reserve.
I moved on to Lojaan dam. It was quiet, in fact so quiet that I dosed off on the steering wheel. I ended up spending several hours here. No, not on the steering wheel.

Folks and gosling
I had hoped that my friendly hippo would be there but there was no sign of him. And for the first few hours there was no sign of him. Then miraculously he appeared in the water. I can’t imagine where he came from. He was probably only letting his nostrils break the surface to breathe and I wasn’t picking them up.
And as usual he again obliged for a photo shoot.

Drowning?
Later in the afternoon I had the herd of elephant come to drink at Nduna dam. I think this is the first time I’ve filmed elephant at this dam. They just came piling out of the woodland. Wonderful sight. And then lined up along the shoreline stretching their trunks to reach the cleaner water.

Nduna bar
Going via Banyini on my way home a white rhino cow and calf had been to drink and as is usual the calf ran ahead of its mother, often being directed by mom’s horn from behind. (In black rhino the calf runs behind)

Leading

Pamushana

bushmanlogo.jpg

Pamushana b

These 3 kudu bulls are in a very different style to the other bushmen paintings. I wonder if this isn’t another era of art?

Pretty neat abstract images though.

Pamushana a

Tjololo 16th June 2000

The Tjololo Diaries

16th June 2000
It was a good thing that Tjololo headed into Kruger early in the evening, as this left us free to hunt for other action.
Our luck was in when we bumped into Tjellers. She’s looking very well and eventually killed an adult female impala. She fed immediately. Only some 15 minutes later 2 hyaenas arrived. Tjellers left the carcass on the ground and moved off on hearing her approach. But these 2 thieves were already bulging at the seams and ambled in to the carcass feeding casually. Not the usual feeding frenzy that we invariably see among hyaenas. They were soon satiated, something hard to believe, and moved off. Tjellers snuck in and treed the carcass.


Before dawn Tjololo was back on Mala Mala already heading north. He seemed tired taking a casual stroll and resting soon after sunset.
It was really great to see Tjellers again after so long, especially when we had spent 2 whole years with her in the past and know her so well. She’s such a pretty leopard and we hope she is able to have another litter soon, fathered by Tjololo.