Lions 3 Vet 0

Yet again the lions eluded us today. We spent three hours trying to find them with the telemetry device and knew roughly which area they were in. But if they are in the middle of some dense bush, you get no visibility of them whatsoever. And they certainly seem to be intent on playing a game of big cat and mouse.

The new collar for the male lion weighs about 1kg, which is quite a heavy encumbrance to have around your neck. It emits both radio and satellite signals, so you can use the telemetry equipment to track them from a vehicle and the satellite link allows you to track their position on the internet. The satellite component on the existing collar has stopped working, hence the need to replace it. The new one should hopefully last about two years.

After three hours of no sightings, we resorted to more devious tactics. The vet asked the game ranger to drive his vehicle through the area and play some "music". He had a set of speakers tied to the roof and the so-called music coming out of an iPod turned out to be a recording of a buffalo calf in distress. I doubt you can download this from iTunes. After 10 minutes, sounds of the young buffalo blaring down the hill did nothing to dislodge our furry friends.

We regrouped and tried the last tactic in our armoury: a freshly-shot bushpig that would be tied to the back of a pickup truck and dragged around behind it as bait. After a little debate over where to tie the rope and whether it should be a slip-knot or otherwise, the vet then slit the bushpig's stomach to allow its intestines to slip out and provide a scent for the lions to pick up. For the benefit of the more squeamish, I haven't included this photo!

The pickup truck drove around and around, to the point that the bushpig was so dusty, I doubt that it would have enticed anything to eat it. To add some realism to the scenario, the vet then requested the game ranger - who was in another vehicle on the other side of the bush - to produce some "pig audio". For a moment, we thought it was another track on the iPod, but no: the game ranger had to do his own impression of a pig squealing. I can only say that it sounded like the pig had been castrated, so high was the pitch. The vet, on the other hand, did his own impression that was so realistic, I concluded that imitating animal noises must have been one of his courses at vet school.

Alas, the lions were still not fooled. The male did make a dash for it, but was moving around stealthily from bush to bush so we couldn't get into position to do the darting.

We will return another day..

The new collar for the male lion