Bhaaaaaa!!! Pshhhhhhhh…..!!! Another one bites the dust.
Driving through that dense bush on the trail of Khayeni again and a tree stump ripped through the side of a new tyre. Nothing to do but throw it away. At least when it’s an old tyre you don’t feel so bad, but a new one!!!
And so our night went on on her trail until we just had to give it up as the bush got the better of us.
For the rest of the night Khayeni was deep in her own little jungle and out of sight. And we didn’t see her all night until briefly at dawn when she was on the move again back to her hidey hole south of Nhoro pan.
So that was a night of NOTHING!
This meant I was out all day today which proved to be a lot more successful.
This great elephant bull came sauntering in to Chekwa pan. He had such attitude. He really did own the world! But he didn’t stay long and swaggered off as if loaded with 2 six guns by his side.
Then I found this poor Immature Bateleur hanging in the Knobthorn tree. The vicious hooked thorns had obviously hooked it and there was just no getting loose. He must have died a terrible slow death.
The elephant herds were around Nduna dam and just being cool and then at sunset I had a herd of about 500 buffalo on Banyini. Something spooked them and they stampeded. WOW! What an awesome sight with the setting sun shining through all that dust as they disappeared into the mopanie.
(I’ll be away for the next couple of days as I head off to collect my daughters for their school holidays. This will be their first time to see Khayeni and they’re also keen to see how Whisky is getting on)
27th June 2000
A never ending night as Tjololo kept us on the go all the way and only after sunrise did he decide to call it a day, or night, after having been on the move soon after sunset.
He moved east from the Sand river and picked up an interesting scent. Sniffing a small area intently, grunting, meowing and chuffling as he did so, he was obviously very excited. I think he had picked up the scent of a female in oestrus. Something that would surely get his hormones pumping and send him running around frantically calling and taking up the trail. But after about 3 hours he still didn’t have any results and continued to call.
Before midnight he rested and we were happy we could now get a bit of shut eye too. But then a monkey spotted him and started its highly irritating chatter warning others of the predator. Tjololo wasn’t going to put up with it and headed north. That was the end of any chance of sleep for us. He continued all the way to his northern boundary on the Kapen river and then headed south west to rest up.
I was able to shoot a fair amount of behaviour of Tjololo calling and marking which will be useful and very necessary for the film. So although a very tiring night there was definitely some good in it.
Quiet night.
Khayeni was well fed and with her carcass stashed in a tree she spent the whole night sleeping only to wake just before dawn to finish it off. Then it was back into the thickets around Nhoro to continue sleeping. Oh the life of a cat!
The hyaenas were very vocal last night calling in just about all directions. A female did come round to the base of the tree where Khayeni had her kill and managed to find a few scraps.
And we heard poor Whisky in the area still calling and calling and hoping. It’s hard to imagine how he must feel. Imagine there was some disaster in your country and all communications broke down, you were the only person left and you just didn’t know if there was another person alive out there, how would you feel? And how would you find them?
26th June 2000
We at last found the wild dog den but definitely not a place we’ll be doing any filming. There is just no visibility into the den, which is in a termite mound surrounded by very dense vegetation. We don’t yet know how many pups there are, but there are 5 adults.
Tjololo left his kill for a gentle walkabout towards midnight only returning in the early hours to finish off the carcass and headed back northwest into the Sand river. He was constantly being hassled by a couple of hyaena, something he didn’t take kindly to as he had to scale a tree each time with his inflated gut.
At dawn we followed another hyaena heading north hoping to be led to a den. No such luck but it did meet up with another two as they greeted with the normal ritualised tentative greeting ceremony each sniffing at the others genitals as they stood poised on 3 legs, the other lifted, a very vulnerable position.
Eventually it all came together.
My afternoon started off badly with more technology problems just when Khayeni was hunting at dusk.
Several hours later we were back on her trail hunting to the north-east of Noro pan. This is pretty cool country for us to hunt in as the bush opens up somewhat.
She was headed for a big herd of wildebeest but then changed tack and set her beady eyes on some impala. But they blew her cover and she retraced her steps back to Nhoro pan where she had a Scrub Hare racing for its life. And successful it was.
Khayeni took a break resting up in the thickets south of Nhoro pan till around 2am when she again headed north.
This time a rather unsuspecting Sharpe’s Grysbok was plucked from the bush and hoisted up a nearby Sterculia tree safely away from the hyaenas. Here Khayeni proceeded to pluck her prize for about 20 minutes before feeding.
Well fed she lay around close by and at dawn was stalking an impala ram that had ventured into the vicinity. She was serious about it too, even though she still had 80% of a Grysbok in the tree. But the impala was too sharp busting her cover. She retreated out of sight hoping the impala would stop alarming the rest of the world of her presence.
It was home time for us. Well so I thought until we found Stephen had a branch pierce straight through his radiator. He wasn’t going anywhere. We removed the radiator in the field and hope to have it repaired to be back on Khayeni’s trail again this evening.
At this time of year one of the only plants flowering is the Impala Lilly. These stunning flowers look delicious too and my dad would love telling people how yummy and sweet the nectar was and having them try it.
There is nothing yummy about it. The nectar instantly dries out your mouth and leaves a horrible bitter taste!
25th June 2000
Tjololo took us further west along the Sand river than he has ever done before into an area that we know is free of male leopards as the previous male died several months ago. Tjellers has herself too moved into this area with pressure from the Paradise Valley female on the eastern side of her normal territory.
Tjololo was very relaxed in the area and quite happy to hang around with his new impala female kill which he treed straight away. The tree he chose was not very conducive to caching a carcass, as I filmed him and carcass precariously roaming around the tree exhausting him as he hung onto the dead weight hanging from his jaws, usually the weight is borne to some extent by the branch he is moving it along, until he eventually managed to secure it. Leaving the tree the carcass fell about an hour later. He soon had it up another tree.
The kill was not very dramatic but I did film it, which is great news, except not much is seen with the usual dense cover of grass.
Heading up north we found 2 adult male lions finishing off a buffalo kill. In the early hours we headed back to Tjololo.
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