Week 338 ( 12th - 18th February 2010 )
King Henry practices stalking and other interesting antics
One afternoon during the course of the week, I stopped at the Mini Camp and King Henry sauntered along the road to the gate. He then suddenly noticed a steenbuck on the outside of the camp walking up along the fence as it grazed and immediately entered stalk mode. He sank into a crouch, his belly touching the ground and pulled his ears flat as he crept forward foot for stealthy foot totally focussed on the buck. Every time the little antelope stopped, he stopped – quivering with eagerness. He then became too hasty and took no notice of where he put his feet and the snap of a twig alerted the Steenbuck to danger (and that as they say, was the end of that)
On another occasion we threw Hulooo a problem-monkey that had been shot earlier and it landed at his feet. As the carcass hit the ground Coco came running, Hulooo snarled at him, picked the body up and ran off with it with Coco in hot pursuit. Having snarled Coco into submission again, Hulooo lay down to lick it clean and Coco followed his example – lying as close as he could with his neck stretched to its limit. Hulooo then carried the monkey back to the fence to show it off like he used to do when he was little. After waving it at us for a while he carried it off to a patch of long grass and promptly lost interest in it. Coco needed no second invitation and raced off to the tree with the monkey flapping in his mouth as he ran. He screeched to a halt, turned 360° and raced off to the back portion of the camp, this time with Hulooo hot on his heels. Seconds later JenB appeared out of nowhere and both Hulooo and JenB huddled around Coco as he alternately licked the carcass and snarled at his brothers.
It was time to put 327 back with Madonna and he then hurried down to the bottom gate just in case I had something to offload. I had nothing …, instead I opened the gate between him and Madonna a crack and they rubbed noses and chuffed. 327 then squeezed into the Grass Camp and Madonna jumped over him into Ripples Camp where she stood looking at me with raised eyebrows. I asked her nicely to go back into the Grass Camp – which she did (instantly - without one moment’s hesitation). They then played a little – Madonna mostly chasing 327. She then lay down and 327 left to explore.