21:22, Monday, 11 July, 2011

This morning it was beautiful out, sunny with blue sky and a sun that fluidly emerged from beneath the horizon. Our weather has been gorgeous lately, back to unpredictably predictable, very chilly in the morning but really hot in the afternoon. I change my clothes at least twice a day.

We came upon Weepie and two other lionesses chewing on the enormous ribs of a buffalo during morning obs. Its liver was lying off to the side, about the size of my entire torso. Weepie gnawed away at the skin with sickening crunches. Another lioness licked the ribs, and a third was rolled over on her side right in the grass track, fit to burst, her belly bulging into a tan mound that some termites probably mistook for home on their way back from work.

Godzilla has been gingerly buried beneath a rock outside our tent. In an effort to remove him from the tent flap for Lia, Janie accidentally chased him inside. Very concerned for Lia’s ability to sleep, I frantically tried to trap him in a little box, only to sever his leg off. I felt horrible, and then this morning found him dead. Poor guy, not harming anyone and minding his own business, and he comes to an end like that. He was a very neat spider, too. Rest in peace Godzilla.

I walked to the end of the driveway mid-afternoon to have a look and see if any animals were around. A giraffe stood a ways off, and the way he looked at me was hilarious. He didn’t seem afraid, just surprised at the sudden appearance of a lanky primate out of the blue, and we stared at one another for a good while.

THE FIRST STRINGS OF THE MIGRATION ARE VISIBLE ACROSS THE RIVER!!!! I was so excited to see them eating over there; it gave me butterflies realizing that I was actually seeing the beginnings of such a magnificent and time-honored tradition of nature. I could hardly sit still during the rest of obs because I wanted to tell Lia and Dave so badly (they were in the other car). Luckily, the hyenas kept me busy. The South cubs have been missing from their original den for a few days now, but tonight we found their new den! It’s on the side of a very rocky hill. It’s a gorgeous area, but poor Janie and Adrianna were bumping around like mad in the back of the little Maruti. Everyone was there: Badger, Java, Slinky, Martin, Clovis and their cubs Cheesewhiz, Ranch, Pala, Southern Comfort, Squire, Thylacine, Jigsaw, Ripper, Komodo, Sumatra and Czar. My hyena boyfriend Judas showed up eventually, and the male Bing was present. Bing was in a bad way though. His left hind leg was dangling with a big open sore that showed his bone at the joint. Bing had previously been darted to remove a snare from the same leg a while ago, and I wonder if the previous weakness didn’t have something to do with his current state. I told myself that things like this can’t bother me so much if I am going to do this type of research, but it was no good. I teared up watching him hobble around, barely able to walk. Helplessly watching suffering beings is one of those things that just doesn’t get easier.

At one point Ripper, one of the cubs, spontaneously whooped into the ground about seven times. From out of nowhere Slinky, his mother, appeared and began to furiously groom him before taking him off to nurse with his sibling Jigs. I wonder if cubs whoop for their mothers when they are hungry; whoops carry over extraordinary distances. The wondrous thing is how a mother immediately knows the cry of her own cub. Ripper looked so desolate; just as Janie and I were telling him out the window that we would come cuddle him if we could as he woefully whooped, his mother appeared to care for him.