I managed to arrange a visit to Duba Plains with Wilderness Safaris last weekend. I went up on the Friday and came back on Monday. It was lovely to spend three nights there, going on game drives and managing to see lion and buffalo on each one. I spent a good deal of time talking about buffalo, which is always exciting for me.
The lions were following the buffalo for most of the time, but did not manage to take one down. The best opportunity would have been on the last day, when the whole herd crossed a channel, but there were no lions around at that time. On the first morning I did see a chase, but happily it was some buffalo bulls chasing a lion and not the other way around!
The structure of the lion prides up there seems to be very disrupted. There are two prides sharing a dominant male and the females have been systematically killing all their cubs for the last couple of years, including some killing and eating their own cubs. It was very interesting to see the different dynamics of the buffalo herd up there as well. There is only one herd, close to 1,000 strong, that lives in a relatively small area dominated by couch grass. There are hardly any daggaboys and lion predation is the main cause of death, although the pressure from lions now is far less than it used to be.
The lions were following the buffalo for most of the time, but did not manage to take one down. The best opportunity would have been on the last day, when the whole herd crossed a channel, but there were no lions around at that time. On the first morning I did see a chase, but happily it was some buffalo bulls chasing a lion and not the other way around!
The structure of the lion prides up there seems to be very disrupted. There are two prides sharing a dominant male and the females have been systematically killing all their cubs for the last couple of years, including some killing and eating their own cubs. It was very interesting to see the different dynamics of the buffalo herd up there as well. There is only one herd, close to 1,000 strong, that lives in a relatively small area dominated by couch grass. There are hardly any daggaboys and lion predation is the main cause of death, although the pressure from lions now is far less than it used to be.
I have just found out that one of my collars (B76 - Nokya) is sending out a mortality signal, so I will go out tomorrow to recover it and collect some samples from the area.
No comments:
Post a Comment