WILDLIFE NOTE: bones in boxes and 3 large animals go on a walk.

I am fiddling in the kitchen and D exclaims that I should go and look at the bones Adamo has unearthed as part of renovating the ranger’s shed.  There are large dusty piles of many bones in separate plastic crates.  Kept for later study (D is good at this, he hordes everything...for later study or use in a mysterious new repurposed way).  The crates contain the skeleton of Lion, Wild dog, Leopard and bits of Sable and Bush buck.

Yesterday I picked up an interesting bone at the old encampment in the newly reclaimed machamba (farm) Maheapa  - I wrote about this wonderful place in October, if you would like it further explained see ‘Domestication v Wild’.  This bone had a double articulation like a pulley and may well be common but was quite new to me.  It is a little hard to know if these piles of bones are in the right boxes, D finds some teeth he thinks are monkey in the leopard box!  But in the large muddle of lion my eyes light on a similar joint to the one from the machamba.  Could it be that the old farmers killed a lion?

Here it is...can anyone confirm is this a lion bone?

Lion and Serval side by side

Later we take the Rangers with 3 workers, Mustafer, Alberto and new Cassamo, to cut more bamboo at the ‘Place of Tomorrow’ (about 1 hour drive into the bush)....on the way back a wonderful sight.  Plod plod three distinct footprints in the dusty track, on a stretch of road past the cashew tree and near home.  They have just passed – an elephant, lion and cat, probably serval. They have walked a long way together along the dusty road. What were they doing – an unusual mix. 



Elephant sauntering over our tyre tracks



Apparently old lion sometimes follow elephant and eat their poo.  I prefer to imagine a quiet evening stroll together.