Monthly Archive for June, 2008

At last the pups gave me a peek into their lives although it didn’t last very long.
The alpha female arrived obviously after a successful hunt around 8h30 this morning.
On arriving at the den she whined a little ways off but really quietly. I think she was a little apprehensive with that thing in the hide.
Then she got bold and walked to the den and called them out. Unfortunately she remained behind some bush, which I had left there to give her some cover.
She suckled the pups standing up and then shortly another dog regurgitated meat for them. (Not sure if it was the male or the other female. Actually we don’t even know if there are 3 adults in the pack.) That was when I got lucky and the pups came into my clearing to eat the chunks. They are just so cute these little guys. They lost their ugly look they have at about 3 weeks and are now looking more like dogs. But stocky little dogs. Nothing lean like their parents. That will only come at about 4 to 5 months.
For now they’re just cute little puppies.

Having filmed them for about 4 minutes my tape ran out and just the click of me changing tapes alerted the adults. With one bark the pups underground!
(I wasn’t able to get any photos today. This photo was taken a couple of years ago and those pups are much the same age as these little guys are now.)
Several hours later the Alpha came back to the den but then saw me through a little gap in the hide. She barked several times and didn’t come back. But at least they really do seem to be getting used to me at last. Still got a long long way to go.

I left the dogs to themselves today hoping they’ll get used to the hide. So tomorrow I’ll try my luck again.
I was out early to see if I could find the dogs hunting but it turned out I was too early as I found their tracks over mine when I went back to Manyuchi pan.
Later in the morning I got reports of a dead leopard. On investigation it turns out to be the leopard we’ve had someone working on. Her carcass was in a tree. So obviously put there by another leopard. The vet came to do a post mortem on what remained of the carcass. It had been well fed on leaving only skin and bones. The vet found puncture wounds in the skull and haemorrhaging on the one remaining front leg. She had obviously been killed, and so it must have been another leopard.

This is the 3rd such incident on Malilangwe. Why are the leopards killing each other? I really don’t think there’s an over population of them. Not sure what it could be.
With that sad news I moved down to the Chiredzi River and saw these elephants sliding down the very steep river banks to come and drink. And it’s not even 10minutes and the matriarch has them on the move again back into the woodlands to go and feed.

Also taking advantage of the river were these vultures that often come down here to sun themselves, bathe and then have to drip dry.

On leaving the river I encountered this young bull on top of the bank. He was in to showing off and gave me a headshake as I arrived, but only to them resume feeding again.

I must say it was just good to be driving across the whole property again checking out the usual sights, especially after having been so tied up with lions for so long.