Shinde dogs and Selinda cats

[madaboutcheetah]

@@Geoff - Chitabe.

[Caracal]

@@Bush dog Pleased to learn that the elephant calf made it. That side-striped jackal has a very handsome and prominent stripe compared with some I've seen.

 

Really enjoying and appreciating your report with the wonderful photos and the details such as the flies and the lion's claws in #68 and that black-eyed bulbul way back in #14 looks like he's really checking you or your camera out!

 

Looking forward to more on Selinda.

[Bush dog]

@@Geoff

 

Yes, Chitabe and I think he is managing it with his wife.

[Bush dog]

@@Caracal

 

Thank you so much for your comments!

[Bush dog]

2nd GAME DRIVE

 

At the kill, only two of the four young males were still feeding on the carcass. Three other lions were close by and the five others, not present or somewhere around but invisible for us. Twelve hours after our first visit, there was not much left of the buffalo.

 

 

On the way back to the camp, a rock monitor lizzard coming out of one of its tree hollows,

 

 

And ready to go in another one.

 

[deano]

@@Bush dog; wow from the first post to the latest one; the opening pictures should have let me know what was in store (so far) but I was still surprised by the predator action you enjoyed. Particularly envious of your wild dog sightings and the male lion pondering life at the base of the tree would be in pride of place on my wall if I had taken it. Will make time to follow this one and will be on the internet shortly looking at Selinda (Safaritalk has the effect on me a lot!).

 

kind regards

 

deano.

[Atravelynn]

Hippo spittle elevated to art! It was striking and almost sad how the brightly the colors of the dragonfly shone in the bill of the kf. That may be the youngest elephant calve ever. Interesting how you saw this newborn just before the hippo carcass, emphasizing the whole circle of life thing on safari. Lovely lion pics, especially the repose between romance shots. You do have a knack for the brightly colored flies, among other wildlife These destinations really delivered!

Edited January 7, 2017 by Atravelynn

[Bush dog]

@@deano

 

That lion would probably be also on my wall if there was still available place on it. Anyway, thanks a lot for your comments!

[Bush dog]

@@Atravelynn

 

I am and will always be pleasantly surprised by the imagination, the creativity but also the wisdom that one can find in your comments. Thank you so much, Lynn, for this!

[Atravelynn]

@@Atravelynn

 

I am and will always be pleasantly surprised by the imagination, the creativity but also the wisdom that one can find in your comments. Thank you so much, Lynn, for this!

Thanks. When I re-read them, those comments were not grammatically correct or spelled right. Oops, must be my new computer. But it is the thought that counts, right?

[michael-ibk]

You did the impossible, Mike - and made the flys on the carcass look beautiful, shimmeringly so!

[Bush dog]

3rd GAME DRIVE

 

During the morning, it was very hot. In the afternoon, we decided to go west again, in direction of Explorer’s Camp, where the presence of wild dogs had been reported to us. On the way, a thunderstorm had emerged on the horizon. Mots tried, as much as possible, to avoid it. We still donned our ponchos. While we were busy putting them, we saw, in the distance, two dogs running. We tried, without success, to find them but they were certainly, already, far away. Moreover, the rain, which had begun to fall, was turned down by a violent wind towards the interior of the vehicle. Another vehicle, which was in the middle of the downpour, had seen lightning strike nearby. Being at the edge of the storm, we soon saw gaps of blue sky appear as well as a rainbow.

 

 

After passing close to a herd of buffaloes, we came across two lionesses and three cubs (five more members of the Selinda pride). We followed them, watching their plays and marks of affection, until they arrived near a pond in which was, turning its back on them and half immersed, one of the two hippos seen the day before. The lions, obviously thirsty, went down to the water watching it out of the corner of one’s eye.

 

 

Suddenly, the hippo turned and started, open mouth, a mock charge. And then, it loudly defecated, a sign of territoriality rather than surprise or fear.

 

 

That’s not a problem they went a little further to quench their thirst.

 

 

The lionesses, evidently, toyed with the idea of hunting. So, they set off again. Along a bush, one of them started a civet which, immediately, all bristling hairs ran away with the lioness hot on its heels. Several times, the lioness seemed to catch its prey but immediately slowed down. Why? To defend itself the civet produces a strong smelling and irritating musk. The lioness abandoned the hunt as soon as the civet entered the forest. All that lasted only about twenty seconds and did not leave me time to take a single picture. Then they stalked four giraffes which, after having discovered them, went away.

[Bush dog]

You did the impossible, Mike - and made the flys on the carcass look beautiful, shimmeringly so!

 

Thanks, Michael

[optig]

@@Bush dog I love your photo of the hippo putting the lions to flight as it emerges from the water. I can see that the lions also fear hippos.

[Bush dog]

@@optig

 

I do not think that lions really fear hippos. When the hippo made its mock charge, they were more surprised than scared. They did not even run away.

[Bush dog]

4th GAME DRIVE

 

This morning, we had just got out of the camp when Mots picked up the trail of a male lion, a hyena, and at least two leopards. The spoors were very clear, the soil being still wet from the previous day’s rain. We were spoilt for choice but, since there was a good chance that they were three and not two, we decided to focus on the leopards’ tracks. We were on the territory of a female that I had already seen in March last year. I had not had the chance to see its three cubs, two males and one female, that, at the time, were barely a few weeks old. In the meanwhile, in June, the young female had been killed by a hyena.

 

It was not so easy to track them down. Indeed, they came out of the road, back, out again and so on. On the other hand, they regularly stopped to play or socialize making tracking a little more complex like, but to a lesser extent, when you are on the trail of wild dogs. This forced Mots to stop several times in order to examine the ground, on foot, while explaining what he was doing and why. Personally, I appreciate this exercise very much, whether or not we find what we are looking for. After about one hour, arrived at the edge of a wood, we lost track. As we could hear baboons in the woods, there was no chance they would be there. So, either they were somewhere on the edge, hidden on a tree or in the bushes, or elsewhere behind us. In the meantime, OB had inspected the road on the other side of the wood, without finding anything. He was about to join us and we could already see his vehicle, when he pointed out that he could see two of them hundred meters behind us, on a termite mound. These were the two young males. Where was the mother? A third car with Victor at the wheel arrived shortly after.

 

This one moved very quickly in the direction of the woods.

 

 

The other one crouched on the ground as vehicles approached.

 

 

The other one stayed a bit longer on the mound.

 

 

Then moved to another place.

 

 

And went back to the mound.

 

 

Eventually, it also moved to the woods.

[Bush dog]

4th GAME DRIVE

 

We followed it to the edge where it laid down. No trace of its brother or mother elsewhere. Suddenly, it pounced on something we had not seen. It had just killed a newborn impala that its mother had hidden behind a tree stump, or perhaps the unfortunate little animal was already dead and had been killed before we spotted the two young leopards on the termite mound where the potential threat of baboons had pushed them to take refuge?

 

 

Probably always worried, it soon moved its prey to find a safer place. It set out again in the direction from which it came, towards the termite mounds. It stopped several times on the way,

 

 

To finally hide it in the empty burrow of a warthog.

 

[michael-ibk]

Fantastic Leopard sighting!

[Bush dog]

Fantastic Leopard sighting!

 

Thanks Michael. And it's not yet finished!

[optig]

@Bushdog This sequence of a leopard putting it's kill in an empty warthog burrow is not only gorgeous; it's quite informative. I had no previous idea that a leopard would do that. I'm used to thinking

that a leopard would climb a tree with it's kill. I can't wait to see more.

[Bush dog]

@@optig

 

Some leopards, and more than what one thinks, do so. The mother of this young male often, not to say always, do so. Its son just reproduces, quite naturally, what it has seen done by its mother.

[deano]

I don't know which sighting I like the best out of the three above @@Bush dog; lions interacting with the hippo and then drinking with their piercing eyes staring right at you (and then a chase of a civet) or the leopard at the termite mound - gorgeous - or the sequence with the baby impala kill - amazing sighting. I agree with @@optig and would never have thought that they would stash a kill in a burrow. I suppose they have to learn somehow.

 

kind regards

 

deano.

[Bush dog]

@@optig, @@deano

 

By mentioning, at # 97, that some leopards were doing so, stashing their prey elsewhere than on a tree, I meant, generally, to hide it on the ground, usually under a thick bush but also, in some specific cases, in a burrow.

 

Here is a picture of the mother, taken in March last year, with its prey in a thick bush.

[Bush dog]

4th GAME DRIVE

 

The situation had normalized around the burrow. We went looking for the female, which we still had not seen, and its second son. Always at the edge of the wood, we found the second son that, always out of fear of the baboons no doubt, was well hidden under a low bush with close to it, the body of a female impala, certainly the mother of the dead newborn, still almost intact. I think that it had been killed by the female, before our early morning arrival, and for the same reasons its two sons were on the termite mound, it had retreated in the same direction. So, it must still be there somewhere around.

 

 

We went back to the burrow.

 

 

And back to the woods. The second son was not anymore under the low bush but well near a tall tree behind which it was hiding from a warthog that it seemed to fear. Suddenly, the warthog fled. The female had finally decided to show itself.

 

 

It was tea time, so we moved. This butterfly was on the ground where we took tea.

 

[Bush dog]

4th GAME DRIVE

 

Back to the leopards, they (the second son and its mother) were not on the ground anymore but on a tree.

 

 

The female, worried by noises (baboons again) coming from the woods, prudently decided to descend from the tree and, once more, to retreat towards the open space. The young male remained on its branch.

 

 

In the meantime, the temperature had risen. So, it was very hot. The female was looking for a good place in the shade. It went to lie under our vehicle. Mots had to restart the engine in order to drive it out from there.

 

 

It finally found a good location at the foot of a tree.

 

 

We left them there and back to the camp. On the way to it, we saw an elephant and its calf.

 

 

What a busy morning it was!