Life on the Plains over the Christmas Holidays
It's been an eventful christmas break..
Eleanor is back at Ndutu!! Since May, when she was last seen, I have had many e-mails from guests who had seen her in the wet season of 2008, and have been stopped on the road countless numbers of times by drivers who all asked me, how is the mother with 6? She fell off the radar for about 7 months, but returned to Ndutu 5 days before Christmas with 5 very healthy cubs! What a treat!
Eleanor’s 5 cubs are expected to stay with their mother for another 4 months or so before she will leave them to look after themselves. Meanwhile Loopy Lou’s 3 cubs, and one adopted cub have reached independence! Her female cub recently killed a baby wildebeest, and was having a true feast on caracal plateau. Her two male cubs have been sighted on their own a couple of times, however recently they hooked up with their adopted sister, and have been roaming the plains as a three-some. It’s possible that the slightly younger adopted sister needed a bit of brotherly support before she’s ready to set off on her own!
There are cubs of all ages and stages at Ndutu at the moment. Emily introduced us to her 4 tiny cubs in the New Year. One poor little one had a wound on its right back leg and was clearly struggling. Unfortunately it hasn’t survived, but the remaining three are doing fantastically well! As this is Emily’s first litter she’s proving to be quite a good mum!
On the Serengeti Plains, Squeak and her 4 cubs are being oo-ed and aa-ed by all who pass by! They are often spotted close to Masai Kopjes, where they are either resting in the shade of a tree, or on top of a termite mound!
Speaking of cubs, during the Christmas holidays love was in the air in the land of cheetahs! Espresso, Latte and Mocha, were making a fuss over Rosalind close to the two trees area. The whole affair lasted about 3 days!!! At the same time, Maurus and Jerome, the territorial males of Gol Kopjes, were quite taken by Claire just after New Years. It’s only a matter of time to see if all this romance will have paid off!
Lastly, in February this year there was quite an exciting encounter between Jack & Daniels and 3 other male cheetahs who I had only seen once before. The five males were all sitting in the long grasses of cub valley, three vs. two, and were all keeping a very close eye on each other. If one male from one party got up, the other males from the other party sat up very alert to see what was going on. There was no aggressive behaviour but a very close eye was kept on everyone, by everyone!