Week 300 ( 22nd - 28th May 2009 )
Hulooo and his brothers discover warthog and King Henry plays with his food
Early in the week, a cripple warthog became dinner for Hulooo and his brothers and they didn’t know what to make of it. Aside from the fact that it smelt weird, had funny hairs that kept tickling their noses and make them sneeze when they sniffed it. JenB was fairly certain that it was edible and turned it over and over and licked it a number of times. Hulooo masked his “I dunno” by pawing its legs and snorting at it. Coco thought it safest just to keep the heck away. The next day the boys were still not terribly keen on warthog - apparently it’s an acquired taste- although they have eaten some. Later in the afternoon I skinned it partially and the boys spent the next hour eating. I then became apparent that they couldn’t break the skin…. something tells me they are going to need lots more practice.
Madonna was doing her food dance, standing on her hind legs; front paws up and toes spread wide - bobbing her head. King Henry was pacing the gate at a furious pace. Once I opened the gate Madonna ignored the springbuck and King Henry pounced onto it and balanced for a moment before lying down and trying to cover it with his body, unfortunately for him its legs kept sticking out and he had no sooner got one leg tucked in and was reaching for the next when the first leg popped out. He then took his frustration out on his mother by chasing her around and pawing her legs as she was running and ignored the buck
Madonna stepped through the 0.5ha gate whilst I was still opening it to have a look at the springbuck I had brought. She had just picked it up to drag it off when King Henry leapt through the gate and literally tore it from her grasp, getting the message she left it alone and he played. Prancing around and flopping its head from side to side and bit by bit dragging it off to below the ridge where he left it, tore around the 0.5ha camp and returned to the springbuck to terrorise it further.