Week 234 (15 - 21 February 2008)

Madonna proves herself to be a real, hunting tigress

The opportunity to hunt does not only belong to Cathay. This week, Madonna could also practice her hunting skills in the 40 ha camp. She was immediately ready to hunt when she entered the 40 ha camp. Madonna has matured now, and her hunting skill have also developed. On Friday afternoon, Madonna was seen walking slowly towards a group of blesbok and on Saturday morning, one juvenile blesbok was gone. It was probably Madonna who caught it. After that, she disappeared for several days until Tuesday afternoon when she was seen starting a new hunt. She was slowly walking on the road in the middle of the 40 ha camp and scent marking all the time. Though she walked very slowly, she was getting closer and closer to the group of blesbok which were on the hill in the eastern corner of the camp. After a while, she was quite close to the blesbok. It seemed that the blesbok had also noticed that there was very little chance of survival if they stayed in the same place, so they decided to run. They ran towards Madonna and wanted to break through. Madonna didn’t follow but just watched. She knew how to save her energy. She just turned and walked towards the blesbok again. She kept using the same tactics and it looked as if she wanted to make the blesbok tired before launching her attack.

The next morning, only 8 adults and 3 juvenile blesbok were left in the 40 ha camp. Madonna succeeded again. When TigerWoods appeared next to the fence of the 0.5 ha camp, his belly still looked quite empty. Maybe he still hadn’t noticed that Madonna had made a kill.

Since Madonna was put into the 40 ha camp and Cathay was put into the 9 ha camp, it looked as if TigerWoods was missing Cathay a lot. He spent most of his time every day pacing along the fence of the 9 ha camp and looking for Cathay. Cathay also often appeared next to the fence of the 40 ha camp and kept pacing with TigerWoods. They chuffed at each other all the time. On the contrary, Madonna looked so independent. She doesn’t rely on TigerWoods or Cathay any more and acts like a real tigress. There were several times when TigerWoods wanted to come close to her, but she ran away.

Due to the work being done next to the breeding centre, during the day 327 was kept inside the breeding center. This was good news for him and every morning he was sitting right at the sliding gate of the breeding center waiting for it to be opened. On Saturday, 327 was given a leg of buffalo. When he was about to start eating, Cathay appeared in the 9 ha camp. He hasn’t seen her for several weeks. Seeing Cathay approaching, he was so shocked and immediately took the leg inside the pole shelter. The next several days, though Cathay chuffed at 327 every time she came to the quarantine camp, 327 just ignored her and stayed away.