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Description
“He’s too hot! Where’s the water?” Bruce yelled, crouching over the hulking black shape lying prostrate in the dirt. After a quick scan of the shoreline for lurking crocodiles, I plunged into the tepid water and filled two empty buckets, the stabbing sun stinging my exposed arms and burrowing through my clothes. With no wind to mitigate it this heat could soon be deadly. I raced up the bank with two fresh buckets, the thin wire handles cutting into the palms of my hands and the dry warmth rising up from the baking ground and enveloping me, squeezing the breath from my lungs. Emptying the warm lake water over the enormous quivering flanks, I glanced at Bruce who was wrestling with a pair of pliers trying to get a purchase on the wire snare that was cutting in to the buffalo’s lower jaw. The self-tightening loop was brutal and effective; the more an animal struggled to get away, the deeper it cut. The cheap wire had proved no match for the enormous strength of the mature Cape buffalo bull and he had torn himself free with the vicious metal still embedded in his flesh. Now, after several days of trailing the remnants of the snare behind him, his wound had turned toxic and had driven him mad with pain and frustration.

Next to Bruce, his daughter Ellie knelt in the dust and cradled the massive head in her slender arms, clamping its tongue to the roof of its mouth to stop the buffalo choking. Her face was set in a frown of determination as she stroked the iron hard boss of horn on its forehead with her free hand, completely oblivious of the fly crawling up the side of her cheek.
“Come on dad, we don’t have long before the tranquilizer wears off…” Bruce grunted, shifted his angle of attack and clamped down once more with the pliers. There was a crack and in one smooth movement, Bruce pulled the wire free.
“That’s it guys, clear out!” We hastily gathered up the gear and stowed it in the back of the vehicle, Bruce sliding his tranquilizer gun back into its canvas cover and stowing it on the gun rack behind the cab. As I swung myself up into the bed of the truck we took off, bouncing and jostling over the uneven ground as we retreated to a safe distance. After five tense minutes, filled with the insistent screech of cicadas, the old bull opened his eyes groggily and slowly rocked himself to his feet. Staggering slightly, he turned a bloodshot eye on us, shook his head and snorted. Then, deciding we weren’t worth the effort, turned his back on us and wobbled off into the thick Mopane scrub that lined the lake shore and was lost to sight.

I slumped back and exhaled the breath I had realised I was holding as we slowly drove along the tree line and back to the road. A fish eagle shrieked, drawing my gaze upward to where he was circling high above in the thermals rising off the hot ground. As I watched him ride the wind, I was filled with a fierce, rushing love for this wild place, this land where death came suddenly and life was lived to the full. A sudden bump in the road brought my attention back to earth, my eyes meeting Ellie’s for the briefest moment before she looked away, a small smile creasing her face.

Description
“He’s too hot! Where’s the water?” Bruce yelled, crouching over the hulking black shape lying prostrate in the dirt. After a quick scan of the shoreline for lurking crocodiles, I plunged into the tepid water and filled two empty buckets, the stabbing sun stinging my exposed arms and burrowing through my clothes. With no wind to mitigate it this heat could soon be deadly. I raced up the bank with two fresh buckets, the thin wire handles cutting into the palms of my hands and the dry warmth rising up from the baking ground and enveloping me, squeezing the breath from my lungs. Emptying the warm lake water over the enormous quivering flanks, I glanced at Bruce who was wrestling with a pair of pliers trying to get a purchase on the wire snare that was cutting in to the buffalo’s lower jaw. The self-tightening loop was brutal and effective; the more an animal struggled to get away, the deeper it cut. The cheap wire had proved no match for the enormous strength of the mature Cape buffalo bull and he had torn himself free with the vicious metal still embedded in his flesh. Now, after several days of trailing the remnants of the snare behind him, his wound had turned toxic and had driven him mad with pain and frustration.

Next to Bruce, his daughter Ellie knelt in the dust and cradled the massive head in her slender arms, clamping its tongue to the roof of its mouth to stop the buffalo choking. Her face was set in a frown of determination as she stroked the iron hard boss of horn on its forehead with her free hand, completely oblivious of the fly crawling up the side of her cheek.
“Come on dad, we don’t have long before the tranquilizer wears off…” Bruce grunted, shifted his angle of attack and clamped down once more with the pliers. There was a crack and in one smooth movement, Bruce pulled the wire free.
“That’s it guys, clear out!” We hastily gathered up the gear and stowed it in the back of the vehicle, Bruce sliding his tranquilizer gun back into its canvas cover and stowing it on the gun rack behind the cab. As I swung myself up into the bed of the truck we took off, bouncing and jostling over the uneven ground as we retreated to a safe distance. After five tense minutes, filled with the insistent screech of cicadas, the old bull opened his eyes groggily and slowly rocked himself to his feet. Staggering slightly, he turned a bloodshot eye on us, shook his head and snorted. Then, deciding we weren’t worth the effort, turned his back on us and wobbled off into the thick Mopane scrub that lined the lake shore and was lost to sight.

I slumped back and exhaled the breath I had realised I was holding as we slowly drove along the tree line and back to the road. A fish eagle shrieked, drawing my gaze upward to where he was circling high above in the thermals rising off the hot ground. As I watched him ride the wind, I was filled with a fierce, rushing love for this wild place, this land where death came suddenly and life was lived to the full. A sudden bump in the road brought my attention back to earth, my eyes meeting Ellie’s for the briefest moment before she looked away, a small smile creasing her face.