Madonna Dates Hulooo & Brothers

Hulooo's dad TigerWoods mated for the first time when he was 3 years and 5 months of age. Hulooo has been showing signs of sexual maturity for about a year, spraying bushes and trees, even riding his younger brothers much to their annoyance. Now Hulooo is also approaching 3 years and 5 months of age so I decided to let him and Madonna meet and develop their relationship with a view of getting some love fruit from them.

After a thunderstorm and light rain overnight, the air was fresh and cool in the morning of March 11, 2011. Hulooo brothers congregated next to the gates. We separated Hulooo and let him into the passage leading to the tree camp and opened the gates between him and Madonna. Hulooo took a step into the Tree Camp where Madonna had been guarding her gate and was met by a half hearted roar, after which Hulooo went to quench his thirst as if hiding his embarrassment. Then they behaved as if nothing unusual had happened.

After a bit of milling around, Hulooo went to the big tree after which this camp is named and started sniffing all that interesting scents the tree has collected from Madonna. He hugged it and rubbed his face against it with such indulgence and dedication, following up by an abundant spray at it. After he left the tree Madonna soon followed and hugged it and rubbed her face against the tree with even more enthusiasm, before spraying it with equal care. Things are looking good between the two of them, sexually!

Initially Madonna was charming, stretching herself out belly-up in a seductive manner. Hulooo wandered around absent-minded. But just when I thought he was less interested in Madonna, thundering roars interrupted the morning tranquility when Madonna and Hulooo engaged in a show of force, standing up. But both suddenly flopped to the ground, growling. The cause of this? Apparently while no one was paying attention, Hulooo went up to Madonna and bit her butt! What an impolite act! So in his superficial absent-mindedness, Hulooo had been scheming.

Hulooo decided to keep a safe distance from Madonna while she continued grumbling for the next 15 minutes. After a while Hulooo approached her but was quickly deterred by her continued display of unhappiness and he went about sniffing the ground.

For next few days, Hulooo was let out in the evening and let in with Madonna again in the morning. Madonna, as if not forgetting Hulooo's nip on her butt, continued to growl at Hulooo, blocking his entry either into her camp or access to the water tank. However, while growling, she also displayed inviting and submissive behaviour to Hulooo, such as lying on the ground. At no time did she display aggressive fighting posture such as crouching on all fours. And after couple of days, when Madonna had seen that Hulooo was due to be let out of the Tree Camp in the evening, she decided to block his way out by stretching out before the gate as well. It became a struggle for Hulooo to get around her and get out.

By the fourth morning, Madonna decided to go a step further by entering into the passage way and guarding from outside her gate, making it even harder for an Eager Hulooo to get into her camp and checking out her scents.

Hulooo was however terrified of Madonna's grumbles and occasional roars, avoiding at all costs, crossing her path. Madonna would not leave him alone, following him wherever he went. It looked as if on the one hand she is snubbing him but on the other she was interested in him. Sound like a cat?

Both were treading on thin ice though, and all grass turned into enemies. Each of them had on occasion scared themselves with their own shadows.

By fifth day there was less tension. Madonna left enough space for Hulooo to come into her camp. The scent must have now become familiar so Hulooo also spent less time sniffing and hugging that big tree. The two spent time apart during day with just a couple of close encounters. But before the sun set, Madonna promptly stationed herself next to the gate again to block Hulooo's exit!

Throughout all this testing time for Hulooo, Madonna has been showering friendly chuffs towards Hulooo's younger brother Coco through the fence. I decided to put Coco in with Madonna to see the difference of her reactions. Indeed, Coco was met with friendly chuffs when he was let in Madonna's camp in the morning of March 16, but he headed straight to the leftover bones. Afterwards he jumped on top of the shelter and started tearing at the log, managing to get a piece of the leftover PVC cover off. He then jumped into the big tree, sniffing but not rubbing his cheek against nor hugging nor spraying at it. He is not yet sexually mature.

When Coco finally came over to say hi to Madonna, he was met with a roar, but she never growled at Coco as she did at Hulooo. Coco responded with more chuffs instead, catching Madonna off guard. Embarrassed he went off exploring the shelter again and Madonna followed his footsteps, chewing on the shelter’s log and then followed him into the tree. Before we knew it, the two started sniffing and chuffing at each other in very close range, with half-hearted head rubs. But enough came very soon as Madonna absented herself quickly while Coco picked up another bone to chew on.

Just when we thought they would be now taking their positions to sleep through the day, Madonna came STRAIGHT to Coco chuffing all the way until the two touched nose! But when Coco came to chuff at her later, he was met with snarl and growl. It seems that she only allows herself to chase a male but not the other way round. When Coco sheepishly left, Madonna got up and went in search of him again! Such is the whimsical nature of a modern woman - she has to call the shot!

This kind of exchanges occurred several times during the morning observation and the day ended on an amicable note, with Coco eager to get back to his waiting brothers. Maybe Coco will mature faster now that he has experienced Madonna's charming female scent?

It was JenB's turn on March 18th. The two met with friendly chuffs but Madonna became grumpy when JenB tried to play with her repeatedly. However JenB wouldn't give up. Only after a few rounds of unsuccessfully initiating play with Madonna he decided go and investigate the big tree. Initially, like Coco he showed interests in the scents on the tree but not crazy about it. But after a while, he started seriously sniffing the scents on the tree and rubbing his cheek against it, and made a position to almost spray. Maybe he is more mature than Coco who displayed no keen interests in the scents?

The different reactions towards Madonna by the three brothers seem to highlight that Hulooo, being hand-reared by humans and not a having a mother to interact and discipline him the way tiger mothers do, is unable to properly interpret the signals from other tigers, particularly from females. While JenB and Coco do know how to react to a tigress' whimsicalness, Hulooo got scared from Madonna's grumbles and snarls while JenB and Coco continued their friendly chuffing at her. .

Throughout the encounter between JenB and Madonna, Hulooo lay on the other side of the fence watching. Maybe he will learn something?? We need him to act soon.

Battle Field at Tigers Roars

Aug 5th. 2009 Hunting Intensified
I feel so privileged to witness what I saw today. Hulooo and brothers were let into Tigers Roars in the evening of Aug 2nd and they made a kill overnight. Last night they took down two more blesbok, reducing their numbers to 26. When I went to see them around 4.30pm today, I was surprised to see one tiger was stalking an antelope in the distance, probably emboldened by their success from last few days. I quickly drove up to the lookout point from where I saw one of the younger brothers on the prowl.
Just when I was wondering if this would be Coco, Hulooo appeared in my binoculars, also with a meaningful walk.

The two brothers kept some distance about twenty meter between them, sniffing all the way, tracking the blesbok, heading South West. In the North-Eastern part of the camp, I saw the big group of blesbok standing, keenly aware of the tigers presence and monitoring their every move.
Hulooo's brother was closer to the antelopes and used the little bushes to hide himself during the approach.

Both tigers got closer and the blesbok lost their nerves and ran off towards the Western part of the camp, tailed by the two tiger brothers. Just when I thought what a pity that the other brother must be feeding on the kills, the third tiger ran out from behind the trees in the Western part towards the Blesbok, who were shocked to see an enemy coming out of nowhere. I had but to admit that that was an incredible cooperation among the brothers!

Way cut off by the third tiger, the blesbok split in different groups, with the third tiger chasing them to the West and the other two following them eastwards. There were a couple of close encounters and my heart was beating fast, anticipating a kill. But to my disappointment, no capture was made.

The brothers regrouped playfully and then split off again with a mission.
They sniffed along the grass pushing towards East again. The full moon was rising in the East, and slowly the sky turned a blue-reddish hue. Hulooo and bros continued their pursuit with such energy and stamina and there was another near encounter soon. For the next half an hour, I could see the blesbok had lost their cool, constantly running back and forth, with the brothers on their sides with seemingly endless energy. The hunt continued as the sun disappeared completely and judging from the constant moving shadows of the blesbok, I can guess the tigers were still hard at work. I bet they would make another kill tonight!

Aug 6, 2009 Battle between JenB Bros and a Blesbok
Having not seen any kills, never mind a dramatic hunt for years since Feb 2006, I was totally taken by surprise today. My friend Nicky F and her family of five came in helicopter today from Johannesburg, bringing my husband Stuart with them.

After a leisurely drive around our reserve and a lamb burger lunch, specialty of Villa TigerLi, my guests wanted to go and see the tigers early so we arrived at the Tiger Rewilding Center around 4pm in two vehicles.
Madonna put in an appearance for a few moments in the Catkins camp before disappearing into the river, tailed by King Henry who kept on playing with her tail.

We went into Tigers Roars Camp and just when I was wondering which direction to go to find Hulooo and brothers, we saw blesbok running wildly in the hilly area in the western section of the camp, and shadows of running tigers from time to time. We quickly drove towards the west, seeing now blesbok scattered all over this part of the camp, running off. We saw two tigers not far ahead going behind the trees. We followed them down the river area and saw in the distance against the sun the silhouette a blesbok and a tiger!

My goodness!!! The blesbok was charging the tiger! My heartbeat raced as I anticipated the third ever fantastic witnessed battle between tiger and blesbok during the history of our rewilding! What followed after was beyond words can describe, as I pulled out my little video camera quickly and recorded the fantastic tackle of the blesbok by JenB. JenB tried, almost half-heartedly, to bite the blesbok by the neck but the blesbok kept avoiding it. However, standing in the pool of water, the blesbok kept slipping giving the tiger advantage to tackle him. After a few rounds, with my females guests wooing and aahing, and me screaming and shrieking, JenB almost confused what to do seeing the slipping blesbok, finally grabbed the blesbok by its neck tentatively, and dragged it behind the tall grass! The moaning of the blesbok died eventually, followed by a few minutes of dead silence.

I could not contain my excitement at having witnessed this most fantastic hunt-only the third one I have ever witnessed during the entire nearly 6 years of rewilding. I am so proud of JenB, whom we thought had been the lame duck.

Another surprise laid in store, as we discovered another kill lying on the hilly rocks of the river bank a bit later, as Coco and JenB tried in turn to drag it down to a more accommodating area. Only after much effort, Coco managed, in a clever move, to dislodge the blesbok whose legs were caught in the rocks. Afterwards, all three young tigers came to where our vehicles were and lied down watching us as if seeking praise and approval. I was impressed that Hulooo did not come and jump on our vehicles as if having erased past memories from his childhood. Or maybe he is just getting less attached to humans as the wild side took over.
After much compliment and encouragement we showered on them, we left them before it turned completely dark. We got out of Tigers Roars just before they arrived at the gate, as if not wanting us to leave.

I must say the progress of these young tigers were remarkable. I counted 24 blesbok left this morning, so two kills were made overnight, and now we counted 21 blesbok remaining which means they made three kills during today, bring the total number of kills to 8 in the last 4 days since Sunday.

Aug 8, 2009
Heaven forbids! Hulooo brothers took another blesbok overnight, AND a springbok!! Springbok are famously fast runners and can spring 7 to 8 meters in one jump. They can also run through the fence when faced with danger. Two Springbok came into Tigers Roars a few months ago and have managed to survive through the onslaught for a few months. But clearly, one has now lost its life last night. This brings a total number of hunts to 10 kills in past five days. I can't but congratulate the brothers for their achievement.