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Selinda, a ten years' love story


Bush dog

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@@Caracal

 

 

Wayne Hinde was indeed filming "In broad day light, the daytime hunters of Africa", a fabulous documentary.

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@@Caracal & @@Bush dog ~ I was invited, and jumped at the chance to spend a day with Wayne Hinde in his vehicle whilst he was filming when his wife was sick and stayed back in camp. Wild dog had chased impala and one impala had become stuck in the mud at the head of the Savuti channel. The dogs were too concerned about the crocs so did not try to retrieve the impala and trotted off. We stayed with the impala and watched the crocs move in, the crocs were wary and it took a few hours for them to approach the stricken antelope and deliver the coup de grace. To this day I can still hear the crack as the impala's neck was broken. This sequence was not included in the film.

 

In 2002 (I think) the Selinda pride had brought down a zebra stallion just outside Selinda camp. I was at the sighting when the wildlife photographer Adrian Bailey arrived in a familiar vehicle, later we were chatting over dinner at Zib and he told me that it was in fact Wayne's vehicle.

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@@Caracal & @@Bush dog ~ I was invited, and jumped at the chance to spend a day with Wayne Hinde in his vehicle whilst he was filming when his wife was sick and stayed back in camp. Wild dog had chased impala and one impala had become stuck in the mud at the head of the Savuti channel. The dogs were too concerned about the crocs so did not try to retrieve the impala and trotted off. We stayed with the impala and watched the crocs move in, the crocs were wary and it took a few hours for them to approach the stricken antelope and deliver the coup de grace. To this day I can still hear the crack as the impala's neck was broken. This sequence was not included in the film.

 

Reading this, Geoff, I can confirm that I was there at the same time you were. Indeed, I clearly remember the impala and the crocs, but I had to ask my wife the confirmation of details, such as the presence of the film making car and also if we saw the wild dogs, that I had completely forgotten. Yet, I recall another detail; there was a german lady in a car, from King's Pool, I think, that was crying out against her driver-guide because he did not interfere in the course of nature, trying to pull the impala away from the mud.

So, I have to rectify what I previously wrote. As a matter of fact, I did see wild dogs in 1998!

Do you have pictures of this action? If yes and as I do not, it would interesting if you can put a few in this thread.

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madaboutcheetah

@@madaboutcheetah

 

Thank you Hari. Are you back from a trip? Kenya?

 

Selinda has always been a good place for cheetahs, the most famous ones being the three brothers with one being one-eyed.

Back from Oz!!!!

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1999

 

Continued

 

Females’ portraits

 

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Lions drinking

 

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To be continued

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@@Bush dog ~ Mike, I know I did take an image of the impala stuck in the mud, but I could not find it when I quickly looked through my slides. i did not get any images of the crocs finishing off the impala. They were so timid Wayne had to position the vehicle a fair distance away and i viewed what occurred through binoculars whilst he filmed it. As I recall at one point there were vehicles from both Selinda & Zib and they stopped for morning tea together at the head of the channel. Do you remember a guy walking out to the impala and motioning to the guides requesting to pull it out of the mud? If so, that was me. I received a negative shake of the head so left it there. i thought at the time "this is weird, here is this poor animal dying and everyone was standing around chatting, whilst having a cuppa & a rusk".

 

Interesting female portraits. I was looking at them closely and then referring back to my own images trying to identify individual lioness. I particularly remember 3 lioness. Old Lady & Granny the two matriarchs of the pride. In her prime Old Lady was the biggest lioness i've ever seen. She was a monster, not only heavily built, but long legged too. They both lived to about 12 years of age and died within 3 months of each other. On a morning in Aug 2002 I saw Old Lady barely alive, lying near the rest of the pride feasting on a hippo. When we returned in the afternoon she was dead.

 

The 3rd lioness was known as Stella, you would have seen her as a sub adult about 18 months old in 1998. She walked with a sort of swayed limp. When I mentioned it to Kanawe he said "yes, she was thumped by an adult male at a kill when she was a cub and had the limp ever since" She was still alive in 2005, i recognised her instantly from the scar on her face.

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@@Geoff

 

Thanks Geoff for all the information on the lionesses. Those were surely given to me when I was there but as I consider that kind of details (names given to wild animals) of minor importance, my memory surely wiped them away very quickly. The only names I recall are the one given to the three remaining big males (Arnold, Brad & Dopey). You recently remind me of the name of the one (Bruce) that integrated into the bridge pride. Yet, I recall the name of the famous and very relaxed female leopard, Amber, because I was so eager to see it and eventually only saw it once in 2004.

 

With all due respect, I do not recollect you walking out to the impala, but once again my wife do.

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@@Bush dog

 

Like you I don't care for names given to wild animals but it was easier for me to say a name than ask "do you remember a lioness with a notch out of her left ear, a crescent shaped scar on the right side of her snout and a left rear leg limp"

I also mentioned the two older lioness as the Selinda pride from that era (1996 - 2000) was famous for its hippo kills and no doubt those two had perfected the technique.

 

Even though I would not recommend the Selinda for anyone wishing to see leopard, in 2002 my best leopard sighting ever was of Amber. On a stinking hot Sept' afternoon we spent over 2 hours with Amber. We sat in the vehicle having beers from the icebox whilst Amber either fed from an impala carcass or lay next to the vehicle in the shade. Habituation was the key as was mentioned before.

 

Andre also told me that late one night he was working at his computer and the lights from the house had attracted moths that were fluttering outside the window. All of a sudden Amber jumped up onto the window sill and was playfully batting the moths with her paws. He watched her for minutes from a few feet away with only the pane of glass separating them.

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1999

 

Continued

 

Lions’ family picture

 

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To be continued

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@@Geoff

 

In a day or two, I will post pictures of vultures on a hippo kill, surely killed by the two older lionesses.

 

Amber was probably the most relaxed leopard I ever saw. Kanawe told me that she loved to play with cars. On game drives, she was suddenly jumping from behind a bush just in front of the car, surprising the guests of course, like cubs are doing when they play.

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@@Bush dog

 

Thanks for the reference to Wayne's film. I assume it was shown on TV but I'm not familiar with it. I'm going to see if I can find out more and if it's still around as I'd love to see it.

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@@Bush dog ~ Oh my, those cub images are gorgeous. And our mutual acquaintance Peter has an exceptional leopard stalking image of Amber as she used a car for cover.

 

@@Caracal i think it is now unavailable. It was released on VHS in 2000 (I think). The footage of the lion kills on the area known as the Bowling Green are fabulous.

Edited by Geoff
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@@Bush dog. The years are flying by, but happily there are still a few to go.

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What an absolutely wonderful read @@Bush dog - and your photographs, while so rich in color and detail, still have an 'old time' feeling to them that is absolutely charming. The lions and lionesses look HUGE to me - really stocky and well fed! Loving the stories too - pls keep this coming.

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@@Caracal

 

Like Geoff said Wayne Hinde's film, released in 1999, is probably unavailable. I do have a copy that I bought at the Selinda camp's shop, but as I do not have any video tapes player, I can't read it any more. I tried to find a copy on DVD and even to make a copy on DVD of the tape, unfortunately without result.

 

@@Geoff

 

Indeed, Geoff, the Bowling Green was the perfect place for lions to ambush their preys.

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Game Warden

For those that don't know, like me, why was the area called the Bowling Green?

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1999

 

Continued

 

The pride had killed a young elephant. It gave them food, and us a good sighting, for a few days.

 

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Jackals were around of course.

 

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To be continued

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michael-ibk

Really enjoying this report - but then, this goes without saying, you have really enriched Safaritalk with all your contributions. This one is special, I very much like the "historic" aspect and that you are covering such a long timespan. The distinctive look of your scanned slides adds to this being unique. Great photos all, but the one of the cub doing its best "Yes, I may be tiny but am terribly dangerous" face is my favourite so far.

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@@Game Warden

 

If I remember quite well, the area called the bowling green was a flat place that was ending in cul-de-sac at the lagoon. At the "entrance" of the area, there were, on each side, termits' mounts. The lionesses had developed a strategy that consisted to drive their preys to the entrance. One or two others were hidden behind the mounts, waiting for the prey to arrive at their level to pounce. It was a dangerous game because the precise timing of the operation was vital. Indeed, too early, and the lioness could be seriously injured by the prey arriving at full speed, or even killed, if the worst comes to the worst. This is explained and shown in Wayne Hinde's film.

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Really enjoying this report - but then, this goes without saying, you have really enriched Safaritalk with all your contributions. This one is special, I very much like the "historic" aspect and that you are covering such a long timespan. The distinctive look of your scanned slides adds to this being unique. Great photos all, but the one of the cub doing its best "Yes, I may be tiny but am terribly dangerous" face is my favourite so far.

Thanks a lot for your comments and support.

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@@Game Warden

 

Sorry, I gave you some explanations but I did not answer your question. I guess it was called "bowling green" because it was looking like a flat lawn on which you could have played bowling.

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Seeing a leopards kill on a deciduous tree, he decided to climb to collect the skull, but the leopard, that he had not seen of course, was still there, on high branches. The leopard was not ready to abandon its prey. The only alternative for Alan was to jump down and promptly run to the car, with a fractured arm.

That is a story to remember, wow!

 

Also really liked the elephants in the dust in this post.

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1999

 

Continued

 

I was there when the lions decided to abandon the carcass. Within the next five minutes, it was covered and surrounded by tens of vultures.

 

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As it comes to vultures, a hippo had been killed by lions. Here also, the carcass was covered with them.

 

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In those days, I was more focused on big animals than on birds. In fact, I became more and more interested by them when I began to go to the Pantanal. Yet, here we have two birds that you don't see often together : a lilac-breasted roller and a black-shouldered kite, juvenile in this case, at least I think.

 

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To be continued

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I'm not sure at all, that the raptor, in the previous post, is a black-shouldered kite. Can someone tell me what it is. Thank you in advance.

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