Daily Archive for July 9th, 2007

I took the night off! Yippeee! Well so I thought but it ended up catching up on all my admin.

The elephants don’t often come to drink at Simbiri dam in full daylight. All the other times I’ve had them there has been after sunset. So this was great to have them in full daylight the other day.

But in the cold winter months they’re just not venturing in for a swim!

At dusk Khayeni was still where we’d left her in the morning. But soon got on the move. Shortly afterwards we heard another leopard and hyaenas having it out. Had Khayeni maybe been on a kill with the male leopard we’d heard the night before in the area? And now the hyaenas had taken over?

Also while waiting in the area I heard a very young hyaena calling to the southwest. This little guy was really small and has to still be living in a den.
Khayeni was keenly on the hunt at dusk. Luckily for us she was hunting across the open area of Khayeni. She can do that any day! And the place was full of impala herds. Moving in on the first herd she had no success as they kept moving away from her.

Then she surprised a group of 3 White-tailed Mongoose. It was unusual to see so many together in the first place. But strangely they didn’t seem too scared of her and sauntered away. Khayeni followed. But she too wasn’t really interested in them. Then she pounced and landed right next to one as it turned its tail on her. She gave it a little swat and backed off probably having been given a good dose of something seriously smelly from that tail end.
Khayeni moved on after another herd of impala. We lost her for about a minute and while watching the herd of impala, they suddenly erupted, except for one. Khayeni had caught a subadult female and quickly despatched it. She plucked and fed in a hurry before again opening the stomach and eating part of the intestines.

I’m beginning to think the reason for her going in at the stomach is not to remove it (as would make sense to lessen the weight when needing to drag the carcass) but to actually feed on the intestines where she must be getting some nutrients/minerals that she wouldn’t get from eating at the rump.
Having fed she left the carcass lying in the grass and lay up close by. When a hyaena arrived about half an hour later she ignored it. The hyaena finished off the carcass and Khayeni moved back south to rest up in the thickets.
With her out of action we moved in to the area where I’d heard the hyaena cub calling and waited listening for any further signs of hyaena and their den. But the rest of the night was quiet.
At dawn I walked the area with the girls and still had no success.

We later walked up Sosigi hill to check for Whiskey’s signal, but didn’t get anything.

Then it was back to Banyini as the girls wanted to check on the Blacksmith Plover nest. The bird was again on the nest and we quickly checked on her eggs when she moved off. All 3 were still there.