Images & Text by Anja Riise
One of the lion coalitions, the Modimo brothers, caught a young buffalo in a small quarry, while they were out on their night patrol. But, the female they usually are accompanied by had been left behind and didn’t show up while the boys stayed in the area for a few days, finishing up on their oversized meal. As lions normally do, they kept on gorging themselves, in between napping sessions and barely took notice of our presence.
Image by Anja Riise
Image by Anja Riise
After a few days in the sun, the odour was becoming more and more pronounced, despite the relatively cold weather. Jackals and pied crows were also attracted to the kill, but didn’t really have much of a chance, as the two brothers kept an alert eye on their price and would have no nonsense from the smaller visitors. It always fascinates me that a 200 kg cat will spend time and energy on chasing away a bird that might eat only a few grams of their kill…
Image by Anja Riise
When there was barely more than skin and bones left the Modimo males decided it was time to leave and maybe they’d try to meet up with their female companion. As they left, the cleaning squad swiftly moved in… A couple of spotted hyenas were fighting over the biggest pieces, while three jackals were making the most of the situation, as these larger predators were focused on each other. The larger female hyena easily kept the younger male at bay though and even managed to give the jackals the evil eye from time to time. When one of them proudly ran off with a rib into the shade the young hyena was quickly there to steal it away, having something to eat without having to risk the older female’s fury. When she finally had torn off a large piece of the spine from the rest of the carcass, she made a quick retreat into the bushes west of the quarry.
Image by Anja Riise
Image by Anja Riise
Image by Anja Riise
The younger hyena now had his fill, all the while scanning the bushes nervously. The jackals however seemed more relaxed as the larger competitor now was gone, and even the crows joined in. We could hear a lion roaring in the distance and also saw a couple of brown hyenas lurking about in the bushes nearby. This was probably the reason for the young one’s skittish demeanour. Soon the male hyena also departed, along the same route as the older one had just left.
Image by Anja Riise
The more relaxed of the brown hyenas then immediately took over the carcass and seemed to want to make it off with all of the leftovers, a very impopular decision with the jackals, who tried to feed while the bones were being dragged away from them. She puffed her fur up, to look as intimidating as possible to the smaller predators and the other brown hyena that was still watching from a distance. This had little effect on the jackals though, who’d recently been braving it out with both lions and spotted hyenas. The brown hyena struggled a bit with the weight and bulkiness and had to resolve to start feeding out in the open, right there in front of us.
Image by Anja Riise
As the greedy animal tried to bite off more than she could chew, a bone seemed to get stuck in her throat. For a while it looked like a severe problem as she put her whole foot in her mouth to try and get rid of it. A couple of minutes later it was however all forgotten and she continued feeding happily alongside the jackals. Eventually the second brown hyena warily made its approach and we decided it was time to leave the feasting party so that the nervous animal could have its fill in peace.
Meanwhile, the Modimo brothers had indeed met up with the female, right in front of our lodge! For a couple of days they were seen (and heard) mating by our waterhole, while one of the males rested in the sun, giving our guests plenty of opportunities to get some excellent sightings without the lions having a care in the world.