WEEK IN PICTURES #27
It was yet another eventful week to be out in the bush and the highlight of the week is an easy one.
It was the moment that the two leopard cubs both chased a young warthog which came out at the most unfortunate time. We were tracking the leopards for some time and managed to find them underneath a knob thorn, we were sitting with them for a few minutes before a young warthog (+- 2 months old) randomly ran past the vehicles. One of the cubs then set chase whilst the other cub soon joined and took the lead in chasing the poor warthog in circles, a very loud squealing noise behind a termite mount then confirmed the kill. It was a heart racing moment for us all, feeling happy for the leopard but at the same time a bit of sadness for the warthog. The larger cub then later decided to ascend a nearby marula tree to relax for a while.
One morning at the hyena den we only found 2 adults with the 6 cubs, some of the cubs were busy licking one of the adult female’s face. It was clear that she had a good meal with her over-sized stomach and the cubs were actually licking all the blood of her face. It wasn’t long before another adult appeared with a piece of the kill, she dropped it in the den’s entrance and the cubs didn’t waste any time taking their share of the meal.
Two of the Machaton males were energy conservative for most part of the week, lying stretched out most of the time. They were very active during the nights as we found them several kilometers from where we left them the previous night. The third Machaton males has kept himself busy with on e of the Kudyela lionesses. The Kudyela pride were split up during the week and we didn’t once see more than 4 females together.
