Wild life | 1 November 2018

Laikipia

  My two Jersey bulls Halcyon and Hosanna were grazing happily on the lawn in front of the house when a pride of lion breached the 7,500-volt high-security fence enclosing our garden, pounced on the cattle and broke both of their necks. I am down by 24 sheep so far this year thanks to the old leopard who patrols the hillside above us. A cheetah boldly tried to grab a calf in the valley the other day. The pasture grass I planted at huge expense has attracted great numbers of oryx, buffalo, zebra, eland, gazelles and warthog. The electric fences I placed around the perimeter of the farm have completely failed to keep out the roaming elephant, giraffe and plains game. In my lucerne field, we attempted to get rid of the termite colonies by digging into their mounds until we found the white slug queens at the heart of the brain-like masses of fungal combs — but despite killing several of these the efforts were ultimately fruitless.