Tag Archive for 'kill'

Death of a Black Rhino: Video

Published

on July 7, 2009

. 15 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, black-rhino, blogumentary, bush, bush-knowledge, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, elephants, endangered-species, experience, film, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, hunting, IUCN-Red-List, kill, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, peace-parks, photos, podcasting, predators, teach, video, wild, wildcasting, wilderness, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, zimbabwe

A light constant drizzle has accentuated the gloom hanging over Sunday’s events. Tsvubu, the earless black rhino, has died. It is always a difficult one to deal with when you’ve been working with these animals trying to do whatever is possible to keep them in their natural environment, but also offer what protection one can.

In his usual spot near Nduna dam, Tsvubu eventually took his last steps as the hyenas jumped on his weakened back legs. There are signs that Tsvubu put up a little struggle but was over powered as the hyenas began feeding on him while his life slipped away.

These territorial battles between the black rhinos are part of a rhino’s natural environment forcing them to move into wider areas. For some reason, once they begin fighting amongst each other it rarely ends well, the weaker invariably gets taken out of the equation instead of moving on.

So what was an ordinary Sunday drive spent with an elephant in the hills, ended with these tenebrous happenings. After reconstructing what happened, the necessary dehorning had to be done. I headed back to the carcass later in the evening and waited for the scavengers to arrive. Nothing showed up, so I was certain by this morning they would be there, but I was wrong again. Besides a few vultures tugging at the loose skin it seems Tsubu’s body has been respectfully left to decompose.

Wild Rib Brunch: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on July 3, 2009

in videopost

. 0 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, blogumentary, bush, bush-knowledge, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, endangered-species, experience, film, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, hunting, Impala, IUCN-Red-List, kill, lions, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, photos, podcasting, polls, predators, teach, video, waterhole, wild, wild dogs, wildcasting, wilderness, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, zimbabwe

Yesterday afternoon Kylie and I took a drive in the Bandama direction, we saw the remaining lichtenstein’s hartebeest close to that area after one of their herd got chomped by that lioness . They can be very brave and/or curious at times, in fact, this is precisely the reason that it is so easy for lions to take them out. I had a look to see what was left of the carcass, I couldn’t find anything except the tail! Anyway, the real reason for Bandama was a sun downer for the Pamushana Lodge ladies, Shelley and Kath – that’s right, it’s not always work, work, work here on the reserve.

However, I was hoping to spot something on the night drive back home, I’d say we did more than spot, I almost drove straight into a hippo! The huge beast of a thing was chilling in the road as I took a corner, it got a huge fright and didn’t know if it wanted to charge or run away. It moved over peacefully after spinning on the spot and offering a challenge.

This morning was another wild dog morning. I didn’t get any signal, good thing Kim was on the hill at the den already and was reveiving a faint signal to the North. Only when I reached the northern boundary, did I get the faintest signal, I did a loop around and then the signal was coming and going. I pictured the dogs having a tough time in that area where there are no roads. There are power lines that run down through the property and when you move along this section it really interferes with the tracking equipment.

This is where the dogs were moving and after backtracking many times over I eventually found the dogs munching on an impala. They were pulling on the ribcage already, but the only marinade was the saliva dripping from their jaws as they used each others weight to tear a section for themselves. Later, they trotted back to the den, where I visited for the first time. The dogs were absolutely exhausted and slept up on the hill out of sight.

Lichtenstein Lioness: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on July 1, 2009

in videopost

. 1 Comment Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, blogumentary, bush, bush-knowledge, conservation, documentary, education, elephants, endangered-species, experience, film, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, hartebeest, hunting, IUCN-Red-List, kill, lions, malilangwe, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, peace-parks, podcasting, polls, predators, teach, video, waterbuck, waterhole, wild, wild dogs, wildcasting, wilderness, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, zimbabwe

Two perfectly formed horns ornamented with intricate spiral patterns and highlighted by a translucent glow from the suns rays creeping over the tree tops. At the powerful claws of a lion pride, eventually this is all that will remain as a remnant that a waterbuck once walked across this African lowveld.

These weren’t the only lions to leave a trail of destruction upon the land, another lioness had taken down a lichtenstein’s hartebeest at Bandama Pan and had eaten herself to a standstill, well lions barely do anything more than stand still at the best of times, but you know what I mean. She could barely keep her eyes open, even as the sun was setting and the vultures circled low in the red sky, she moved only to reposition her over-stretched belly. The lioness was all on her own and I was not sure what pride she was from, she eventually made her way to the pan to get a drink of water – what an action packed evening…she took a drink.

When a lion eats so much they even battle to breathe, you can pretty much be guaranteed that they won’t be going very far for a while, I left her so I could find some more interesting happenings. I wanted to spend a little more time with Tanga, I really am itching to get some decent footage of the young leopard.

I went across to Sosigi area but couldn’t get signal, Alan was probably on the leopard already, but I couldn’t get him on the radio. Either way, it’s good to get out at night once in a while to just enjoy the night sounds and the odd interesting spot.

Another month is on its back kicking and screaming, the dogs have downloaded, the hyena cubs are growing and healthy, full bellies all round, and it seems we’re caught up in the middle of it all – fortunately!

Puzzles’ last day: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on June 29, 2009

in videopost

. 9 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, blog, blogumentary, bush, bush-knowledge, bushveld, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, elephants, endangered-species, experience, film, filmmaker, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, hunting, IUCN-Red-List, kill, kudu, lions, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, peace-parks, photo, photos, podcasting, predators, teach, video, vultures, wild, wild dogs, wildcasting, wilderness, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

It might just be happening…………!!!
The dogs still travel far and wide but were back in the hills again yesterday.
Coming out at dusk they killed a young impala. They were just finishing off their kill when baboons started shouting madly to the north.

Following up I saw all these vultures in the trees. Then found Manyari, Magwaza and her 3 cubs and another female all on an adult male kudu.

I headed back to the dogs as it was now almost dark, only to find they’d moved into the hills towards where the lions were. Bad idea!!
We were out early as usual into the very chilly dawn all wrapped up in our sleeping bags. Me too! I’ve mastered the art of driving while sitting in my sleeping. It’s called ‘survival’!
The dogs’ signal was well into the hills to the east. Then we heard the distress calls of a dog. We waited and the calls would come intermittently.

I didn’t get a chance to walk in there after them as more important matters took over. I needed to attend to Penny’s birthday party. We’d invited a bunch of friends and all met up on the river, the ideal place to play in the sand and water. Even a herd of buffalo and a lone elephant graced the party briefly.
I was anxious to get back to the dogs. Why had the pack been calling incessantly and for that long this morning? Had one of them been taken by a lion last night? Now I was getting concerned.
I battled to find the dogs in the afternoon as they’d travelled so far north and were in the area of a den Puzzles had dug several weeks ago.

As Murphy had it, I arrived at the top of the hill just when they’d moved off to the bottom.
So I’m not sure if they were at the den I suspect, but when we were able to count heads, there were only 9. Puzzles is missing!
Hopefully this is a good “missing”, cos she’s got pups!

Tomorrow morning I should know what’s going on.
There’s still that little butterfly in my tummy that thinks something might have happened to Puzzles. But then again, if it had, the pack would be calling incessantly for her.

Wild dog etiquette: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on June 24, 2009

in videopost

. 2 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, blog, blogumentary, buffalo, bush, bush-knowledge, bushpig, bushveld, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, endangered-species, etiquette, experience, film, filmmaker, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, hunting, IUCN-Red-List, kill, lion, lions, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, peace-parks, photo, photos, podcasting, predators, teach, video, wild, wild dogs, wildcasting, wilderness, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

Okay, I missed my turn at Wildcast on Sunday. It was Daddy’s day you know. AND as you know I had the most special surprise when I found my girls at home waiting for me! It has to be the best Daddy Day I’ve had!!!
My daughters are with me for about 3 weeks now and spend all their time with me filming. It’s such a treat for them and me too!

The wild dogs have continued to travel extensively and even went right to the very western end of the reserve across the river for just one night and then all the way back east. And poor Puzzles just tags along trotting behind everybody with her huge tummy swaying from side to side. She’s pretty huge now.
We took guesses as to how many pups she would have.
With her being so big I decided she’d have 12. Lindy said 11 and Penny says 9. Your guesses??
A few days ago I had an interesting day or 2 with the dogs. The pups found themselves a honey badger. This animal must weigh about a quarter of the dogs weight, but as vicious as they are 8 pups against one honey badger was no match. The badger won and went off on his merry way.
The dogs moved into the river and I followed on foot. A lone hyaena came sniffing by and was soon sent packing by the dogs. They continued along the river bank staring at the water, terrified but curious. AND of course wanting to cross. Maybe they were hoping Moses would be around. I wasn’t able to help.

As we moved along the riverbank stopping periodically to stare at the water, we were suddenly surprised by a lion stalking the dogs. But when it saw me it bolted out of sight.

The dogs were all a little nervous now, and then I saw the brute had come back and was standing on the riverbank staring at me! I had to pull a brave one, as I wasn’t about to lose face in front of the dogs. I returned the lions stare and with the dogs standing to my left, I made a lunge at the lion. Well he truly lost it and with a growl he took off and I could hear him running at pace grunting down the road as he disappeared.
The dogs were impressed…………. ☺

They moved on down the river and chased an impala into the sandy riverbed. I saw the impala cross the shallow water, but it was totally exhausted nearly falling over as it crossed and lay down in the reeds. The dogs eventually arrived but were nervous of crossing. I rushed around in my vehicle so I could film the action and ended up nearly rolling the vehicle in a donga/ravine. While I battled jacking myself out of there I heard the impala die!
Just not getting this action on film these days.

I also had another interesting encounter several days ago. The dogs were resting up in the hills when a family of bushpigs came wandering into the area. These pigs are nocturnal and very seldom seen and must have been heading to their resting place for the day. There was a boar, 3 sows and 3 piglets. The wild dog pups just had to harass them, but these pigs are pretty vicious and stood their ground. They even wanted to have a go at me when I ventured closer! The pups had no joy with them and the pigs soon moved on.

Elephant Snorkeling: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on June 23, 2009

in videopost

. 5 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, blogumentary, bush, bush-knowledge, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, elephants, endangered-species, experience, film, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, hunting, IUCN-Red-List, kill, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, peace-parks, photos, podcasting, polls, predators, teach, video, waterhole, wild, wild dogs, wildcasting, wilderness, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, zimbabwe

A technical problem prohibited our Sunday publishing of Wildcast, something about a huge father’s day wing-ding of gigantic proportions to christen the new braai/barbecue built with my own hands. However, I was still out and about on Sunday and it ended up being a great day; I was chased by some rowdy elephant at Hwata Pan and caught up with the white rhino frequently visiting the pan.

The elephant have been hanging around the area for a few days now, from a distance one can hear the trumpeting and as you get closer you find that a cloud of dust has enveloped the elephant to mark their position. This time we start with them drinking at the pan, it was a fairly relaxed time, but as I followed them into the Mopane shrub to the east, they weren’t enjoying the company and decided to let the whole world know - the trumpeting becomes deafening.

Today I was driving around not expecting too much out of morning and as I crossed over the Orphan road I saw Kim crawling at a slow pace towards me with the dogs leading the way. This was great; first it was a nice open area giving me a chance to catch some footage of Kim with the dogs, and second, I just love being entertained by their lively antics.

The dogs killed what looked to be a small impala and then continued through the dry Nyamasikana riverbed. It was still fairly early, but they were heading for the hills to rest up for the day. Lindy and Penny were with Kim this morning, they are diligent daughters never missing out on the chance to be in the bush. When Kim has to follow the dogs on foot in the hills, they break out the deck of cards and keep themselves entertained, not to mention inviting others into the game for fresh competition.

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Tag Archive for 'kill'

Death of a Black Rhino: Video

Wild Rib Brunch: Video

Lichtenstein Lioness: Video

Puzzles’ last day: Video

Wild dog etiquette: Video

Elephant Snorkeling: Video

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