Week 231 (25 - 31 January 2008)

Dominant TigerWoods and lonely Madonna

This week TigerWoods and Cathay continued their charming life. Since the weather was quite hot, they spent most of their time sleeping, but once it cooled down, they played with each other quite often. Whenever they were eating or playing, TigerWoods seemed dominant.

On Tuesday morning, they were fed. Two springbok carcasses were put in the 4 ha camp for them. When the 4 ha camp gate was opened, both Cathay and TigerWoods ran into the camp immediately. The strange thing was that both of them ran to the same springbok carcass and once it was taken by TigerWoods, Cathay seemed very disappointed. She did not realize that there was another springbok carcass just a few meters away. When TigerWoods went to the water trough, Cathay saw her chance and ran to his carcass. However, TigerWoods then immediately ran back and grabbed it away from her again. Cathay then went to the shade of the drainage line and lay down.

On Wednesday afternoon, Cathay was resting near the water trough TigerWoods later joined her at the water trough. Cathay went to him and tried to climb onto his back. Initially TigerWoods didn’t react but when Cathay almost sat on his back, he got annoyed and roared softly. Cathay was driven away and she quickly turned her attention to Madonna.

Madonna, on the other hand seemed to be a little bit lonely this week. Although she got the chance to meet 327 almost every morning, he ignored her most of the time. She tried to stalk 327 on Monday morning and initially he ran off, but Madonna continued which finally made 327 angry. He roared at Madonna, who then went into her cage and sat inside, watching 327. 327 picked up a bone from the grass left by Madonna and played with it for a while, before entering Madonna’s cage as well. He sat inside for a long time before he was introduced back into his own cage and closed in the breeding centre.