It was an unusually quiet night overnight and I awoke to a
calm, still morning that was pleasingly mild in temperature. The sun never really broke through the
clouds, though, so it stayed rather chilly throughout the day. Instead of
stripping off the layers one by one starting around 7:30am and down to our base
layer by 9am, we kept our full packages on throughout the morning ride.
This morning's drive was another viewing of all of the
"Big 5", but it could be characterized more by the importance and
role of "the kill" to the kingdom here. We started off by revisiting
the hyena's sickly buffalo kill that occurred overnight on my first night that
we observed that first morning. We had returned to it the previous evening and
found it to be a mostly hollow shell but still had much of the skin, the legs
still remained, and the skull and head were still mostly intact and completely
recognizable as a buffalo. This morning, however, there was nothing left but
about 1/2 of the rib cage and a "barely-there" skeletal remnant of
the neck and head. The horns were the only thing that revealed this animal to
have been a buffalo. In only 12 hours this carcass had been ravaged beyond all
recognition - which was only 24 hours from the kill.
As our Guide, Formen, described, most of the
carnivores of the wild kingdom had played a role in this 24-hour cleaning. The
various 5 types of vultures had picked the bones clean of all sinew and meat
remnants on and in between the ribs and all other places with a few other small
animals having maybe had a piece of the meal. The hyenas had taken care of the
rest - meat, skin and bones alike.
Just on cue to illustrate Formen's point, a hyena showed up
to start chowing down on some ribs.
She then moved to the pelvis that had been
left laying on the ground disfigured from its natural position when it was held
in place by the muscles and ligaments. Another hyena soon joined her. They
fought over the pelvis, and the newcomer won.
The original on-site female relinquished herself to some ribs again. It
was amazing to see an animal picked so cleanly in such a short period of time.
Then, it was off to a sighting of a leopard which was
reported to be a difficult viewing. They were right...but they didn't have Formen!
She was in the very thick brush laying down
with a carcass of her last kill. The other Rover full of people decided it was
not worth the time and moved on. Formen, on the other hand, said "Let's
just wait here for a short while . . .she will come out."
Always trust Foremen. Sure enough. After
about 5 minutes of hearing her crunching on bones herself, she emerged. She lay
out next to the brush to clean herself just like any cat. Her beauty was
spectacular. We were a mere 10 feet from her. We watched her delicately and assiduously
clean
herself, licking her paws and wiping her face over and over again, using
one paw than the other.
Not long after that we found ourselves in the middle of the
buffalo herd again. An immense sea of black bodies and grey-white horns. The
buffalo are not particularly trusting animals - not like the cats we've seen -
and are quite edgy about our presence. They raise their heads up from their
grazing, stare you right in the eye, watch you intensely for 30-60 seconds,
then move further away from you - often times in an abrupt head raise and
uneasy trot in the other direction. Given that these are such large animals
with rather intimidating heads of horns, I'm always hoping their abrupt and
uneasy movements are always away from us.
As the herd moved towards the back past and right of us, our
eagle-eyed guide, Formen, called us to notice the lions who had just appeared
to our left on the top of the ridge. We could just see her head through the tall
grass. We all gasped. Then another lion head appeared to her left, then another
to her right - each about 20 yards from her on each side of her.
They all started walking towards us. Clearly
they were stalking the herd of buffalo. We all delighted in what we believed
was going to be a chase and meal attempt in our presence. Then a fourth lion
head appeared on the ridge. Four!! We had 4 lions stalking the herd. Oh this is
going to be great!!! The herd already seemed to have mostly passed by us
though...we hoped this scene would still play out in our sights.
The 4 lions eased their way towards us over the next few
minutes and stopped on the edge of the dirt path on which our vehicle was
standing. The lioness was just 10-15 yards from us. She started crossing the
dirt path, but walking diagonally across the path towards our Rover. She passed
the back of our Rover within 6 feet. More amazing photos secured. The 3 front
lions continued passed us onto the right side of the field and started picking
up their pace. There was the 1 female and 2 of the 3 males with her. But where
were the buffalo? They were already nearly outside of our viewing range at that
point. Then we saw 2 large bulls bringing up the very rear. I don't think that
is what the lions were expecting. Formen said they were probably hoping to pick
off a smaller buffalo towards the back of the herd so as not to get into a herd
rush in which they could be trampled. Two large bulls were not what the lions
were planning I'm sure. Nonetheless, they crouched, and took off after them and
gave a brief chase. I was able to only see the very tops of their heads and
backs as these 3 gave chase. The fourth had crossed the road at this point, but
did not participate.
If that stalking and chasing scene weren't enough to excite
us all, here come a small herd of elephant over the very same ridge on which the lions had entered the scene. Are you kidding me?! This is incredible!
How often do you see all of these animals in one space?! Again, the image of a
documentary scene came to mind, yet I was witnessing this first hand. What
would the lions do about the elephants we wondered...we couldn't wait to find
out!
The elephants gave off a
horn-sounding cry...they apparently smelled the lions and were none too happy
about it. They took the path of the buffalo, across to the right and back
behind us, never reaching closer than about 40 or 50 yards from us.
Where were the lions at this point we wondered....leave it
to Formen. I had wanted to follow the herd and the lions to see what if
anything would transpire or if the lions had just given up and stopped
following the herd. Well without agreeing to such, Formen started driving away
from the last sighting of the lions giving chase, which had been a huge
disappointment for me. I was thinking that Formen decided that was just a bit
too risky for us, and I resigned myself to being quite overjoyed with the scene
I just witnessed. Then after about a minute of driving, Formen took a right,
then another right, and there they were....all 4 lions sitting on a mound
raised up and clear from the brush from which position they could see the plains
better. We had the most perfect lion sighting.
They were all sitting next to
each other in about a 6 foot by 6 foot space, looking about, seemingly
reconsidering their next move and whether to follow the buffalo,
exhibiting the affectionate interaction I've come to see in various lion
stories now. We couldn't
have been more than 10-15 yards from them. It was just unbelievable. Of course,
more amazing photos were taken.
This young group of 3 lions and a lioness were
just not quite experienced enough to take on 1, let alone 2, large male
buffalo, but luckily they made no mortal mistakes and would live to try another
day.
For more information about the lodge at which I was staying for these incredible drives, see here:
Tanda Tula
To see more of my photos while at Tanda Tula, see here:
My African Safari Best Shots - 1 and here:
My African Safari Best Shots - 2
Posts
Our theme of "the kill" continued into our evening
drive. Word in the bush was there was a female leopard who had recently made a
kill and was sitting in a tree along with the spoils of her victory. Off we
went.... We were the first to arrive so had no one to point her out to us and
we had to seek and find. Our brilliant back-up guide and tracker, Jeffrey,
brought us to within 50-70 yards of the very tree in which she lay, unbeknownst
to us. We looked, looked and looked ....in trees, on the ground, everywhere. Just
when we were considering giving up, we spotted her. In the large tree at the
edge of the ridge that led down to the riverbed. There she was...on the first
large branch of the tree that extended out over the ridge. She was facing the
tree trunk, belly on the limb, all 4 legs hanging down around the branch, with
her head laying on the branch facing away from us. She was apparently quite
exhausted from the energy expended during the kill. She wasn't moving. Where was the kill? Did
she already eat it? Then, far back at the edge of the same branch on which she
lay, almost in a nest of smaller branches, lay the kill. A steenbok. The
smallest in the antelope family here. She had hardly if at all eaten any of it.
It just lay there waiting for her when she was ready. We drove around to the
other side of the tree where we could see her face. We could also see the front
of the steenbok as well. She never moved. Apparently that kill took a lot out
of her. Her meal would wait.
We went off then to see the same family of rhinos that we
had seen the previous day. The 3 youth of varying ages, mother and father.
Father was always away from the others. Apparently the mother-father
relationship is somewhat tenuous and the family gets a little fussy if he gets
too close. The youngest rhino was laying next to mother. The middle child came
up and wanted to get in between, but neither mother nor youngest child were
willing to move to let in the middle child. So, the middle child started to
whine as he was trying to nose his way in between them. There was only enough
space for his head. His body was way too big to fit into the small space left
between the youngest and mother. His whines got louder and more upset about his
being blocked out. Of course he could have gone and laid on the other side of
mother, but that apparently was not good enough for him. He had to be in
between mother and the youngest. How funny it is to see similar human familial
relationships play out in the wild kingdom as well. Finally, after about 5
minutes of whining and trying to nose his way into this small space in between
them, he nudged harder, and the little one gave in. The baby moved away and the
middle child, very satisfied with himself and finally quiet, lay down next to
mother. 
Our last sighting for the evening was back with the 4 lions
we had seen earlier in the morning chasing buffalo. The sun had set now, so it
was dark and the poor lions were having bright lights shone on them in order
for us to see them. They were all intertwined with one another like a litter of
kittens all curled up together. They could not have been more adorable or more
reminiscent of a house pet. Seeing these gorgeous creatures looking so contrary
to their hunting and killer role in the wild always makes it difficult to see
them as dangerous.. Just as it was with the 3 male lions earlier in the week
where the thinner one was being looked after by the middle male lion. We know
that they are dangerous killers, but we can also see the nurturing and loving
side of them for their own kind, and it just makes them even more beautiful.
