The Killing Fields

It is almost impossible to walk around the bush here without coming across zebra jawbones, wildebeest and buffalo skulls, and giraffe bones. It’s a pretty stark reminder of how prevalent the predators, particularly lions, are around here. As an ecologist I know that predation is an important part of ecosystems that regulates herbivore populations and in turn affects how the composition of the plant community. But, knowing that and actually being around big animals that kill each other are two vastly different things. It’s even different from the marine systems I’ve worked on where fish usually eat each other whole and its rare to find fish bones lying around on the bottom. There are no fish kill sites for instance that you run across and know that a grouper had his meal here this morning. Its much different here in Kruger with bones strewn about everywhere. For example, the nice set of kudu horns we found along the road one morning on a drive down one of the rivers near Satara. And just the other week I saw a hyena running around with a big hunk of warthog in its jaws. But, I’ve yet to actually see a kill happen, and probably won’t, but here’s hoping one day.

The closest I’ve been was last week when I happened across two male lions that had just killed a zebra in an area right next to one of our research plots. The kill was right next to one of the fire break roads in the area we were working so we got to sit in our truck literally 10 feet away from the two lions lazing under the tree with their kill. The two had already eaten their fill that morning so they had huge distended bellies and were just lolling around under the tree not really moving. All they could do was pant in their misery – looked kind of like most of us do after a good Thanksgiving meal. I honestly think you could have run up and smacked them on the bum and made it back to the truck with no problem these guys were so lazy. (And every one here is obsessed with seeing lions, but I’m convinced they are the laziest animals on the planet. They must sleep 90% of the time. If you see them up and moving it’s a real treat.)

Yesterday, my team and I were out at one of our field sites setting up transects to survey herbivore dung abundance (Insert your own joke here). We were walking along through the bush when we flush a big group of vultures off a wildebeest carcass. It was quite fresh, probably killed the morning before, with the head still attached to the ribcage. About twenty feet away was the hide and hooves that had been stripped off the carcass. While we were going about our business setting the transects, the smell of the kill followed us everywhere. There is nothing like the smell of a rotting carcass in the bush. It’s a pungent sickly sweet smell that really lingers in your nose and jumps onto your clothes to last you a little while. Even though we found the carcass early in the morning, the smelled stayed with me until mid-afternoon.