Week 357 ( 25th June to 1st July 2010 )
Cathay and TigerWoods have a tussle and we humans are perplexed
During the course of the week the pair were mooching around in the annex expecting to be fed. When the food did eventually arrive they stood at the gate chuffing at one another whilst they waited for the gate to open. Both raced into the annex but TW had had a head-start and lay claim to the first carcass and within seconds did the same with the second and lay on top of them both. Cathay skidded to a halt in a cloud of dust to assess the situation. She looked from TW to the food and back at TW as she made up her mind as to the best course of action. She then grabbed hold of one ignoring his growls and pulled. He got up and pulled the same carcass in the opposite direction and dragged both the carcass and Cathay around amidst much growling and spluttering. As TigerWoods continued pulling, Cathay stumbled over the second carcass and immediately relinquished her hold and TW stumbled over his feet. She then took hold of the other carcass and dragged it out of the annex just into the camp and lay down to feed. TigerWoods realised that there was no further competition for food and flung a chuff at Cathay which she answered through a mouthful of springbuck hair
On 25 June we conducted a night monitor and we eventually located King Henry and Princess in the eastern corner. Princess was lying quietly and King Henry was fooling around. Racing back and forth and pouncing on something. We couldn’t see what it was and assumed that it was a hare or something similar and drove closer to see what all the fuss was about. Once we arrived we found that it was a Blesbuck lamb that King Henry was taunting. We could see that the lamb was still alive but breathing heavily and we scratched our heads as we pondered the enigma of how there could be a fresh kill and still 6 live Blesbuck. With our arrival King Henry became very possessive over the lamb and dragged it off a short distance and grabbed it around the throat. Once he was sure that it was no longer alive he carried it even further away and settled down to eat. Princess lazed around a while and we left to check our count of the live Blesbuck. Our first count was correct and we scratched our heads further whilst we watched Princess slowly make her way in the direction of the blesbuck. Eventually she reached the donga and stayed there. After much deliberation we eventually arrived at the conclusion that when two Blesbuck were missing on the morning of 24 June we assumed that they both had been killed. But it is possible that they only managed to kill one, leaving the other wounded but not dead. It possibly moved to another location and this evening the tigers happened upon it where it was lying low.