Tjololo 24th November 2000

24th November 2000
This sure has been a 24 hours with a punch.
Tjololo was still courting the Newington female in the morning. We left them to it. And as usual they were still at it in the afternoon.

At dusk, Tjololo, now really lean, was hunting. He saw an adult female impala, but the impala had seen him too, never the less he charged in her direction presumably hoping to flush a youngster but there wasn’t one. He continued east hunting with his lady following after him. Much later in the night the winds had picked up considerably and again using the disturbance he killed a yearling male impala. He was quick to start feeding on the ground. A short while later 2 hyaenas charged in and he hurriedly treed the kill where he was able to feed freely.
For the last hour or so while he charged around on the trail of impala, the Newington female wasn’t with him not bothering to charge around after his antics. After tracking him down she eventually arrived and climbed the tree. Tjololo having fed was resting in the tree. She went over to entice him but he wasn’t interested.
She then fed and while doing so Shololwane arrived on the scene. Ignoring Tjololo he climbed the tree and proceeded to have a boxing match with the Newington female obviously himself wanting to feed. While they exchanged blows the carcass and the hyaenas got lucky. All this time Tjololo didn’t bat an eyelid.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/98/229173067_8c01bef165_m.jpg
Shololwane left the tree and sneaking up on the hyaenas was hoping to snatch the carcass back but they chased him off when he got too close. He waited.
Tjololo and his girl also left the tree and lying on the opposite side to Shololwane watched the hyaenas feeding. Shololwane again approached the hyaenas and again they both chased him off, but while they were occupied intimidating Shololwane, Tjololo snuck in and stole the kill and back up a tree.  This time Tjololo decided to indulge himself again on the remaining scraps.
At dawn Tjololo and his lady were at it again in a donga.
Shololwane was lying up on a rock about a kilometer away, totally relaxed and spread out until his was suddenly awakened and instantly up a tree when a lioness approached. She watched him for a while as he tried to gain some confidence and then left to hunt impala.

A busy night for us and probably one of the busiest we’ve had on this project. The bush is always full of surprises. If we’d been working in the day time we’d have been none the wiser and thought Tjololo and his mistress hadn’t been up to anything, well except the usual, all night.