Tag Archive for 'Dams'

Toothless Young Hippos: Video


The wild dogs were still in the hills around Malilangwe Dam. I was hoping to catch them along the way as I ambled around the edge of the dam, but the signal bounces off everything in the hills. Instead, I came across a pod of hippos right up at the northern most part of the dam.

Grumpy

This pod was full of youngsters that tried hard to put on some sort of threat display, however, their toothless mouths only proved to announce their doddering bluff.  The heavy clouds were doing somewhat of the same thing today with the weather showing rain for today. A light mist is all it could muster up and then the sun came out and warmed things up.

Sink Hole

First thing in the morning I headed for the hyena den to check up on the little fellows. There was only one adult left at the den to look after the cubs. It took a while for the cubs to suface and with the sun still behind the clouds, they decided it would rather sleep in and that is where they stayed. I then did a loop around Nyamasikana Pan to check up on things in the north, but found myself trapped…caught in a trap…in a camera trap – it felt like I was back in the city!

Scratch!

Okay, maybe I’m over exaggerating a little, these camera traps are meant for the leopard census, but they did take me by surprise. I then left them with a surprise of my own – a few interesting poses! Moving swiftly on, the day turned out to get a little more interesting when I found a Puff Adder basking in the sun.

Little puffy

I also tried to track down Tanga the leopard. I had strong signal and I knew he was close, but the bush skirting the river bed he was in, was just too thick and I had to abort. I will keep trying to get Tanga in some open ground during the week.  Allan is away and someone has to keep working with him otherwise he doesn’t make any progress. He is not moving around a lot, but his leg has healed up nicely and is hunting again.

Misty Morning Reflection: Video

I found myself engulfed in a cloud of mist this morning, only being able to see five or ten meters in front of me. I wasn’t about to cross rivers or climb mountains in search of the dogs with no visibility - that would’ve been ludicrous. Instead I enjoyed the great footage I was getting with the sun trying to pierce the blanket of mist. ”It’s the serenity of it…” that’s for anyone who’s watched The Castle.

Malilangwe Dam Cloud

I was out looking for Rhinoceros movement again, but ended up face to face with an old dagga boy instead. The only question was who would blink first - ah, these old buffalo have nothing better to do than stare at you…so I humbly lost the owl eye challenge and continued on.

Misty Sun

Over the last two weeks I’ve noticed the male Impalas really having it out with each other in what is called the rut. Well, it turns out it’s that time of the year again where the strongest ram gets all the action. The one who is able to defend his territory gets to mate with the entire female herd in that area! This is if they survive, they spend so much time snorting and grunting at each other that they don’t notice when predators are around.

Cloudy Vision

Kim has returned from taking his girls back to South Africa and will be back on the dogs in the morning.

Water Sports: Video

I’m not sure when the new waterholes got built, or why they put them in the middle of the roads heaven only knows. I was in search of some elephant movement today, I soon found myself slipping and sliding around in some huge puddles of water - and I couldn’t find any elephants.

Puddle bath

The ground is really soaked from the rain, it is still cloudy and I’m not making any predictions about what the weather is going to do. The Ground Hornbills were back on the airstrip today, I could hear their calls from base camp this morning - incredible birds to watch.

Ground Hornbill

After my failure on the Elephant front, I headed west towards the Chiredzi River, I thought that the water might be flowing bank to bank with all the rain, but this was not he case. These animals are not playing the game after the rains, so the only way forward for me was to hit the Malilangwe Dam to find some animals a little more sporting.

Hiding from the rain

The sun was breaking through the clouds after a small drizzle and there was some good light down at the dam. I ran into a Water Monitor soaking up the first rays of sun in a while.

Malilangwe Dam

The dam is teeming with life, one just has to look for it. I hit the top the hill that overlooks the dam to take a breather and to check for signal on the Lions, just in case they were in range. This was not the case, but we will keep checking. Kim will be back in the driving seat from tomorrow and will be keeping you updated with movements in the bush.

Quelia Feast