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| p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Food for the cubs or food for thought for me - Masai Mara - 2 | |
Amani was still strolling and looking around for food. Well past 45 minutes tracking this activity. We eventually saw the herd of Thommies and Amani getting down low. It appeared that the herd had little clue about the encroaching danger.
Isolated from the herd we saw a solitary gazelle lying low in the grass. Initially I had no idea what it was and why on earth it was lying low. Injured and may be this one was preparing for being the breakfast for the approaching hungry mouths.
I really wanted to get an image of a chase and hence asked my driver to move ahead and to get the head on shot of the chase. While driving ahead of the herd, I requested to pass by the "low lying" gazelle. Oh why did I go and also why should I have not. What I simply learned from this detour was the best lesson I have ever had in my life among the wild beings.
The other MOTHER was in labor. Amani seeking to find food to keep her cubs alive and here is a prey introducing another life on this planet. The Thommie was now all by herself and with the herd slowly migrating farther and farther away from her and the new life. She got overly anxious, as if she could sense that there was something approaching. She was on the ground trying to whelp. The water had broken and she started to circle around as if to get the baby out in a hurry. For some reason she was constantly looking in the direction of the other approaching mother. May be she was smelling something in the air.
The fawn dropped to the ground and the mother ate the final bits of the afterbirth and started to vigorously lick the little one and trying to push her off the ground and on to her feet. As if to say "hurry we need to go". The fawn just could not get off. To our amazement we just saw the mother walk away from the fawn. She rejoined the herd, took a look back and the herd made off.
Amani and her cubs had lost their opportunity, the gazelle had left her fawn. May be it was just not going to get on its feet. Yes Amani was gone, but there were the jackals in the area. I waited until the herd had left and Amani had taken her cubs away in to a shade to get some rest. The gazelle came back and kept on licking her fawn back to energize her to get up. Whatever I had read, this initial phase of cleaning of the afterbirth is where the bonding between the ungulates develop. They each exchange a smell that binds them for life or until death in the savannah do them apart.
Need to head in that direction
Crouching cheetah and waiting..
Gazelles
In one forlorn corner another mother waits her turn
Takes a parting look and takes off with the herd
While the mother is away the jackals were not at bay..
Maternal instinct got her back to the fawn and she licked back on her feet..
The cubs after a long stroll were indeed tired and they were also licking as if to say "Mom will get us some food bud"
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