African wildlife adventures live from the bush
3rd February 2000
The afternoon was spent putting up more solar panels and batteries at the repeater. Hopefully no more downtime because of flat batteries.
Tjololo was back in the south but spent most of his time sleeping so I did too. Before he dawn moved into the Kruger Park.
Our morning was then ruined yet again by drizzle.
1st February 2000
The flood level was down enough again for us to cross at Rocky crossing but by morning was up again and so the long drive round. Must have had rain higher up in the catchment.
With the leopards on their kills we went hunting with lions near the Mala Mala airstrip, but their attempts were rather non-descript. They were all very well satiated anyway.
Later found Tjololo had left his kill and gone on a walkabout. There was no mission on his mind. He took a casual stroll not hunting, not patrolling and not going anywhere specific. Stopping periodically for half an hour and then on again, he eventually did a loop back to his kudu carcass. Not much behaviour going on here. Needs to read the script again.
Tjololo’s friendly hyaena had taken up residence at Tjellers’ kill waiting for falling scraps. Tjellers finished her kill early evening and moved on.
31st January 2000
Tjololo feeling hard done by, decided he too would kill a young kudu calf in the early hours. He stumbled onto the small calf where it had been stashed away by its mother and left to lie low. When Tjololo approached it instinctively stayed down. But unfortunately this time the tactic didn’t work. Tjololo walked straight into it. Later while feeding he suddenly had to scramble up a tree with the carcass when a hyaena arrived.
For most of the night Tjololo had been patrolling to the north of his territory seeming to yet again be pushing his boundaries even further north almost to the Maxipiri river.
In the early evening Tjellers was still with her kudu carcass.
Although no filming was done, the night did provide a lot of interesting little critters. Spotted eagle owl, baby chameleon, small spotted genet, locusts huddled together for the night, chin-spot batis roosting and others.
30th January 2000
We found Tjellers with a young kudu carcass that she probably killed earlier in the day. With lions in the area we decided to stay with her the whole night in case they ventured her way. If so they would surely have climbed the tree and stolen her carcass. A hyaena took up residence at the base of the tree, so Tjellers stayed in the tree all night. By dawn there was no sign of the lions. Tjellers was able to keep her prize.
Mala Mala rangers had Tjololo in the thicket with his kill. We didn’t pay him a visit.
At this rate my camera’s thinking of going into early retirement. I’ve got to keep it busy somehow but can’t just make things happen. I keep saying to myself “ be patient, it’s coming”. But when?
29th January 2000
Tjololo was out doing that male thing. He took over impala kill from the Kapen female. She took refuge in a tree while he helped himself. Once he’d overly satisfied his appetite and took a nap she went and fed in peace.
That was until Tjololo decided to move the kill into a dense thicket to carry on about his business behind “closed doors”.
The dearth of filming continues. Long grass, plenty of rain and the “actors” not cooperating are all out of our control. We’ve just got to hang in there waiting for the next spell.
27th January 2000
Eventually got back to camp. The rains came again in the early hours and every donga on the property was flowing feet deep. We had a frustrating night putting up our cover and taking it off. This prevented us keeping up with Tjololo most of the time.
The downpour at dawn flooded everything again. On our way back to camp we found Flockfield Drift in full flood. On the radio we heard that the long way around was flooded too. All we could do was sit it out until the flood waters dropped several hours later.
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