29th September 2000
For the first time in a long time Tjololo wasn’t around where we’d left him. After much searching with tracks heading west and then east again we eventually picked him up moving north along the boundary with the Kruger National Park.
He tends to follow this boundary all the way north which is extremely frustrating as the road is just inside Kruger, with no road on the Mala Mala side. Also there is no physical barrier between the 2 areas. This doesn’t do us any psychological good to be bouncing around through the bush while only a meter away Tjololo is walking on a perfectly graded road.
Once Tjololo was back on Mala Mala he frustrated us further by spending the whole time walking in the bottom of any donga he could find. This is not unusual and is very typical leopard behaviour. Before midnight he did eventually venture out and work on hunting. On the burn he killed an adult male steenbok which he hurriedly treed with 3 hyaenas hot on his heels. He had an uncomfortable feed in the tree as it was rather scraggly and the hyaenas weren’t letting him move on to another tree with the carcass.
Having fed he had to move away from the tree as the hyaenas stayed lying there hoping eventually to get a scrap.
At dawn Tjololo finished off his carcass. 8 hours to finish the whole carcass, another amazing feat by Tjololo.
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