Alone in Serena

Back in the mara after a good vacation in Mozambique and enjoying the solitude and driving around watching animals that I get to enjoy all by myself. The grass is crazy tall once again and animals just disappear into it. Watching a lion walk in tall grass is almost mystical, just a slight movement out of the corner of your eye, and then it’s gone. Then the tail flick and like the drop of a stone your mind recognizes that ancient predator: lion. Then the tail is down and there’s just a gentle movement of grass that sets your senses tingling as you watch its gentle hidden motion.

I saw this lioness just before sunset on my way to the den. When I drove closer three more lionesses appeared out of the grass. Literally appeared as if out of nowhere. The way they blend in is simply fantastic, as as they walked past me and into the sunset all that I could see was the black tips of their ears just above the swaying grass.

Later last night the Maruti died, Emily and I did not have any overlap in Serena, we traded places on the drop off. But she said that Laragin had said the engine needed cleaning. I’ll have to call him tomorrow. I was only a few hundred meters from camp, on the road above camp, if I cut through the woods that would get me straight to camp, but the road loops around a bit to stay in the grass. I called Philimon and Moses to see if they could walk out and walk me back so that I could get the cruiser and pull the maruti back. I hear a few hippo noises in the woods and then a hyena comes loping out of the woods in the direction of camp! Finally Moses and Philimon show up from the direction of the road. Turns out there are buffalo in the woods so we have to stick the road and skirt them. They tell me this as I climb out of the car and turn on on a maglight. Part of me was terrifed and part of me was completely calm. Just a few hundred meters through the African bush after darkness- with buffalo. No biggie. Carefully, quietly, and quickly we make the walk back to camp. When we finally are within a few steps of the cruiser I  heave a sigh of relief. It does not take long to tug the maruti back to camp.

TREX is still very lame on her front left leg. Sometime back in December we first saw her all gimpy, when she was at JFab den. Usually hyenas stop limping within a week or two so it worries me to see her still lame. Maybe it’s broken? However both Clever and Shooter are doing well it seems. Though Clever is a little small, Shooter wouldn’t let Clever nurse this morning, but if Clever is clever at all she would have nursed if she was hungry earlier when Shooter was not nursing instead of waiting until her sibling started to nurse.

Ema is officially missing and Dave thinks she’s dead. Her collar has died and Dave always thinks a hyena is dead if its collar has died. But we regularly don’t see hyenas for over two months when they are perfectly healthy. In Ema’s favor she had just started whammin’ so we might not see her until her cubs are around 2 months old or until she brings them to the communal den. Also in her favor is that all of her latest points in December are from waaay up north almost past the northern boundary of north’s territory. This is an area we rarely drive, actually never drive, so if she’s hanging out there and has her cubs in a den up there we definitely would not see her. I drove through that area this morning but it’s a huge space and there aren’t many tracks. Additionally I didn’t get there until 8 since I spent a lot of time at the den this morning. If she was in a hole I wouldn’t have seen her head above the grass and thicket. So I’m not giving up on her yet. The best I can do is try and hit up that area now and then but I can’t drive there every time I do north obs because it takes the entire morning just to drive over there, drive around, and then drive back to camp and doesn’t leave time to check out the usual hyena haunts.

On a good note the dead subadult that Emily found by the den is not Rama. I took DNA tissue samples from the jaw my first day back and then with Philimon’s help we took off the skin and most of the flesh from the skull before putting it in a bucket high up in a tree for the bugs to clean off. Malo’s skull is up there too and it’s clean enough to take dental measurements on now. This sub was completely eaten by the time Emily found it so all we have is the head. There are a ridiculous number of lions in the area, seen them two days in a row now so it’s not too surprising to find a dead sub. In fact, I’m almost positive this is not the only sub that has or will die. Alll the cubs that were at Schiphol Den when I first arrived are over a year old now and graduated from the den. This is their most vulnerable time, too small and inexperienced to be smart about lions and too young to even get their own food and yet they are out there wandering around. Just last night I saw a TINY sub walking on the road, it looked smaller than even Slim or Dalt to me but it must have been one of them out and about all alone in the great big mara. It’ll be another 6 months though before we can take stock and declare anyone missing however.