2008 February 06 Archive at Wildcast

Luckily for me I didn’t have to head south this morning.
The airstrip was again alive with all its action. The jackal family were patrolling the strip and at the same time tormenting the impala. Then one jackal dashed into the long grass on the edge of the strip and came out running with a guineafowl. Instant kill.

That was the easy part. Now came the challenge of keeping it away from its other 2 siblings. Two of them fed in peace making their way through the matt of feathers. The 3rd sibling arrived being very submissive. But this little guy was playing out all the tricks the book. Having gained some access by being submissive, he suddenly dashed in and the next thing was the new owner of the carcass.
There was another zebra herd on the airstrip this morning. These were all stallions that spent their morning rolling in any dusty spot they could find.
While filming them I thought I heard elephants to the east. Nearly 2kms down the road, there they were crossing. They spent their morning in the Albizia woodlands south of the hills having a good long rest under some Tambotie trees as they dusted themselves. I didn’t bother to dust myself, but I sure had a good rest.

After their rest it was off to the Chimbiya spring where a mud wallow was in order. The herds continued on east.
Taking a chance we headed on to the pan in the mopanie. It looked like we had missed the action, as there was fresh floating evidence of elephant having been there. While we waited they arrived. First a couple of small family cow herds. Then the bulls and they were in it for the fun wallowing, rolling and wrestling. Always such awesome stuff to witness. And it feels just so much better when in the water myself filming the action. In a way refreshing but not as refreshing as what the elephant had.

The herds continued on east. We tried to go round to intercept but ended up trailing them through 6 to 8ft high grass. This just ain’t fun when you can’t see what’s going on.