Africa Adventure - Lion
“My soul is among lions”
-The Bible
Lions are surely at the top of most peoples list when they think of African animals. They have captivated peoples imaginations for as long as there has been civilisations, movies have portrayed them as monsters, cartoons have shown them as friendly characters and documentaries have shown us a glimpse into their social lives.
There is something very chilling about making eye contact with a Lion, whether through the lens of a camera or the naked eye, the power and grace of these magnificent cats is spellbinding.
ABOVE A Lioness leads the pride on a hunt.
During a recent safari I was fortunate to witness a hunt and kill by a pride on a Buffalo. We followed them as they moved across open ground up hill to look over the other side.
Just over the crest were three Buffalo oblivious to the dangers behind them, seeing what might happen we positioned on the far side of the Buffalo so we could see the lions coming.
Watching 20+ lions organise into a hunt was mesmerising, looking at the pride it looked like they were all together then suddenly a head would peak over the horizon off to the left - the lions were flanking the buffalo.
ABOVE The lions try to separate a Buffalo from the others.
The Lions were very overt in their actions moving towards the Buffalo causing them to turn and face the lions and charge forward.
As the Buffalo moved in other members of the pride would harass them causing confusion in an attempt to separate one. Suddenly the Buffalo were running and so were we albeit on 4 wheels, I was stood out the top of the 4x4 as they headed towards some bushes.
As we headed towards the other side of the small copse of bushes three lions had separated one of the Buffalo and were jumping on its back, we were moving too fast for me to grab any shots so we carried on to the other side.
In the blink of an eye the male lion came out of nowhere and made his move on the Buffalo, clamping his mouth over the Buffalo’s nose and mouth to begin the long process of suffocating it.
ABOVE The male trying to bring the Buffalo down.
ABOVE The male at the front whilst Lionesses pounce from the rear.
The male had the Buffalo clamped in position using his back legs to stop the Buffalo’s front legs from stepping on him all the while the Lionesses and youngsters were nipping the Buffalo and trying to bring it down.
This turned into a war of attrition - who would tire first - we found a tiny gap through the bushes to look down on the scene from where we saw and heard the Buffalo’s final moments. As the Buffalo fell James my guide said it’s all over.
The male stayed clamped on the Buffalo as we heard it struggling for air until it finally succumbed and died right infront of us, all the while being bitten by the other members of the prd
ABOVE The final moments as the Buffalo succumbed to the pride.
With the Buffalo dead the pride began to feed, there was a lot of sorting out the pecking order with growls and snarls at each other as they vied for position on the kill.
We were in a tough position but had clear views onto a couple of the lions, I was focussed on one lioness who was challenging another, ears and lips back, blood around the mouth when suddenly she snarled at another right in front of me.
ABOVE The less cute side of lion behaviour.
Its easy to look at lions and see the similarities of behaviour with domestic cats, I have 5 at home which makes anticipating the lions behaviour slightly easier but that similarity ends the moment their is food.
The pride has it’s own order of importance which is regularly re-enforced through snarls and swipes during meals.
ABOVE Unlike domestic cats that run at the first drops of rain Lions embrace wet weather for hunting.
After watching the hunt we found three lionesses that were sitting out during some of the heaviest rain I’ve ever seen, being from Scotland that is saying something.
Not exactly lovers of the rain some lions use it strategically to aid them in hunting, the reduced visibility making them harder to see and hear by their prey.
Eventually this shower got too heavy for the lions who scarpered off to the nearest bush to shelter but we did find the three of them again sleeping in the open under stormy skies. As the clouds rolled in and the drops began to fall the lions stirred from their slumber and gave us an incredible 15 minutes of walking.
The final image in this walk was taken well after sunset at 10000 ISO, there wasn’t much light left but as the lions moved off the road they began stalking some distance Topi, you can see the alertness in the eyes and the ears are forward ready to go into action. We left them after this shot and headed back to camp for a warm shower.