African wildlife adventures live from the bush
Still no joy with impala babies. Well not the impala on the Banyini. In the east they seem to have dropped earlier.
Then Darryl called to say he’d found the Nduna pride. They were lying up near Chivi looking a little lean but very lazy as the day warmed up.
We left them and back to camp to get Wildcast posted before heading out for the night lion hunting!
30th November 2000
Unfortunately for Dale and Richard, Tjololo didn’t perform on his last night with them. We heard him calling in the Sand river around Dudley Lookout, an area we aren’t able to get to. He didn’t seem to be going anywhere and we had to abandon the chance for them to say a last goodbye.
With the hyaena den was also inactive we headed back to camp.
It was back to staring through binoculars at impala’s bums again. I could swear several of them were about to drop any minute, but no such luck. On several females I could see the foetus pushing up against their tails. Was this not a sure sign that they should drop? Anyway things look like they’re heating up on the impala front.
Near Chekwa pan these Red Velvet Mites were all over the place but not for long as they were already burrowing into the soft wet soil before it hardened. They will then again appear with the next good rains to run around feeding on other mites and their eggs, and also insect and snail eggs. The larvae are far more ruthless attaching themselves to arthropods and feeding on them parasitically.
With them underground I knew at least I would find the elephant in the Albizia woodlands, and luckily there they all were. Chipfongwe suddenly seems to look so much bigger at a year old now. And amazingly Mandlovu is still allowing her other youngster to suckle as well as Chipfongwe. This little female must now be about 5 years old. Will she ever stop suckling? No doubt, in the dry winter months Mandlovu with wean her.
With the cool weather and piles of fresh new food there were youngsters sparring all over the place. The adults weren’t letting their guard down although they did seem keen to join in.
This lone Grysbok was resting when the elephant came barging through and she didn’t know whether to take fright from them or me, so bolted anyway.
With all the rain the dung beetles are now out in force attacking elephant dung piles in earnest, flattening them, only to move on to the next. Great keepers of the garden helping spread the manure.
On the way home after sunset, the Lilly’s which had been closed all day now opened for the night.
29th November 2000
Rain 42mm
Rain stopped play early in the afternoon but we were able to get out around sunset with the weather still threatening all around.
Tjololo was still at his kill and strangely the Newington female was still there too. Any approach and Tjololo growled her away.
Then the rains came again and we spent the rest of the night under cover until just before dawn when all let up. During the rain we heard a commotion and presumed Tjololo had again given his ex-lover a hiding.
By dawn Tjololo was on the move on his own heading north marking. He continued all the way north and west into the Sand river.
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