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.
On the way to find the lions I found this young elephant bull drinking at Banyini. No doubt the rest of the herds would soon be following him but I needed to get to the lions.
On finding them not far from where I’d left them at dawn, there was a huge buffalo bull standing only meters from them but hardly concerned with their presence. At first I thought he was injured, as why wasn’t he running away especially with my vehicle now also in the area. Eventually he did bolt when Manyari launched her attack but it really wasn’t much of an event and the bull easily got away. Of course her boys weren’t of any use in that situation.
The lions hardly fed last night and were off hunting soon after dark.
Manyari took them back to the area she was in 2 nights ago where she encountered so much game.
This time with the males as a decoy she was successful in pulling down a young impala, but then had to fight for her rights as they males tried to dominate the carcass.
In this Kings palace there’s no sharing as there just wasn’t enough for the 3 huge cats and each had to fight for their share, Manyari pulling the short string.
After all that hard work, well hardly (the hardest work being fighting for their food), they rested for a good 5 hours. YES! A good 5hr sleep for me too.
Soon after midnight we headed east and in the long grass the front of my car suddenly disappeared. I hadn’t seen the deep gully obscured by the tall grass and very nearly ended up rolling my car.
Back on the road again the lions were now in the hills and soon had reached HQ. What is it about this place that draws them here? They lay around the area a few hours then called repeatedly. Another lion responded way to the east.
They all then stopped their roaring and Manyari took her males and headed south across the airstrip and onto Banyini where at dawn they were hunting wildebeest.
That didn’t work and they kept moving west into the mopanie before calling it a night.
After fending off their “reflective” competition the lions were back to their normal self last night.
Of course they didn’t budge until after sunset when as usual Manyari took the lead taking them south onto Banyini.
She had acquired her target, a herd of wildebeest and was waiting it out watching their movements. Slowly she snuck off to flank the herd, but then gave up and continued south. The males followed at a distance. Suddenly she was trotting, came round a bush and surprised a leopard on its impala kill. The leopard bolted and Manyari claimed the carcass. Now she kept quiet and didn’t feed hoping the males wouldn’t find her. They rushed right past probably chasing after the leopard.
But it wasn’t long and one male found her, only to then make doubly sure his brother wasn’t getting any.
Only when the meal got nasty did the brother take the opportunity and climbed in the rumble over the carcass with the other 2. While the males held on, Manyari fed. She and one of the males each split with their prizes and the other male was left searching for scraps.
While this was all going on a herd of elephant hearing the commotion approached but never actually threatened the lions, probably because of us being there. But normally they’d have chased the lions off the kill.
For the rest of the night the lions rested on and off and made several attempts at hunting only to rest up west of Banyini.
I left the lions at dawn to go flying looking for wild dogs. If they do den here this year this is the time they should be denning. I’m hoping I’ll find them in the early morning on the hunt and then be able to follow them back to the den.
Unfortunately I didn’t have any joy today. But the flying was good! Gives one such a great perspective from up there and suddenly all the places seem to fit together.
When I joined the lions at dusk Manyari had already left the males and was heading north on her own calling repeatedly as she went. It would seem she’s looking for her lioness friend Magwaza.
The males would sometimes call back at her but she seemed to be ignoring them.
Having headed about 5kms north Manyari headed east, stopped calling and was now in hunting mode. She hunted impala, impala, wildebeest, impala, impala, impala, wildebeest, impala, zebra, giraffe, impala and wasn’t successful with any of them.
Around 3am she started calling again and kept heading east. Near HQ she hunted waterbuck unsuccessfully. And further east of this the males joined her with their usual competitive edge wanting to be by her side.
We lost them in the hills and near Simbiri camp and then heard all the commotion. After much negotiating through the hills I found them. Manyari was moving away, but one lion was on the porch of a small building and the other was behind the building staring at the window. Only then did I realise what was happening.
Imagine this: the lion sees his reflection in the window and being a highly territorial male, is now highly hacked off at this ‘intruder’ so he calls his brother. Thinking he’ll have the upper edge with 2 against one, he suddenly sees in the reflection another lion approaching just as his brother gets there. Mass confusion and a serious reason to fight any ‘intruders’. Luckily the lions weren’t able to get to the windows, as they would surely have smashed them.
And so the king finds himself a new fool.
The males only gave up on the ‘intruders’ about half an hour later and followed Manyari south across the airstrip to rest.
An elephant bull was close by trying to push over an Acacia tortilis tree. He tried from several angles but just couldn’t go it.
Seemingly embarrassed that we’d been watching his silly antics he sauntered right up to the vehicle, gave us the once over as he tried to save grace and then walked on by.
By now the sun was well up, Manyari hadn’t given us any time to rest last night and so it was straight back to camp.
AND oh no!!! I’ve still got a puncture to fix.
I didn’t have any joy finding the lions first thing in the morning, so took to the air and picked them up a long way to the south west.
I’m bargaining on them being there this afternoon when we head out with them for the night.
Although it was pretty chilly flying so early, it was just magical to be up high and free as a bird.
Just as I landed the baboons came sauntering by on their way south and settled in the bush where many took time out and the alpha male got all the TLC he needed from his current lady.
I continued on east to Bandama but all was quiet and I needed to get back early to get Wildcast going so we can get out filming tonight.
I nearly drove over this chameleon but luckily its luminous green colour stood out from the brown grass. I was just surprised it hadn’t changed colour to the grass brown for camouflage. But then this time it saved him.
Not far from home this African Hawk Eagle came swooping from behind me and like a rocket was straight on target. A Giant Eagle Owl in a dead tree. The hawk eagle swooped just missing the top of his head as he ducked. The owl then flew into a tree with dense foliage. Again the hawk eagle bombed him and this was followed by the mate of the hawk eagle coming in from far in a flat out dive just over the owl’s head. He immediately went straight up above the owl about 30ft, folded his wings and dived straight into the bush, wrestled with the owl briefly and then took off.
These African Hawk Eagles are seriously aggressive eagles and probably were protecting a nest they had close by.
Those cats still hadn’t moved very far and were now lying up about 500m south west of where I’d left them last night.
And the lions didn’t budge all day. When I returned at dusk they were just waking and heading out to hunt, their tummies now somewhat leaner than they were 3 days ago.
Manyari taking the lead, had the boys reluctantly following, both knowing if they stayed behind the other would get to be at Manyari’s side.
I spent the rest of the day searching for elephants to the east. There was no sign of them at Bandama and even Nduna dam. Again I checked out Lojaan dam in the hills but no sign there either. They must be elsewhere in the hills.
Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be airborne, weather permitting, and I can quickly get a better check on the situation.
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