Puku portrait

Sometimes it is easy to overlook the antelope species. Puku and Impala are everywhere and because they are at the bottom of the food chain they are often outshore on safari by the more "sexy" predators. Yet these animals have a grace and beauty of their own and lives well worthy of study. 

In fact, the tip for anyone new to safari holidays is take time to understand these species and you will better understand the Lion, leopard, Wild Dog and Hyena.

The naturalists dilemma

Nature is certainly harsh in tooth and claw.

On a morning drive we watched a Puku suckling her fairly young foal - a matter of days old. Her tenderness was touching to watch.

Yet a matter of hours later and that same foal was up a tree, having been taken by a Leopard some time later in the day.

There are aspects of the wild that are hard to take sometimes, but that is the natural world.

The Leopard must also feed, but the sight of the mother Puku standing a few metres away from the leopard's tree was a sad sight indeed.

To watch these stories unfold is the naturalists dilemma.

The Chase

On the transfer drive between Nsefu camp and Tena Tena we spotted a leopard stalking a young Puku out in the open and in daylight.

Stopping our vehicle we watched as the cat crawled ever closer to the unsuspecting young antelope.

Finally, when it's nemisis was just a few metres away the Puku spotted the Leopard and took off. With the Leopard on its heels it missed our vehicle by a few metres

 

One giant leap ...

A Puku jumps one of the many channels near the Three Rivers Bush Camp