Week 232 (1 - 7 February 2008)
Hunting in the 40 ha camp
TigerWoods and Cathay had an exciting week. They were introduced back into the 40 ha camp, giving them the opportunity to hunt again. The blesbok in the 40 ha camp, since their introduction last year, have reproduced and there are now 12 adult blesbok and 8 young ones living there. They live as two main groups; one group consists of 8 adult females, 7 youngsters, and 1 adult male who live in the plains area, while the other group consists of 2 adult females, 1 youngster and 1 adult male who live near the river line. The group living near the river line became the tigers’ first target. Although the first several attempts were not successful, an adult blesbok in the river group was missing after the first night.
On the second afternoon, Cathay was found eating a young blesbok carcass. And on Monday morning, another adult blesbok was gone. That means they caught 3 blesbok in 3 days! Now there was only one adult female blesbok who remained of the river group. However she didn’t want to leave the river line and continued to stay around there.
On Tuesday morning, a hunt was observed. At that time TigerWoods and Cathay were pacing along the fence of the 0.5 ha camp near the river. The single female blesbok was resting under a bush on the hill near the river. When she saw the tigers she got up and snorted. Cathay immediately noticed her. She slowly went to the other side of the blesbok. The blesbok began to run, however when she ran to the other side of the road she suddenly turned around and ran back up the hill. It was TigerWoods who was waiting there! Cathay went to the other side so that they could charge the blesbok from both sides! The blesbok ran back to the top of the hill and both tigers got close to her. The blesbok ran all the way down the hill on Cathay’s side. Cathay chased her but she had eaten too much and was too heavy to run. The blesbok ran past her to the river line. The tigers didn’t seem too disappointed, they still had plenty of food to eat. Then Cathay and TigerWoods slowly returned to where the carcasses were hidden and began to eat. The blesbok later again came very close to them, but at that time the tigers were not interest in her any more.