Life and death in Kruger

The last two days I've watched 3 episodes of the BBC series "planet earth" on DVD. They have a decent amount of footage in Southern Africa, where I could name the birds and animals before the announcer - which was pretty cool. It is an amazingly filmed series, though not very informative. Worth watching though just because it is so beautifully filmed and gives new perspectives into certain animal behavior. The DVD is fun too because it has an extra special after each episode on the filming of the biggest challenge in that episode. It really puts it into perspective when you see the guy waiting in a hovel for weeks to spot a snow leopard!

In last night's episode, one scene was crocodiles hunting cape buffalo. The announcer said that it took an hour for the crocodile to drown the big bull he caught. They win by not letting go. It is amazing how many prey actually manage to escape the hunt - and when you see the few hundred thousand impala at Kruger you feel sorry for the big cats because they actually have it pretty hard - it's exhausting, dangerous, and not always successful for them to hunt.

All that being said, while I was in Kruger, when we were at the main Skukuza camp and had a few hours to ourselves, I took a long walk by the Sabie river (of course, everyone is inside the electric fencing...) and reached the far end of the camp just past dusk. (It was neat to see the private large rental houses along the river, much nicer than the hut-shaped hotel room I had.)

Just at dark, at the edge of the camp, I heard the most terrible squealing that was so distressed and heart breaking - and it just wouldn't stop. It lasted for what seemed like nearly 5 minutes. I thought I must be mistaken about the noise (though it was hard to imagine why anything would sound like that if it weren't struggling for its life) because surely whatever was hunting would kill faster than that... I asked the guide, and he said it can take a long time for the kill.

We did not see any kills during our trip and for that I am glad. It is part of the life in Kruger, but hearing it was enough. The sound haunted me for days...