Once we finished with the lions, we drove around for a while more before going off-road and crashing through the brush into a fairly thick area. The prize for pushing through all of that foliage? Four lionesses that were themselves getting some sun and relaxing. Apparently all of them had lion cubs, but they were hidden somewhere else at the time we saw them.

Next, we got reports that there was a leopard on the prowl, so we caught up with it while it was stalking some prey. At one point it actually went under our vehicle while on the scent of its prey. For a while, we were able to see it, but then it crouched down low in the tall grasses, and it virtually disappeared. We could see what it was stalking off in the distance – a herd of Impala. They must’ve been at least 60-80 feet away, but it seemed like some of them could sense that something was up, as they moved away from the leopard and were in a very open area. The leopard was staying very still, hoping that the impala would forget that she was there, but it was taking too long and we had to return to the camp to eat breakfast.

The impala ran around as we drove by, and we saw that there was one male and maybe 25 females around him. According to ranger Rob, during breeding season, which was just about to end, a male Impala spends roughly all his time mating with females, until he is too weak due to spending more energy on mating than eating and he is replaced by another stronger male. The cycle repeats until the end of breeding season, and the last male to be there stays with the females until the next breeding season starts. This is advantageous, as the other males are off on their own in smaller packs, and are easier prey for predators. The male who stays with the females is better protected, as he will usually stay in the middle of the group while the females are the ones who get eaten by predators.

We took a brush walk with two of the guides after breakfast, and learned an awful lot about poop. It is very easy to determine the owner of a given piece of dung just by looking at it to see what it is composed of. Hippos spread their dung around with their tail on bushes to mark their territory. Elephants have dung with lots of undigested grass, bark and leaves in it since they are very inefficient at digesting their food, and it also has a reddish color to it because they eat leaves off trees that have lots of tannins in order to ward off the animals. Elephants don’t care, since they have poor taste buds, so they eat anything in sight. Rhinos, buffalo and the antelope types have multiple stomachs, so they are much better at digesting their food and their dung comes out looking “finely processed” for lack of a better term. Lastly, we learned that giraffe dung is scattered since it falls from such a high height. I hope you found this just as informative as I did.

Back at the lodge, there were a few warthogs that decided to graze on the grass between cabins. I think they win the award for ugliest creatures we’ve seen so far. I went up to watch the Honduras-Chile match before lunch, which once again was quite tasty. The Chileans looked pretty good and their fanbase was as boisterous as I remember it being at the airport 2 days ago.

At the end of our morning game drive, ranger Rob noticed some leopard tracks with cub tracks alongside it, and so the first objective on our afternoon game drive was to go find that leopard, as it was most likely taking the cub to a kill it had made earlier in the morning. When we got to the point where the tracks went off into the brush, Rob and tracker Ron got out on foot, rifle in hand, to go try and find the kill and the leopards before driving into the thick of it. They were gone for about 5 minutes, leaving the rest of us to wonder what the hell we’d do if some animal came up to the car with no ranger and no gun. Eventually they returned with news that they’d found the kill, but no leopard. We drove in to where it was lying – it was an impala – and waited for the leopard to return, as it had probably run off when Rob and Ron approached. After about 10 minutes, we decided to leave and come back later in the hopes that the leopard would’ve returned.

As it turned out, we got about 3 minutes away when the call came over the radio that the leopard had returned. We stopped in front of a rock where there were a few dwarf monogooses. They are curious little creatures who look a lot like prairie dogs, but very tiny. We made our way back to the kill, where the leopard cub was chowing down on the dead impala as the mother laid down a few feet away and watched. The cub was a cute little guy, but with quite sharp teeth that would cause problems if you tried to play with it. The cub got its fill of food and went back to play around with its mother before wandering around looking at the other vehicles that had showed up to see it. It got its nose bloody from digging into the flank of the impala and looked a little like Rudolph the red-nosed leopard. At one point, it had ripped off the tail of the animal and was playing with it. Somewhat sadistic if you ask me.

After leaving the leopard behind, we went up on a hill to have a drink and watch the sun set. I got a great panorama shot which I hope to show you all at some point. After taking some pictures, we all got back in the vehicle and traveled some more in hopes of finding a second leopard with a kill. Since it was at nighttime, it was tough to try and spot a leopard that didn’t want to be seen, however, I thought I saw one slinking through the bushes. We briefly backtracked, but didn’t investigate, and we drove on. Eventually we found the kill, but there was no leopard in sight. Since it was on another game reserve’s property, we didn’t press further into the matter, and we headed back for dinner.

Our last dinner was to the same level as the previous two, this time featuring a venison-like animal and a fish, along with some great veggies and a flan-like dessert. South Africa, or Bafana Bafana, was playing tonight, so everyone settled in to the lodge to watch the match in hopes that they would win, and we would all be happy. Alas, it was as bad as it could be, and Uruguay won 3-0. South Africa requires a miracle now to advance, and though they are playing a French team in disarray in their next match, it may prove to be too much of an obstacle to overcome.

Tomorrow, we leave for Polokwane and our first match of the World Cup!

written by  nucappy on June 16, 2010 from Justicia, South Africa
from the travel blog: London and South Africa - World Cup 2010!
tagged Safari, SouthAfrica and WorldCup
Send a Compliment

---

My thoughts: Impala gang bangs, POOP, Pumbaa would be offended, Kate Austen is a tracker too.

written by  Jere on June 22, 2010

comment on this...