Great rains fell all day, some 36mm. And the drizzle continued overnight. It wasn’t worth us braving it and with the Nduna pride still well fed, we stayed in the night.
The video clip for today is that of the lions killing the buffalo cow a couple of nights ago. It sure is tough stuff to watch and many might think it needs to be PG rated. But it’s reality and I don’t think we should hide this from our kids.
This is an unedited clip and went on in this way for some 20 minutes before the buffalo cow died. Not unusual for the King of Beasts to kill, or rather ‘take their time to kill’, in this manner. The young lioness left with the task of delivering the killing bite just couldn’t get her mouth over the buffalo’s mouth to suffocate her. Presumably the lioness couldn’t get through the buffalo’s thick hide to strangle her throat. Eventually the buffalo actually succumbed with the others feeding on her alive.
26th November 2000
A rather different night. Having found Tjololo still with his mistress early in the evening, they moved around in a large circle with no obvious purpose, mating periodically. Then later in the evening settled in a spot of no real consequence, where we’d found them earlier, and spent the rest of the night there mating on and off. We had never had them stay so stationary for so long before, except when they had a kill.
Having been inactive for so long through the night my car battery had gone flat running all the internet equipment, but Dale was at hand to give us a push.
This prompted the leopards to get on the move and slowly they headed west and then south around sunrise. Once on the southward stretch they followed the road and I was able to keep leap-frogging ahead of them to get them walking towards the camera.
Suddenly they were alerted by an impala calling her youngster just off the road. They moved in to investigate. The mother saw them and blew her trumpet. Frantically snorting she ran to and fro watching the leopards. Then as if by mistake Tjololo suddenly lunged into the grass, not even 2 meters from where he was standing and pulled out an impala lamb. The Newington female wrestled briefly with him for the kill but he shook her off.
The alarm snorts of the impala had attracted a third leopard, Shololtoo. He was reluctant to tackle Tjololo who ignored his presence, and settled in the grass watching Tjololo feed while the Newington female stressed herself at his presence.
Just as all the action struck my vehicle cut out. A fuel problem. Trying to get it going again flattened my already sick battery and we could only watch the events from a distance. Luckily having rested the vehicle for a while it started and we were able to limp back to camp.
The elephant performed but the lions remained elusive.
Manyari and the youngsters spent the whole night holed up in the hills near Lesililije spring sleeping off their over laden bellies.
We also searched for Nduna and the lactating lioness but no joy. The young male that was with them at dawn headed south from the hills off on his own mission.
In the early evening the elephants came to drink at Nduna dam and of course the males just had to take themselves swimming in the moonlight. To see this at night is a whole new experience and stunningly evocative with our filming lights. I think I’m actually going to have to spend some time with the elephant at night as images of them in the dark at a wonderful dimension to their lives and they do become such well sculptured beasts in that light.
That was our action for the night as the clouds swept in at dawn.
We spent some time on Banyini following this impala herd. The females are now heavily pregnant and will be dropping in the next few days. Unfortunately the rain drove us home, although none of the impala looked like they would drop today.
The youngsters were having fun chasing after each other and doing their anti-predator stott. All in the name of fun.
I’ve managed to film 3 impala births over the years but now need to shoot one with my new HD (High Definition) equipment. So will spend the next few mornings working at that.
25th November 2000
With Tjololo still busy with his lady we got down to doing as many of the interviews as possible. The days are ticking by fast now with Dale and Richard off in less than a week.
Having had enough of the camera thrust into my face we headed off to the hyaena den and spent most of the night there.
Several hyaenas did come in after midnight and the cubs came out but only briefly as the adults cut their visit short and soon left.
We left the den in the early hours and found 2 young male lions hunting in the area. They were homing in on 2 unsuspecting impala lambs and then rushed them. Amazingly the little guys gave them a really good run for their money. One got away and the other was only caught about 300m away. This was only a snack for these large beasts.
After sunrise Tjololo was back in the north with his girl, possibly escorting her home.
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