saturday october 13---incl leopard's success!
patsenojexpedition
patrick and susan jones
Sat 13 Oct 2007 15:10
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over the past two days, there have been some
interesting developements. yesterday, what started out to be an ordinary
game drive, turned into something a bit more exciting. we started out
finding some jackals, some owls (huge) and the regular gang of impala, zebras,
giraffes, antelope, cranes, and birds. then,
as we were returning at sunset we saw a leopard sleeping in a tree (all four
legs dangling down astraddle the tree branch) surveying a large field. we
parked just under the tree, and each of us (leopard and the 4x4 people) just
lazily stared at each other for a while.
then, as dusk grew more pronounced, the leopard got
up, down from the tree, and flushed three antelope from the grass in the field
and chased them nearer to the edge of the field near some brush. then the
leopard went back to the tree for more shuteye.
the 3 antelopes really hunkered down in the grass,
trying to hide from the leopard, and both
parties knew each other's whereabouts. the
antelope can outrun the leopard, so the leopard cound not just chase the
antelopes and expect any success. so the leopard got out of the tree, and
slowly stealthily slinked (slunk?) through the grass circling the field and
coming back around behind the antelopes. this took maybe 45 minutes, so
there was a lot of energy in the air, and the hunkered down antelopes were
hunkering down even more, trying to be obscure in the grass.
then all of a sudden, the leopard leapt into the
air and pounced on the biggest antelope (around 150 pounds of him) and
immediately grabbed his neck and suffocated him, quickly. we arrived in
the 4x4 as the leopard was still struggling with the antelope and the antelope
was still struggling to get away, it was really getting very deep into the
dusk at this point so cameras were not very good at all, which was a
shame. then, when the leopard was sure the antelope was really dead,
started dining on it, ( hindquarters first). we were right there on the
spot!
the leopard was quite wary of hyenas that might
steal her dinner. eventually she walked away looking for a place to hide
her dinner, and so we left to go back to the lodge.
today, we went on an elephant walk/orientation with
three semi-habituated elephants. an american came here 19 years ago and
adopted two orphan elephants that are now 21 years old (a huge male and a
female). later another orphan elephant was added (she was already 13 when
was adopted , and is now about 30 years old). so we spent the morning having an
orientation, a longish walk with them (including watching them in the mudbath,
where one mud small mud projectile was flung
50 feet and caught susan on the shirt) and then
went to a nice picnic lunch in the bush---with them). lots of very
interesting photos. the male was huge (about 5 tons) and still growing, and all
three were very intelligent, and could perform little parlor tricks (like taking
off someone's hat and putting it on the elephant's head and then replacing it
back on the guest;s head----properly. at lunch, we were treated to the
variety of sounds elephants make---all recorded on the camcorder: deep
rumbles, trumpeting, inhaling from the nose squeals, etc.
all quite interesting.......took many photos
including susan getting an affectionate kiss by the trunk of the elephant
(slobbery, whiskery, and smelly was the first descriptive words from that
experience).
this afternoon we are going on another boat ride in
the marshes, maybe to see more eagles and hippos and elephants bathing. the boat
experience has the redeeming feature of being
smoother than riding in a bumpy 4x4 as
well.
tomorrow at around noon we leave baines camp and
fly for 10 minutes to chief's camp where we will stay for 5 nights.
trip is now one week gone,, two more to
go.
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