Tag Archive for 'hippo'

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.