Tag Archive for 'adventure'

Snorkeling Hyenas: Video

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Wildcaster
on October 17, 2009
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I was out early in the morning and I hadn’t gone a kilometer down the road when I met up with a male hyena carrying a limb back to the clan. He turned to judge the threat and realized the familiar purr of Dozer’s 2.4L finely tuned motor almost immediately.

Zebra Snack

Readjusting his grip on what looked to be a Zebra front leg, he continued his trot along the road back in the direction of the den. After three kilometers or so he took a short cut through some thickets and I went around to meet him at Manuchi Pan. He was already there when I pulled up and the one older cub was at the pan gnawing on the limb. It wasn’t long before the gathering of the clan and the party once again got out of control.

Shadow Warrior

The males love hanging around with the cubs, they run up and down chasing each other and wrestle around in the pan, this is very funny to watch.

Father Cub Relations

I have been checking up on the dogs while Kim is away finalizing things on the Wild Dog movie. All the dogs are all doing well, they seem to be hunting early and catching quickly, because they are back at the den by 9:30/ 10 am. They’ve been heading straight into the hill where the den is after a short greeting ceremony and stay there until after 5pm every day so far. The pups are growing up fast, it’s been great spending time with them again.

Greetings

I took a visit to the Hwata Pan which has dried up, and also to Chimize Pan, which is full at the moment. The white rhino have been drinking there and this is exactly what I’d hoped for. There were five rhinos nearby the pan, with a large male trying to chase the younger calves away from the female so he could get down to business. Things don’t always go as planned and for now he had to come up with a better plan to maneuver his way in there.

Hazy Hyena Morning

It feels good to be back in a routine after the whole buffalo capture saga, it really pays off, putting in the hours with the animal you’re working on, I’m getting some amazing footage at the pan lately. Yesterday I watched the hyenas take over the pan once again and refuse entry to all other animals waiting in the shadows. Eventually three warthogs were brave enough to challenge the hyenas and eventually came out tops. The hyenas end up giving each other a fright and when one panics they all high-tail it out of there. Another one for the hooves.

Brave Warthog

Sky-herder: Video

Published
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Wildcaster
on October 13, 2009
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The sun rises and the dry sand begins absorbing the heat as its rays fall upon the ground. The wind swirls between the hills and the dust takes to flight from the down-draft from the chopper as it takes off, marking the end of the long hot buffalo capture. Flying between the hills and over the Chiredzi River makes for some breathtaking sequences, I always enjoy getting a birds eye view of a place.

River Ride

For now I’m happy to get back to my hyenas, and they must have heard me coming, because the first came ambling out of the woodwork right away, followed by the others as the heat began to dissipate. It was wonderful to see some real behaviour from the clan, this is quite a change from filming humans performing tasks.

Scops Owl

After a good time at the den I thought that Manuchi must be rocking and I was right. The adults had once again taken over the pan, they were sprawled out all around the entire area. Hyenas can be quite possessive over their watering spots, they tend to hang around longer than what is required to just rehydrate, they rather enjoy sporting around in the water.

Buffalo Trails

One of the mothers was carrying what looked like a dead cub in her mouth. She proceeded to drop the lump of flesh in the pan and then submerge herself in the water. This all looked a little horrifying to begin with, but it turned out to be what seemed like a foetus of some sort from a kill - what a relief.

Marabou Feast

Alan called on the radio and mentioned he was near Sosigi so a quick detour was in order to catch a glimpse of Tanga. Nothing like spotting a leopard on the road home, this may have been with the help of a little cheat, but it was still just as sweet.

Forced Takeover: Video

Published
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Wildcaster
on October 10, 2009
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When you hear the thunder of a few hundred hooves and the dust swirls into a whirlwind that chokes your nasal cavities and the first thing you see is a pair of horns parading in your direction, then you know… you’re in a buffalo stampede.

Dusty Pink

This is part of a buffalo capture, where we willfully place ourselves in the path of a herd of buffalo being herded by a chopper into a boma. When they run past, the curtains get closed and the buffalo are then ready to be selected and inoculated. It may sound simple, but it is not easy - it is very hard work! Temperatures have been hitting the 40 degree mark in the shade, this is how Africa treats its finest.

Single File

I have been at this buffalo capture for the past three days now and being out in the sun really knocks you out. I also managed to squeeze in an aerial shoot, so I might put a grand aerial clip together to end the week with a bang.

Heat Exhaustion

Besides doing the buffalo capture I managed to slip away to spend time with the hyenas and I caught up with them at Manuchi Pan where they had completely taken over. One of the cubs wanted to investigate a young giraffe waiting its turn to drink and the other five older cubs came in to enjoy some water sports. All in all there were thirteen hyenas at the pan wading in the water and just enjoying the cool water after a scorcher of a day.

Subdued

I hope to catch up with the hyena on Sunday again after the buffalo capture is on its back. For now I need to get some shut eye so I don’t fade on the last day of the buffalo capture.

Hyena Sunrise Bath: Video

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Wildcaster
on October 5, 2009
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Once again I’m back to witness the African sunrise piercing through the brush and silhouetting a baobab tree.

Sunrise

My first destination had to be the hyena den to check up on how the little guys were doing. I arrived at the den to find no one home, but this was nothing to be concerned about because I had guessed they were moving around a little more often after running into the cubs at Manuchi Pan two weeks ago. I checked in at all the other dens hoping to pick up some signs of movement - and hopefully no evidence of lions reeking havoc.
Late Drinker

Finding nothing nothing there, I continued on to do a loop around the reserve to catch up with what was happening while I was away. Driving through the hills one notices how the Knob Thorn trees are all standing out with their green leaves. The Mopane Trees are still dry which is giving the woodlands that eerie feel with the blackened grasslands also leave the animals finding grazing elsewhere. I had organised a cruize on Malilangwe Dam for the afternoon, which is a real treat for me not having to drive and just take a camera along to shoot all the action.

Terrapin

This then inspired a fishing trip for the following day, but first I needed to get back onto the hyenas’ disappearance. I pulled a late night shift to catch th cubs in the act, this turned out to be a winner.

Spots Showing

There were five cubs with the two younger cubs, but the new borns seem to have been moved. The usual excited greeting cerimony followed and they all remained comfortable with me hanging around all the time. This morning I managed to do a recount on the cubs and all six were there with the little guys still missing. I will be trying to pick up on their location tonight, hopefully they have not gone too far.
Dam Show

Handling Fire: Video

Published
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Wildcaster
on September 25, 2009
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The lions have been back.
I saw male lion tracks in the area of the wild dog den and on getting to the den, no sign of the dogs. This was in the afternoon as I’d spent the morning with Mark on the giraffe carcass with the hyaenas.
For the last couple of hours of light I searched the area, but picked up no sign of the dogs.

Flame Combretum
With an early start the next day I was back in the area searching, climbing all the highest koppies hoping to get a signal from Chevvy’s transmitter. In this mountainous country, using telemetry becomes rather hit and miss, but being up on the highest peaks usually produces success. By lunch time and with many conquered hills under my belt, I was still no closer to finding the dogs.

Sniffer
So I’d decided that I’d fly in the late afternoon. But just before heading to the airstrip, I climbed another mountain, this time close to home base, and sure enough I got a signal a long ways to the west.

12 week puppy
The whole pack, including the pups had moved to another den having travelled about 5kms from the previous den. This is a long way for these 12 week old puppies, but they all seemed just fine.

Race to greet

They only spent a couple of days at this den and moved to another further south. This was far more user friendly to me than the last one.

Misty dawn

But after being there only 2 days, disaster struck. Getting to the dogs at dawn, I only counted 10 puppies. One was missing and the pack had now moved away from the den. Searching the area there was no sign of foul play, until I got to the den and peering into the crevice I saw the curled up body of an African Rock Python. I could only see the one coil and then I saw the dead puppy. Shortly the python had disappeared. Not an easy feeling as I wondered which crevice it might appear from next. And then of course I went even more against the grain and wedged myself deep into the crevice to retrieve the puppy. Which I did and found its upper body covered in saliva. The python was already beginning to swallow the pup and my appearing on the scene must have disturbed it. I left the puppy there, but the python never returned.

Python attack

The pack subsequently moved their den back to the previous one. Hopefully no more pythons up there!

Burning Rhino Backdrop: Video

Published
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Wildcaster
on September 21, 2009
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Yellow to red, filled with blue and white a fire flickers through the colour spectrum. It’s that time of the year that ecologists recommend burning certain areas of the bush veld. This would normally be a natural phenomenon, but has to be calculated and self-acted in our controlled environments.
Burning Sky

It’s amazing how the animals are not really perturbed by the blaze and carry on as normal, just keeping out of its way. The fire swept past the hyena den but was stopped short by the trampled, there was no sign of any panic at the den, they just go underground and let the smoke pass over. I surprised the cubs at the Manuchi crossing yesterday and they were quite glad to see me tagging along.

Hyena ashes

The mothers were doing their usual “Jack-in the Box” type neck stretches eyeballing me out, but just making sure the cubs were alright. The cubs then scurried back to the den, which gave me an opportunity to follow the females on a little hunting excursion in the cool drizzle. Temperatures soared at around 40 degrees during the week and then dropped to 20 degrees on the week-end. The drizzle brings a little relief from the harsh rays of the sun, allowing the hyenas to move around during the day. They eventually came nose to nose with a herd of zebra, but nothing came of it. This is the first time I’ve been able to follow them with my vehicle and they were quite relaxed about it. So a small staring session and everyone went their own way. The hyenas headed in-between the hills and I was left stumped.

Fattened Sjambok

I met up with Sjambok earlier in the week, he was looking like a true king. He had eaten far too much, was over weight and lazy. He’s in charge, so I guess he can do what he likes.
One interesting thing I spotted was a White-tailed Mongoose.

White-tailed Mongoose, Malilangwe

This light footed creature is a little larger than a Spotted Genet and shows a lot of intelligence by hanging low and sitting on its white tail while I was scanning for it using the spotlight. Kim and I swapped blogging days while I head off to my sisters wedding for the week, so until next week – over and out.

Burning Tree, Malilangwe