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May 16th.
Woke up at 530am and got ready for our 6:15 drive. We left
around 630 and drove toward where we had heard lion calling this morning,
around 5. On the way there, we received word of two male lion on Merula. We
scurried down there and by 7am we were in the presence of two of the most
beautiful males I have seen, Xinpoko and Masana. They seemed to be about 6 or 7 and had formed a
coalition. Possibly brothers, though one looked a little older. They sniffed
around and were very calm, but appeared to be waiting on their females to
return. We saw female lion tracks leading off from the area, so we decided to
wait around a bit. Within 10 minutes or so, we heard the kill. The females had
been out hunting, and had been successful. Instantaneously, the males were up
and moving. It was the most exhilarating thing, to be following two large
fierce males on their way to breakfast! We tracked with them down the road a
ways, til they moved into the bush. We continued down the road and were able to
keep a visual as they ran through the bush. We cut through a side street, just
in time to see them cross the side road and continue right to the Makhutswi
River. There weren’t any roads that lead to where we needed to be, so we spent
a while trying to pinpoint exactly where they had been, crossing the river a
few times and doubling back. After about an hour, we seemed to have lost them.
We waited a while, and heard location calls, which seemed to indicate either
the males had not found the females, and thus, the kill, or it was another
group trying to locate them. We traveled around the area for a while, listening
to calls and looking for tracks, but were unable to get another visual. It
would have been amazing to see the lions reach the kill, but already, that was
more than I expected that morning! One time, crossing the river, we saw some
cute Vervet monkeys high in the trees above. We covered all the roads in the
region, seeing zebra, wildebeests, impala, and others. At one point, there were
impala giving alarm calls in the middle of an area that cheetah frequent, so I
was hoping to see some action there, but not today. We headed out to a hide
over a watering hole, and on the way saw four elephants in a clearing. We spent
some time observing them and IDing them with our ID data books. The hide was so
cool! It gave a great lookout over Cheetah Clearing, as well as the watering
hole. We spent some time there, then headed home. On the way, we passed two
Tembe females, Nandi and Nkosikasi, who crossed the road and then laid down
for a mid-morning nap in the grass. We suspect they were with the male who
crossed the river last night that we couldn’t find. Since they were so close to
camp, we think they were the ones we heard calling this morning. On our way in
to camp, we saw a mother warthog and her baby, who were surprisingly cute! We
got home a little past 11 and relaxed a bit before lunch.
One of the elephants we IDed, Sneaky.
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