Daily Archive for October 31st, 2007

Lions mobilise for the hunt: Video

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Wildcaster
on October 31, 2007
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The Nduna pride got it right. Well sort of.

Sunset 10/30
With Manyari at the helm the pride were on the move before sunset. One gets the feeling that if she wasn’t around, the other lions would spend their days sleeping (Sort of much like the males do. Male lions that is.) And hoping food would be delivered, MacDonald’s style!

Strolling
After dark out of nowhere the Nduna male joined the pride. I wish I had some of his tactics finding these guys. The youngsters were all happy to see him rubbing against him.
After several attempts on zebra in the mopanie woodland the lions eventually arrived on Banyini. I just love it when they hang out here as it’s fairly open and easy for us traverse. We’re not having to crash over trees to keep up with them.

Grumpy
A herd of impala on the south eastern corner were soon surrounded by the pride and as they closed in on them they bolted. Manyari took the prize! She intercepted an adult female and immediately the rest of the pride were on top of her. Nduna commandeered the kill but the pride weren’t giving in that easily and piled in from all sides. Nduna had no option but to share.
Half an hour later there was only a bloodstain on the grass that a Black-backed Jackal was now cleaning up.

Handsome teen
Having drunk at Banyini pan the pride were on the move again. Attempts on impala and zebra were unsuccessful.
Manyari led the pride after sunrise all the way south to just west of Chekwa pan where they rested up for the day.

A white rhino bull came grazing through the area which attracted the attention of this young lioness. Luckily for her, she gave him a miss.

Did you see that?
Expecting them to move again I spent several more hours watching sleeping lions. I was in my own shade and have to admit I didn’t do much watching. After a long night I passed out on my camera box for a couple of hours.

Shattered

Tjololo 31st October 2000

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Wildcaster
on October 31, 2007
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The Tjololo Diaries

31st October 2000
The bitterly cold weather persisted all day, which is no wonder why Tjololo was on the move for a lot of the morning, besides looking rather lean and obviously hungry.
At dawn we found him frantically following a trail until he came up against his neighbour to the southeast. Showdown time. Presumably they had been at it all night as Tjololo had hardly moved from where we had his tracks going into Kruger.
But the showdown was over now and the 2 males headed into their respective territories, Tjololo heading west along the Sand river. He followed the river almost to his western boundary before cutting across the corner and heading into the river to rest.
We tried our luck again in the afternoon hoping to see the White Cloth female cubs, but no joy.


Heading back south we bumped into Shololwane. He’s looking well and was hunting. Resting for a short while, he was suddenly roused by movement in the grass next to him. Next he was standing over a puffadder, a very poisonous African snake. The snake lunged at him when he got too close, but he was quick to jump out the way and left the snake to go its own way.  We stayed with him as he went off in search of prey, but had to leave him when it got too dark to film.