Lions feeding on black rhino

Having heard of a dead rhino at Ximangwaneni dam near Muzandzeni, I knew I had to go and investigate to see what kind of scavenger activity there will be. Surprisingly, when we got there, I realized it was a rarer black rhino carcass. The carcass was already some 4 days old, a fact which our nostrils reiterated. A pride of 10 lions were still feeding from it. As most of them have already had their share, a few individuals took turns to feed in peace without the constant aggression of other members. Vultures were also descending and tried their luck when the lions left to lie in the shade. That normally didn’t last very long as some of the lions were determined to defend their bounty. During the night the rest of the pride went back for another feeding session before leaving the rotten rhino to other scavengers. The following day we went back and were surprised at how much of the rhino has been eaten. Vultures were very active to get their fair share and we saw all five vulture species represented in the Kruger on one carcass. They are the Whitebacked Vulture, Hooded Vulture, Lappetfaced Vulture, Whiteheaded Vulture, and the endangered Cape Vulture. The scene was so engrossing that we spent several hours to enjoy the ways of the wild. It was truly something documentaries are made of.

Simon Vegter

Wild Wings Safaris

www.wild-wings.co.za

A time to kill!

The last few safaris brought it fair share of exciting animal behaviour. Something that consistently came up, were predators and kills. We’ve had some amazing sightings, like the photo I took of the lion feeding on the giraffe. We were also caught unaware as a sudden burst of action next to the vehicle ended up being a leopard catching an impala. After dragging the impala under a bush, it decided to hide until night time before coming back to feed. Another spectacular kill came from a group of 4 lions. They were slowly approaching a herd of impala, and circling it. Initially the impalas noticed them and started to scatter, but one young male started running ahead and cornered a smaller group of impala. This was very smart as the impalas started running straight towards it. Upon noticing the lion they changed direction, and one unfortunate impala ran straight into another female that was crouched on the sandbank. In trying to avoid it, the impala tried to jump right over the lioness, but the agility of the big cat proved to be too much as she pulled the impala straight out of the air and killed it within seconds. The rest joined for the small feast, and finished the meal off within 5 minutes.

Simon Vegter

<a href="http://www.wild-wings.co.za">

__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 3594 (20081107) __________

The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.

http://www.eset.com