Daily Archive for October 26th, 2007

The rains lasted all day coming and going but not really doing much. Enough to frustrate me getting all my equipment wet.
Realising it was pointless trying to follow lions with the drizzle coming on and off we spent the night in camp catching up.

Pre-dawn I was woken by the wonderful sound of hyaenas squabbling down at the dam. (Something tell you I love hyaenas?) I rushed down there to find them on the rotten remains of a hippo carcass. There were 9 hyaenas wandering around, some feeding, some drinking, others just sniffing and some resting. They kept coming and going to feed on the very rotten carcass. There wasn’t much if any meat left as this had rotted away leaving only the hippo’s thick hide and bones.
At dawn Marabou Storks ventured to the carcass trying to steal titbits but continuously being sent off by the hyaenas.

Of course still being overcast the light was awful, but hey when there’s something happening you just keep shooting. But just at sunrise the sun found a little gap and for about 5 minutes providing stunning colours and a beautiful dawn for that short moment. Then it was back to the drab grey of a cloudy day.
But as usual just being with those dudes always puts me on a high. Even though I don’t know these hyaenas yet.

While out the vehicle filming them they just can’t resist to see/smell who/what I am but it’s all just being curious. (I don’t know why curiousity killed the cat, should be the hyaena, they’re far more curious) If only the world would change their perception on these magical animals.

(Everyday I check to see how many views the different video clips I upload have. Lions, elephants and even wild dogs always do well, but as soon as there’s a “hyaena” in the title the numbers drop dramatically. So still the myth, on these animals that people love to hate, continues.)

This is another unlucky but lucky hyaena to survive a poachers snare. Most animals die, but hyaenas with their incredibly strong necks are one of the only to survive.

Lions bring productivity down.

With the lions all well fed they weren’t going anywhere. Manyari was still with the 3 youngsters resting up to the south of Bandama.
The elephant herds were in the area too. I expected them to come and hassle the lions some time through the night but they never did.

Instead strong winds slammed into us from the east. What was this all about? There was no weather on the horizon, no storms brewing? But then the wind has picked up like this for the last 3 nights.
It was only in the early hours that the clouds rolled in and a gentle drizzle descended on us. We got our covers up, but the lions had to sit it out in the open.

At dawn the weather lifted briefly and we ducked back to camp before it came down again for the rest of the day.