Flavour of the Month October 2013: Old Main Road the S90

[Polentswa]

How often have I stopped at this waterhole at Bangu and admired the doves in the late afternoon while staying at Balule and after 30 mins saying to myself 'There's nothing here today ...lets move on ' ...Ja it pays to have one last scan ALL over ...taken 15 metres on the passenger side of my car as I was about to leave ..at first thought it was a log of wood

[Flutterby]

Nice log!

[jb72]

One of my favourite roads in the park. Balule is my favourite camp, so whenever I stay there I always travel the S90 first thing in the morning. The best part is that if you do find something it usually takes ages for the next car to arrive.
My favourite sighting was 5 male lions lying in the road. Got some photos at home somewhere - will look for them.

[Flutterby]

[Richprins]

Unusual lion spinal view, Peter!

[Flutterby]

The work on the low-level bridge at Balule has finally been completed.

[nan]

good news ... till

[Richprins]

From aat 2014:


viewtopic.php?f=46&t=5183&start=10


PART - I

It’s about 3:30 PM and we leave Satara camp. Turning left and following the main road till we turn right to the right (first road to the right S90). The idea was… a loop by following the main road, the S90, right to the S41 and back to Satara by following the S100.
We never got to the S41 !!

On the S90 it was quiet… no other cars and some animals left and right… some wildebeast, zebra and further away a few elephant bulls.
At Mavumbye waterhole nothing so we are moving on… and next place with water but not a named waterhole nothing….
Looking around and no animals at all. Driving slowly on this road and searching to all sides and then in front of us we saw a small herd of buffalo coming from the righthand side crossing the S90.

Then, suddenly this whole story started.
The small herd of buffalo (about 20) were surprized like we were….

In the mean time we were almost at the place where it all happened.

Kill number 1:
A young male lion took one of the young buffalo. This was the first photo I could make

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Sitting in your car and watching this felt strange. Kind of mixed feelings, exitement, feeling sorry for the young buffalo and breathtaking since we never saw a live kill just in front of our eyes.

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The Lion took the buffalo down and moved it bit by bit like carrying a small bottle of water. This way you can see how strong these lions are.

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Tired of taking the buffalo down and dragging it some meters the lion looked around and tried to bet some air…

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I think we did the same…. Some pffffffffffff…. amazing… woooowwwww
Less than a minute later, the lion took the buffalo in his throat again.

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and

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I can tell you it was weird…. Looking at this, hearing the buffalo’s panic at the same time and no time to look around , just fascinated by this situation.
So… I did not really see what happened around till I saw another lion coming when I was photographing. He appeared looking through the lens.

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The other lion was getting closer to see what his “brother” has done and if any help was needed

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The other lion was staring at us for a few seconds… I told him …”no I am not interested”

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In the mean time just a few other cars have arrived.

So far less then 10 minutes gone and with a last photo of both lions with the young buffalo calf I have to end PART - I

I split this story into different parts since several of you have slow internet access and following the good agreement to have a maximum of 10 photo’s per post.

[Richprins]

PART – II

We are still with the lions with the kill of a buffalo calf


Where was this second lion looking at ?

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Following his eyes and 100 meter away from this “scene” another lion.

And……… this lion also made a kill, another buffalo calf

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Three (young) male lions with two kills. We saw the second kill but concentrated on the first since this was closer , about 50 meters from us and the second kill was a bit hidden just behind some bush. The second kill was about a minute later then the first one.
We were switching between the two places and believe me… it was weird.
The lions were “playing” with the buffalo calves. In both situations the lions did not really kill them as we could hear them and see them still moving. Not a very nice situation but at the same time it was… how to say that….? Impresssive … breathtaking… exciting… lots of mixed feelings.

The lion was also dragging his kill to another place.

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He took the calf to some small bush

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and … (no comment needed)

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Switching back to location 1 , both lions were still together but one was looking at location 2 and decided to move to his other “brother”.

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Finally time for us to drink some water and making sounds like pffffffffffffffffffftttt…. Shaking heads , felt my heart making overtime.

I was asking questions like “ why????” As you can see on the pictures the lions already had big bellies…. But I know… lions are opportunists and kill what they can kill … maybe specially these youg males.

At location 2 one of the lions decided to walk back to location 1 , no help needed so …

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Back at location 1…

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In the middle of these scenes they found some time to socialize…. Probably saying something like “well done brother”
Allthough it was weird to see this , just near the buffalo calf they just killed

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so far…. About 15 minutes gone and after socializing the lion went back again to location 2

This also means end of part – II

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[Richprins]

PART – III

Two buffalo calves down by three young male lions and two locations about 100 meter from each other.

Location 2 – the lion took the calf and dragged it away for the second time.

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till he found a good spot under a tree
The next 20 minutes no much action… lions were laying down and one of the lions was walking from location 2 to location 1 and back… Sometimes one stood up and dragged the calf a meter away again.

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At location 1 the lion was paying less attention to the buffalo calf and was looking at something close to location 2…. But what ???

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Near location 2 some movements… Huhhhhh ? Believe it or not but this small buffalo herd came back ?????

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On this picture you can see the buffalo with “big belly” I think she was pregnant
She left the small herd and came closer ….
In the mean time all three lions were at location 2 and approached the buffalo…

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45 minutes after killing two calves the 3 lions attacked this buffalo

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She had no chance…. 3 young males on her back and she was not able to fight back at all

We felt sorry for her and again why? Already big bellies , two calves killed and now killing this buffalo too … incredible

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I must say it was not nice to see / hear this but it happened and yess…what can I say

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This killing took about 20 minutes. Looking at and preparing these pictures makes me quiter again. We were very much impressed by what we saw.
Looking at scenes like this at TV is very very different then being there.

Here she was down and finally no movements or sounds …

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Buffalo killed , the two other lions moved back to the calves and time to get back to Satara camp. Three young male lions and three kills , each lion his own dinner … looking at the pictures and preparing them for this story … it still feels weird what we have seen.

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One hour and 20 minutes after the first action we went back to Satara and I remember we were really impressed and a bit quiet most of the evening.
Many times during other visits to kruger we were hoping to see a “live” kill and now …3 on a row

Well…. This was one of the most special sightings we ever had and as said …never seen before

Thanks for being with us again and sorry it took a lot of time for you to go to three parts…

See you next time with something completely different

Aat & Elly