Week 271 (31st Oct – 6th Nov 2008)
Madonna and her cubs
31st October 2008: Madonna’s cubs were very energetic this morning and didn’t wait for any invitations but scuttled after their mother wherever she went, playing with each other on the rare occasions that they were left behind. 327 was lying under his most favourite tree watching the world go by from under very heavy eyelids. Shortly afterwards he got up and moved off to another shady spot in order to be able to see Madonna and her babies better.
1st November 2008: Madonna was lying under a tree with her cubs playing around her. Later she walked closer to the fence to greet 327. They started to pace the fence together, with the cubs following her at top speed. 327 found the cubs very interesting, watching them in fascination and chuffing continually. After a while 327 lost interest and walked away.
2nd November 2008: Madonna and her cubs were visiting Uncle 327 and he was chuffing at them like mad, occasionally Madonna would also add her five cents worth, when she could get a word in edge-ways.
3rd November 2008: Madonna was lying by herself in a clearing, waiting for the sun to reach her, her cubs were nowhere to be seen but when we returned from our customary visit to 327 we found her and her cubs in full view about 10metres from the gate. We stopped in our tracks and watched the cubs play around their mother until they suddenly became aware of our presence and froze. Madonna talked softly and chuffed and they then all waltzed away to the far corner. In the afternoon, Madonna did grace us with an appearance but all she did were his and snarl which naturally left us feeling very unwanted, her cubs were far away under a tree so she couldn’t even use them as an excuse for her unfriendly behaviour. All we could see of them was a tail or two popping above the grass for tiny interludes
4th November 2008: We placed a whole springbuck in the maternity camp for Madonna and invited her in, closing the gate behind her. Taking advantage of the opportunity we quickly scrubbed the water trough and carried out the near-by bones. Out the corner of our eyes we watched her pacing with the buck, this way and that wondering how she could get it to her cubs. Undecided, she dropped the springbuck and lay down near it waiting for the gate to open. Once we had opened the gate she went directly to her cubs, leaving the buck behind. Leaving the gate open in the hopes that she would bring the cubs to the meat we took our leave of her and fed Hulooo and the gang. By the time we left the facility for the night she still had not returned to the meat.
5th November 2008: Madonna had dragged the springbuck out of the maternity camp to the beginning of the ditch about 5 metres from the fence, which was where we found her and her babies this morning. The cubs were content at first to play around in the bushes and trees whilst she was eating but later couldn’t resist the sound of her crunching bones and wanted to join in. She was happy enough to let them nibble at the meat but when they started climbing all over her she drew the line and stood up growling. It appears that she has less patience whilst eating than Cathay. At our afternoon visit we noticed Madonna lying near the furthest, right-hand corner of her camp and we decided to take a walk down and have a look if we could spot her cubs. She didn’t disappoint and although she was lying with her back to us we could see two ears suckling, we made some very interesting noise which at first caused Madonna to look over her shoulder, frowning. The cub could also not resist and peered at us over its mother and the ears turned out to belong to King Henry. We continued making attention-grabbing noises and he climbed on top of her and hung over her back and stayed there until she lost her rag and stood up, he slid off and followed her as she moved three paces and lay down again. At that point the milk-bar was far more interesting than we could ever hope to be and he focused all his attention on feeding the inner man.
6th November 2008: Madonna had been lying at the very far end of her camp and we walked on to 327’s home and saw him walking towards us so we chucked out anchors to wait for him. Once he finally arrived we were allowed to watch him drink before he headed off in Madonna’s direction and she stood up and met him half-way (to the right of the cub’s bush) and lay down. She had no sooner done so when she was joined by one of her cubs who lost all interest in her when it saw 327 at the fence and went to talk to him instead. 327 started chuffing for all he was worth and the cub chuffed back with equal intensity - Madonna just lay smiling at them both. 327 then became bored with all the adulation and walked off slowly to find a spot to lie in. Having lost the subject of his adoration the cub returned to its mother and was then joined by its sibling and they both climbed all over their mother chuffing at her with delight.