I had left the lions a long way from any road in the morning and on arriving in the area at dusk they’d already moved off.
While searching to the north I heard them calling to the south and another more west.
With Darryl moving round on the road he reported the lion calling to the west was already west of the Binya.
I eventually picked up Manyari and one of her males. The other dude must have been the guy calling to the west. Strange that he went off on his own.
Manyari was already on the move heading south and then onto the Binya road. She and the male had now stopped calling and were marking as they patrolled south on the road.
It wasn’t long after dark that Manyari was onto a scent trail west of the road. Next thing she was flanking whatever was there. This time, not having his brother to worry about, the male stayed.
Having almost done a full circle she was suddenly running. Nearly a hundred meters ahead I saw the cloud of dust and as Manyari charged in, I saw the male strangling an adult waterbuck cow. While he was doing the dirty work Manyari got to feeding.
The kill was clean and quick, by strangulation. But then the male started plucking the long hair from the waterbuck’s neck. It’s not often that lions pluck their prey but it might have been ‘cos the hair was so long. But it always baffles me how cats will pluck one area and then feed in another area?
Also waterbuck have glands in their skin that secrete a musky secretion that has a really foul taste, which is apparently why lions generally don’t like waterbuck. So it was surprising that the male was even plucking the hair and then later even licking it.
And by the way those 2 tucked in to the carcass it really didn’t look like they were complaining about the taste at all.
Having both fed exceptionally well, Manyari moved off and was calling. Her calls were answered and a while later the other male arrived. It was now his turn to tuck into the carcass.
Manyari and her boy left him to feed and moved off calling.
Their calls were answered by another lion to the west, not the other male, and kept being answered.
And then she was there. Another lioness was moving towards the pair. The male stood watching as Manyari flew at her. The attack was serious. Paws flying everywhere. When she could the lioness took off with Manyari hot on her tail and the male following behind. They must have chased her about half a kilometre before leaving her. (Unfortunately this all happened so quickly I didn’t get even a moment to film any of it!!!)
For the rest the night they stayed put calling, their calls being answered now by a number of lions to the west, probably across the Chiredzi River. I suspect this is the Nduna pride and that lioness high tailed it back to the pride.
By dawn Manyari had moved a couple of kilometres north from the kill and rested up with her male. And presumably the other male is hanging around finishing off every last scrap of the waterbuck kill.
I took my daily route onto Banyini on my way home and was just in time to see this herd of about 400 buffalo come to drink. They only drink for about 10 minutes and are gone again. So lucky I was.
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