THE POWER OF PREDATION SERIES

 

 

This was a day like no other, I woke feeling tired and did my exercises and went to do some daily checks on the land cruiser. My guests were only going to be active an hour later and it was six in the morning.

During breakfast with them, so decided they wanted a short drive and then everyone bought the idea. Rocksan the land cruiser was waiting in absolute silence.  After the meal, they went to fetch their photographic equipments and in ten minutes we were on a wild dusty bumpy road doing it easy and reminding ourselves of a few scenes we had witnessed the previous day.

As we were approaching the stork pans I saw something in a distance but could make out what it was and didn’t bother to pick my binoculars, it wasn’t necessary, I thought. As we were getting closer I realized that it was rather something great, it was a pack of wild dogs, and they were on serious moves. When I got there, the pups were disappearing into the bushes and I followed them, meandering well through the bushes. When I got to the open five of the wild dogs had already blocked a female kudu against the linyanti lagoon. It was unbelievable. The kudu never had a chance to escape its tactical attackers.

 

What I have learnt from the great teacher; the bush, is that predators are never too sure that they will catch their prey and so some of them like to engage into a series of ways to either just wait, stalk or ambush.  Crocodiles for example the good at waiting as compared to wild dogs which really don’t like wasting time on stalking, surely this bunch know that they can run distances but still, you can see from how they start that they prefer making sure that they are in the right position, sometimes they don’t judge the distance that well. Cooperative hunting is a great solution to those who live in a group but still there is a lot of feeding competition. Wild dogs are an example. I have seen in many occasions whereby one dog or two, sometimes three, tear the bodies of their prey, sometimes this happens before their quarry is rundown. It’s a great sighting at the end of the day but watching it happen is dangerous for sensitive people because the amount of brutality and mercilessness engaged is really heart touching but yes, that’s nature.

 

I have also learnt that those who like stalking are their main way of hunting like doing killing their prey in maximum silence. Leopards are a better example; they quickly clamp the wind pipe of their prey to suffocate it as well as making sure that its distress call does not invite any other predators in the area.

                                                                Notice the teeth marks on the throat of this impala.

Lions in a very big pride seem not to be very worried about this issue, they are certain that when they bring down their prey, their number will automatically ward off any other predator which will take interest in stealing from them. Sometimes only bones are left behind or nothing at all.

 

I have seen many lone lions having a remarkable successful hunting in an open area, and on other occasions the tables getting really turned.This male kudu didn’t see the lion as it was coming down to drink on a very hot day. The lion also nearly lost it because it was walking straight into the direction where the kudu was coming from. Then it was too late for the kudu to escape.

This cheetah lost its prey lost its prey to two notorious hyenas of Mombo. All her hard didn’t go to waste though; she had eaten enough before the intruders showed up. This is the power of predation.