pandemonium

Two camera men, two photographers, me and my tracker set off on a generally unpleasant afternoon to see what we could find. The wind had been up since early morning and to make conditions even harder, the cloud cover was giving us small showers every now and then. We set off with slightly damp spirits, having no idea as to what lay ahead. The next three hours can only be described as chaos. It started off as the radio crackled” wild dogs” We were close to the area and so we made our way to find 8 wild dogs trotting along the road. In true wild dog style they spilt up and moved off the road towards the Sand River. We followed them for a few minutes until we noticed a herd of impala in the distance. We sat quietly waiting in anticipation. Unexpectedly from behind the bushes we saw a dog in hot pursuit of a grey duiker who was side stepping and jumping over any bushes that came his way. Then another dog came into view only this one was after an adult male impala. We continued to sit until we heard the deathly distress calls coming from afar. We moved in to find all 8 dogs feeding of the scraps of a Duiker. It was all over in a minute and the dogs continued on there way. We sat there in absolute silence whilst we checked our videos and photos from what had just happened. Then quietly from the back Jerome our tracker spotted a female leopard moving down the tree and into the bushes. Just as we were about to get going again the sound of another animal in distress came through from the thickets not to far from us. We set off to follow up on the sounds, but could not find anything until we came across a lone bull Rhino. We sat and filmed as he marked his territory and went about his day’s business. Amazingly, and to our complete surprise and delight, a large male leopard came into the picture, looking very intent at something in the bushes past the rhino. We watched the leopard move behind the rhino taking no notice of him. Then suddenly an echoing noise of fighting came from the bushes not more than forty meters from the vehicle. We could not see what all the commotion was about and so we moved the vehicle for a better view. As we emerged through the bushes, we found two wild dogs and one hyena having a tug of war over a small Bush Buck carcass, and, incredibly, in the tree above them stood a female leopard watching the fight below. Eventually the wild dog chased the hyena off into the bushes carrying the remains of the bush buck. At this stage the male leopard came back onto the scene, searching the area for the carcass. The male leopard dissipated sniffing as he went; but not for long. The wild dogs ran back through the bushes, chasing a distressed looking male leopard up the same tree in which the female was taking refuge. The female leopard moved right to the top of the tree with the male sitting on the lower branches as the dogs jumped up and down trying to get at him. Soon the dogs lost interest and moved off. This allowed the male leopard to get to the ground and continue his search for the carcass. The female leopard began to relax again, and she too made her way to the ground thinking it was now safe. How wrong was she, for as she hit the ground the male leopard was onto her and out of our view we heard the sounds of the clash. Then as quickly as it had all started it all came to an end. What magnificent predator interaction!

Posted: &BEYOND Kirkman's Kamp by Duncan Gordon, Date: 17 August 2008

 
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