Yesterday we had one un-forgettable experience.
We finished off the super seven with a cheetah. It had
killed a young waterbuck, and filled its belly to its brim. While the spotted
cat was resting off his meal, the mother of the deceased waterbuck calf came
looking for her young, walking within reachable distance from the cheetah. At
first the cat did not mind her presence but after a while it became aggressive
and chased her away, the waterbuck cow kept coming back.
We left the site for celebrating sun downers at the fire
break south of Annette’s camp, a few minutes into the celebration we noticed a
movement in the distance, due to the grass being burnt we had a very good
surrounding visibility and spotted a leopard! It was bahuti strolling around
looking for a meal.
We gathered everyone on the vehicle and packed up (we have
ice in our cooler boxes which we use to keep the refreshments cold, usually
throwing it out after the sun downer) we moved closer to the elusive cat but as
we got to him he moved off towards where we stopped for sundowners. We noticed
what he was after… the ice!
He crept closer
smelling the solid water cubes but lost interest quickly. We followed him for
an hour as he strolled with ease through the bush. We eventually got to a point
where he came to a stand still looking at some unaware impalas. We waited
patiently both us and the leopard was focused on the impala. So much so that
none of us noticed the hyena sneaking up on Bahuti!
We heard a rustle and the next moment the hyena came walking
directly towards Bahuti. In a flash Bahuti gave the male spotted hyena a claw
filled smack chasing the hyena away, brave for a young leopard. This morning we
spent some time with the styx pride enjoying the wonderful morning sun!
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