The huntress and the Go-away bird.

One bright winter morning in Kruger we driving along the Sabie river and saw some movement down the slope to the bank from the road. I had a good feeling about this and stopped to check it out and sure enough….. leopard!

She was sneaking around the bushes tail down and that got my attention right away. A leopard walking and doing the rounds of his or her territory walks along with tail curved over the back. Tail down means one thing… the huntress was stalking! Sure enough there were 5 young warthogs on their knees grazing about 50 m away in a small clearing. the huntress had her eye on those andd it looked very possible. Good cover till pretty close to them and they were intent on eating, so she got going.

There is a kind of solidarity in the bush among prey in that they are always ready to warn others and one of these warnings is given by the grey lourie or the Go-away bird. Alas one of these guys was on watch and luck not with our girl. When a Go away bird spotted the stealthy approach and gave a “Go away” call the warthogs bolted, and fortunately for them, away from her line of approach. The huntress tried valiantly, but it was no go with the warthog moving fast through the bushes in good cover. They live to eat another day. This happens to leopards more often than you might think. They succeed 3 out of ten tries.

Any way the huntress was not pleased at all, sat down by the river bank and plotted murder of the wretched Go-away bird that deprived her of her meal. So ‘you wins some and you loses some’ as the sage said, and in the Kruger it is certainly true.

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