6th November 2000
With Tjololo still wobbling around his nyala carcass that he’d treed, we waited at the hyaena den for a few hours. The cubs, still not used to our presence weren’t going to venture out on their own without any adults around. The adults will often visit the den around sunset but not tonight.
Heading up north we bumped into 2 male lions. The one was really feeling sorry for himself with a major gash on his nose, so much so that the last inch of it was hanging loose. Looked rather painful especially as he continuously used his paw to clean it, the huge paw pulling down the piece of loose skin with each rub. Ouch!!
Tjololo had left the dinner table and was heading east. He was extremely uncomfortable, deliberately putting one foot forward at a time being sure to maintain his balance with the uncontrollable sway of his huge belly. The effort was huge and he ended up resting every few hundred meters.
Having been stashed away in the bush we stumbled across a baby giraffe lying down. It’s mother had left it secluded to go feeding. The helpless little calf was no more than 2 days old and very much relied on remaining absolutely still with the approach of anything. Luckily today Tjololo continued past at about 20m without noticing it.
But a young male duiker wasn’t that lucky. We were all set up ready to film. Tjololo was no more than 3m off the duiker that was lying down. It was unaware of him and continued chewing on its last mouthful. Probably for about half an hour Tjololo stood one paw hung in mid stride, as I waited finger on the button waiting for him to charge in. The duiker then got up. He had to go in now. No. The duiker moved off feeding behind the bushes with Tjololo stalking after it. It had a bad limp, which Tjololo must have picked up on and his final charge was successful. (Missed the shot as they disappeared behind the bushes). He treed the carcass and thankfully left it there without feeding while he rested. We were rather concerned at the consequences if he attempted consuming anything else.
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