Week 273 (14th Nov – 20th Nov 2008)
Adults, boys and babies.
At the beginning of the week Cathay and TigerWoods were playing, running around chasing each other and at times stopping to caress each other and rub heads. Most often during these interludes he would be lying on his back pawing at the air whilst Cathay was standing over him giving him a jab with a front paw in any exposed part of his anatomy. On the rare occasion that she was on her back, any advances or even the tiniest of movements from her mate would result in her growling and snapping at him and if he was close enough clawing at him to get the message across. Now that they are in the 40ha camp we hardly ever see them at the fence and then they seem to be ignoring each other.
Madonna has been spending a lot of time with the cubs playing around her and all her coaxing and calling is beginning to pay off. The cubs are slowly becoming accustomed to our presence and are in fact drawing closer to the fence and coming into the open where we can really see them. The little female is still far more timid than her brother preferring to remain as close to Madonna as she can but as soon as we make any movement she scuttles back into the bush an only reappears if Madonna goes and fetches her out. King Henry is very adventurous and as long as we remain fairly quiet he is content to play around and stalk bushes. Occasionally when he is in the mood they get to spend some time visiting with Uncle 327 who almost always returns their chuffs.
Hulooo is fascinated by running water and never misses a chance to play in it. We were filling the outside water trough and Hulooo was attracted by the running water, he climbed all over the trough trying to chew the water as it was exiting the tap, eventually his front feet were on the edge of the trough on either side of the tap and his chest was in the water, every once in a while one of his feet would accidentally make contact with the water; as he tried to drag the tap closer; and he shook it violently sending water everywhere. Once the level of the water had risen to a height that he could no longer actually see the water running he dipped his whole head into the trough and nosed around. Suddenly he became crazy and jumped into the trough with all four feet and lay down for a split second before leaping out and prancing around his brothers, he then sprang back in and chewed on the tap – and managed to open it. He left again and jumped all over his brothers before jumping back in on one side, sliding through the length to the other and leapt out and again bugged his brothers. Once he had finished playing his brothers were as wet as he was and they hadn’t even set foot in the water.
Hulooo and his brothers have now been promoted to a blesbuck every three days, Hulooo will of course eat the lion’s share and his belly will no doubt be twice the size it usually is but at least his brothers will have more to eat than scrapings off the bones.