Those elusive lions.
We picked up a young lioness south of Nyamsaan pan. She was calling and calling, obviously looking for the rest of the pride. (In the same predicament as me.)
Where is the rest of the pride? If only I knew I’d feel a sense of accomplishment today. But it was another night of no filming and full on frustrations.
Eventually the young lioness headed north.
And then, her BIG lion moment! As she moved past a thicket of palms she froze. We switched off our vehicles and sat watching in silence. I could hear movement in the palms. What could it be?
The lioness went into stalk mode. She’s getting serious! Big potential kill coming up and it’s going to happen right in front of us.
Waiting. Lioness still in her full frozen stalk position. A few more minutes go by.
She can’t contain herself any more and pounces. The palms erupt!
Hundreds of Quelea take to the skies. Yes, just Quelea.
How brave was that to take on so many? Lions rule.
With bravery stamped all over her smile she continued north. Close to the Nyamsaan picket she rested in an open area. Good plan as she’ll be able to hear better in the open.
Not 20 minutes later another young lioness came trotting in to meet her. They were both happy to have company.
But now they were 2 lost lionesses instead of one. Did this improve their chances of finding the pride? Well not if they just lay around quietly.
Unfortunately the boredom got to us and in our sleepy state the lions disappeared in the dark. Hmmmm…..I think we deserve about as much credit as the lions. Which is verging on close to zero.
Dawn didn’t bring much hope. I had tracks of a single lion near Makeche and another lion near Hwata.
What is it with all these single lions running around?
This lone white rhino bull at Hwata got my scent before I was able to get up close and personal. Maybe a good thing as he might just have got too personal.
Still looking for my daily dose of action I ventured down to the Chiredzi river. I always love it down there but don’t often get there. Today it was pretty quiet except for this dude who thought trashing the dead bush next to me would scare me. Luckily not. We ended up watching each other for a good half an hour before I moved on.
Chekwa pan was the place to be. When I got there a big herd of buffalo were just leaving. Elephant bulls kept appearing out the woodlands to drink at the muddy clean water. With them around the herds of zebra had assembled trying to drink but weren’t even allowed a taste of the really muddy water.
The elephants weren’t sharing today. Not even with each other.
But what a great experience! To be surrounded by so many wild animals and all in some sort of synchrony with each other. Some amicable, some not.
Africa’s the best!
28th October 2000
Tjololo had got himself lucky in the evening, probably early on. He’d fed from the rear of the female impala probably eating the foetus, as little else was eaten. The foetus would have been almost full term and provided him with a good meal.
Tjololo fed again soon after sunrise and that was him for the rest of the morning.
The Mala Mala rangers found the White Cloth female with 2 cubs about a month old. We hope to pick up on them in the next few days.
Taking the kids out with us in the afternoon we spent some time at the hippo pool hoping for some behaviour and at the same time hoping the good light would shine through. Not much else was around later in the afternoon.
The overcast weather has been with us for the last 3 days making me appreciate even more the absolute control we have at night with our lighting.
The hyaenas were back to finish off the hippo carcass. But all that remained was the hippo’s inch thick hide.
This is what hyaenas were made for, why they have such strong jaws – to slice through this skin with their carnassial shears. They are the only animal that can eat the thicker parts of the hippo skin. Even so it’s really hard work for them but the pay off must be good.
Down at the dam the bugs were excessive and the lights were soon a mass of smoke as the insects were burnt up on the hot bulbs.
We didn’t stay with the hyaenas for long as I wanted to follow up on Manyari. That became a mission again not knowing where they’d moved to in the last 24 hours.
When lions are territorial they generally have finite territories. But things are different at Malilangwe where the lion population is down to one pride. Without competition from other lions they now traverse the whole reserve, an area that once had 5 prides of lions. So obviously trying to find the Nduna pride in an area now 5 times the size becomes a massive task.
And as if I wasn’t getting it right for whatever reason, even one of their pride members couldn’t find them after searching for some 4 hours around dawn. We found her calling near Nduna dam. She called continuously while she was the move for all these hours and was no closer to finding her pride than we were.
If SHE can’t find her pride, how am I ever going to get it right?
The impala on Banyini are showing rutting behaviour, which is strange for this time of year. The rams are roaring, although not with too much enthusiasm, and also sparring. In east Africa they have 2 ruts but that’s because they have 2 rainy seasons. We only have one. This behaviour is not totally unusual although does seem more extensive than usual.
At least for now the clouds have cleared, the wind has died down and the sun is shining.
27th October 2000
The rains held off for us in the early hours and we were able to get out early on the trail of Tjololo eventually finding him right up in the north. We saw him briefly as he disappeared into the reeds and up the river, but seemed to be traveling alone again.
Eventually intercepting him further upstream he continued up in the reeds before resting up just there.
The rest of our morning, still very much overcast, didn’t provide for much other activity.
In the afternoon we visited the hyaena den and found there had been activity in the area since we were last there a couple of days. This is good news and once Dale is back with the lights we’ll be spending some time there picking up on hyaena behaviour. I expect there will be some very young cubs at the den, those little guys still with a black coat.
Back up north we found Tjololo on the move close to where we’d left him. He showed a lot of interest in some waterbuck while resting up on an anthill analyzing the whole situation. We got some great images with him against the very dark clouds that have been moving in all afternoon.
Shortly a hyaena came by and hassled him, but standing his ground and growling the hyaena moved on.
Probably only some 5 minutes later there was a huge commotion to the south of us. It sounded like a hyaena screaming and some deep growling. It sounded very much the hyaena had been caught by lions. Following up we found a lion and lioness but no sign of the hyaena. It must have got away, but I’m sure it knows it’s lucky to be able to watch another sun set.
Back to Tjololo, he was obviously nervous with knowing there were lions in the area. As it got dark a gentle drizzle set in and we headed back to camp.
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.
26th October 2000
Hoping to get out early before dawn, it wasn’t too hard to have to stay in bed until the rain let up a couple of hours later.
When the Mala Mala rangers had left Tjololo last night, Tjellers had left him but the unknown female was still on his trail.
With the weather threatening all morning we worked the southern part of the property with little success.
One bit of hopeful is possible activity at an old hyaena den. Something we could do with, some more material around a den. It’s odd that at the moment there don’t seem to be any other active dens on Mala Mala. Will definitely check this one out again in the next day or 2.
With the afternoon run ahead of us a horrible gentle drizzle set in and carried on into the night. It is pointless us trying to work under these conditions as over covers have to be up permanently protecting all the camera gear.
I was able to do some more catching up on business following my return from my US and UK trip. Many contacts to follow up on.
Recent Comments