As usual we arrived at the airstrip at dawn. This morning it was awash with animals, impala, wildebeest and many zebra herds.
And sadly there was an abandoned zebra foal struggling to gain it’s footing. It just couldn’t get up, try as it may. But it never gave up struggling throughout the day.
It appeared it might have been bitten in the neck by a predator, which had partially paralysed it. It did manage to get up once and trotted off with its head held stiffly to one side. Wobbly on its legs, it collapsed and didn’t regain it’s footing all day, but not through lack of trying.
Other zebra came by but never approached too close before running off scared.
The impala herds were initially spooked but then totally disregarded the little one as it struggled.
The jackal family showed a lot of interest. All 5 of them, but they couldn’t muster the courage take on the foal even though they knew it was pretty helpless. The jackal kept checking on the foal right through the day and we left them at dusk still in the area.
Predators are often a lot bolder at night, so hopefully tonight they’ll put it out of its misery.
It was strange that the mother never came back to her little one. Or maybe she did but was spooked by its struggles.
So the dramas continue on airstrip. In the 10 days or so that I’ve been frequenting it, a newborn zebra foal has died and fed on by vultures and jackal. The jackal have killed a guineafowl and today’s sad story.
Of course there’s plenty more drama going on out there but on a much smaller scale. Birds killing insects, insects killing insects, jackals killing insects. Insects sure pulled the short straw!
In the late afternoon a lone elephant bull crossed the airstrip with his bold demeanor. It was more his way to try and prove to himself that actually he wasn’t scared to be out here in the open on his own. He didn’t hang around.
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