Week 275 (28th Nov - 4th Dec 2008)
Another week in paradise
Madonna and her Cubs
Madonna was lying in the long grass under the big bush where she hides her cubs. She was looking at me, without moving a muscle. King Henry and little Topaz were playing with the carcass that Madonna was given last night. Madonna didn’t even break the skin of the springbok; she just left it there for the cubs. Both the little ones were on top of the carcass, trying to have a bite. King Henry was fascinated by the noises 327 made as he ate, eventually he could contain his curiosity no longer and ambled closer taking no notice of me. Once 327 had just about finished eating and the sounds were no longer interesting King Henry slowly walked closer to where I was standing and hissed and chuffed in sequence. Of course I couldn’t miss an opportunity to answer and after a while he returned to his mother and sister. On Thursday, Madonna was also excited to receive her blesbuck leg and dragged it off to where the cubs were waiting, plopped it down and walked off. King Henry gave his pouncing skills some practice whilst Topaz was in two minds whether she should join in the play with the meat or play with her mother. Much deliberation later Madonna won the draw and King Henry carried on playing. He stood up on his hind legs with his front feet waving in the air and then bounced forward landing on top of the leg; after losing his balance and tumbling off he readied another pounce and looked at Madonna to see if she was watching. Having satisfied himself that she was he again waved his feet and pounced - with the same result as the previous time. Encouraged by Madonna’s chuffing he continued practicing until hunger overcame him and he had to eat.
Successful hunting
On Saturday of this week Cathay made a kill through the night. How exciting! This morning when we arrived, neither Cathay nor TigerWoods were close to the gate. After standing around for some time, Cathay came closer to the gate. We drove up the fence of the 40ha fence, to count the blesbuck, and we counted only 13. When we drove back to greet Cathay, her face and paws were full of blood. All the evidence was there that she hunted. After a while, TigerWoods came walking to the gate and his paws were full of blood as well. Later we drove into the 40ha camp to look for the carcass but we couldn’t find it anywhere and realised that they must have hidden it. On Wednesday we discovered that they had again hunted successfully during the night, this time they had killed two buck and had finished one entirely by the next morning. We now have eleven buck in the forty hectare camp.