Lions Visit

Woken again at dawn this morning by the Christians across the river singing 'How are you this morning?' Elle has a PA system and speakers mounted on her bakkie which she uses to play injured pig noises to lure her hyenas. I'm thinking of playing a few Lion roars later tonight just to get even.

Drove into the park last night to visit Elle's hyena 'baiting' site which consists of a large piece of beef neck suspended by a rope from a tree. A remote camera is positioned strategically opposite and records any visitors that show up. Four hyenas have visited the spot regularly for the past couple of months. In the past couple of days, a leopard has been caught on camera, trying to steal the bait. But an even bigger surprise emerged as Elle downloaded the pictures to her laptop computer. Four lions, three females and a young male had visited on Tuesday night! Great pictures and quite a coup.

Elle got some more good news today. After fearing five month's of data from a GPS tracking collar which she removed from a hyena last week had been lost, it finally downloaded to her computer. From the information, she can now determine where the hyena, a lactating mother, has her den and her daily movements. This is a big breakthrough for Elle and after days of uncertainty and frustration, she is over the moon. It's the culmination of a over a year's work.