Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones!

Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones!

Bones! There are bones everywhere in the bush!  Some have only been there for a matter of hours and others...years!  When an animal meets his demise, nothing goes to waste.  For example if a Cape Buffalo is killed by lions.  They will eat until they are uncomfortably stuffed.  There are always vultures in branches and on the ground fighting for a bite.  At some point the hyenas will usually show up and have a go at it. After they leave, you may have a leopard, serval, cheetah, wild cat, jackals, bugs and so forth until there isn't much left.  Usually it's just the large bones and  horns left behind.  The smaller bones are eaten by hyenas.  Hyena poop is white...flush with calcium.  The bones that remain get scattered.  It isn't like looking at a chart of a skeleton like we did in school.  Beginning at Kings Pool and continuing on at Mombo and Jao, my son-in-law just couldn't pass up a pile of bones without asking/demanding that we stop!  If it was safe...meaning no dangerous animals in the near vicinity, he would jump out and begin to examine the bones.  He would explain what the individual bones were.  Then he would (sometimes with Lemme,  Sefo, or Alberto's help) begin to reconstruct the animal!  Yes!  I am positively sure that some of the guides that have passed by these graveyards of bones several times a week for a long time are taking a second glance/maybe getting a whiplash upon viewing these reconstructed skeletal remains!  I can only imagine how they are explaining to clients how this happened!  Barry quickly joined in on the fun by making Cape Buffalo monuments.  Every time we passed a skull and horns of one, he would have to jump out, grab it and find a place to display it!  Reminded me of old western  movies and tv shows where "monuments" like this would be a marker for a graveyard or a "stop, turn around and get out of here!" sign!  Just keep thinking about that song...."dem bones, dem bones gonna' walk around...."