We were on our last game drive in early November at Kwandwe Private Game Reserve, South Africa, when we came upon this male elephant. The elephant, took a drink, struck a pose and ambled on his way. Richard, our ranger, told us he was about 25 yrs old and as a lone male did not have a herd. He would not expect to mate until he was 40!
This was kind of an amazing morning. It was our last day at Kwandwe and we were trying to find lion cubs. We did not have much time, this drive was to be only half as long as a usual one. We were moving fast, but did not miss a thing. We did not find lion cubs but we saw this elephant, waited for a giraffe to clear a road, saw a hippo in the water and watched a lion sit on a freshly killed antelope. Not bad for a quick morning drive before catching a plane!
One afternoon on Kwandwe Private Game Reserve we saw a leopard and heard her roar and then she followed us. We could see her eating her kill through the branches. I heard the cracking of bones and rustling before I actually saw her. It may not seem that leopard spots are good camouflage, but they are.
We waited and watched, my fellow safari travelers and I, as she ate then climbed a tree. She called three times. For who? It was not at all the way I expected a leopard to sound. It was not clear why she called and we were not comfortable sticking around to find out.
After a time she left and so did we. There were congratulations all around for the wonderful and rare sighting and the even more rare sounds. We stopped in a lovely clearing with an amazing view of the valley below. South Africa is so big, the sky so wide. As time passed it became deep twilight, time to go.
As we prepared to leave, the Rangers and Guides began hurrying us toward the vehicles, looking quite serious. “Move quickly but slowly”, we loved that. Down the road, not 30 feet was the leopard lying in the middle of the tracks. She did not move, but looked very interested. I could imagine we looked like a troop of primates, hmm we were.
Yech. My dog, Dart seems to love the cuisine that passes through the digestive tract of my cat, Chumba. After an exhaustive (that would be google) search of the web. I find that the experts agree that dogs like poop. There are whole websites devoted to eating poo, by dogs. Which, by the way, is called
Coprophagia
The Dog-Play behavior website has links to other websites about dogs eating poop. It is the wonder of the web that even poo eating professionals can have a voice.
Dart will check out the offerings at any time, but my favorite is her early morning cruise by the Kitty Litter Cafe. Right after that early stretch, before her morning constitutional in the yard, she drops by to see whats on the morning menu. Since Chumba gets up earlier, there is almost always something at the nibble bar. If you really think about it, dog behavior really centers around food, sleep and poo. My dog sleeps all nite, sleeps in the sun all day, eats then poops. Perhaps she is optimizing?
Even with her odd habits, I don’t want to diminish Dart’s contribution to the family welfare. Occasionally, she defends the house from hostile squirrel attacks. To quote Cathy Diamond Davis at Vetrinarypartner.com “Its a dog eat poop world”.
