29th October 2000
Our two main missions for the day were to establish how many and what age the hyaena cubs are at the den, and to get to see the White Cloth female’s cubs. Alas both went by unaccomplished. There was no activity at the hyaena and no sign of the leopards in the area we were told to search.
There was no sign of Tjololo’s kill and we soon picked him up to the west heading into the Sand river where he rested up in the reeds. I was surprised to see his kill finished and presume he either dropped it to waiting hyaenas or he’s moved it down towards the Kapen river. He couldn’t have finished it already and his gut doesn’t have the tell tale signs of having done so.
We later did find a bunch of rather lazy lions with a male who seemed to want to get into the vehicle. But he didn’t plan to do so in an orderly manner. He soon calmed down and went to sleep not even 10m from the vehicle. Probably just having a little attitude problem.
Quite a way south of them a herd of some 300 buffalo had already taken the time off for their midday siesta.
In the afternoon we went straight back to the buffalo and spent a few hours with them, but didn’t manage to pick up any behaviour. At least the afternoon produced good light and the potential was almost there for some good images, but again another lean day not filming.
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