BLOG #8 – 30TH AUGUST
2012
Elizabeth Winterton
EARLY MORNING WAKE-UP CALL
When I
was preparing myself for coming out to Africa I started reading Anna's blog.
One particular entry stuck in my mind and it was the account of the elephants
roaming around camp early one morning, and ever since I’ve hoped to have this
experience too.
If you've read any of my previous
blogs you will know back in July I had the fortune of an elephant visiting me
in camp during lunch-time. However, apart from the occasional rumble and snap
near the tent in the middle of the night, I've never been fortunate enough to
see them at camp early morning until last Saturday.
Planning
on having an extra 15 minutes in bed before work I was awoken at 5.30 by a low
rumble outside the tent. Ever curious I cautiously peeped my head outside to
have a look, and 30m from me was a huge bull elephant happily munching on a
monkey bread tree.
Typically that night I had put my
camera battery on charge, so as there was no wind I crept to the dining room to
grab my battery snapping a few photos and attempting to get some video footage
on my way back to the safety of the tent.
Unfortunately the elephants didn't hang around for too long, but it was
truly amazing to see them so relaxed & up close.
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| Elephant at camp early morning |
CHANGING PLACES
Since
the demise of Jojo there has definitely been some shifting of rank taking place
within the Fibwe group with seemingly more aggression, some of which directed
at us (I'm not sure whether to be flattered they think we're baboons, or slightly
concerned!). Mr Cookies, the oldest and biggest male in the troop seems to have
taken a fancy to fighting anyone, and is usually joined (either with or
against) Otis and Short Tail. Whether this increased aggression has something
to do with the rapidly increasing infant population I'm not sure.
Something
else which has changed is the female-female relationships, with females
seemingly becoming 'friends' because of their recent foray into motherhood. For
example, Godiva who seemed pretty lonely before is now commanding the majority
of female attention, and Janis who was the 2nd lowest ranking female only to be
seen with L.P. is now friends with Ella and even tries to hang out with the
likes of Clover who is much more highly ranked than her!
With Ella, Dolly and the high
rankers of Patsy and Indigo still to give birth, I'm pretty sure there are more
changes to come.
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Dolly, Dylan, Aretha, Axel, Godiva
and Guns
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NOT A GOOD DAY TO BE A BLUE MONKEY
On the
27th August we were happily watching the baboon troop, when all of a sudden the
troop started barking and going crazy. After originally thinking they had come
into contact with the other troop of 100 which shares some of their home area,
we were shocked to see Mr Cookies leading some of the males in hot pursuit of
an adult male blue monkey seemingly trying to kill it!
After managing to grab it once,
the blue monkey somehow managed to escape & flee without getting injured.
This
is the first time I've seen the baboons chasing something so large, so it was
pretty amazing!
Usually the kindas and blue
monkeys appear to live in relative harmony, using the same sleeping sites, but
after the previous day’s battle I was surprised to see the blue monkeys at the same
mushitu as the baboons the following morning.
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Blue Monkeys
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