Africa (Part 6)

And Enter the Carnivores

At the same night watering hole that I had the pleasure of watching the dance of the herbivores, I also had the pleasure of watching some interactions between some carnivores and herbivores, and not just any carnivores but the apex hunters, the lions.

Scattering of the Lions

Out of the darkness directly in front of my gaze, two shapes began to take shape, slowly moving in to take a drink.  Before long I had realised that is was a mother elephant, with a very young baby.  The mother was looking nervous as she approached and was keeping the baby very close by.  Suddenly I caught movement to the left and saw two lions lurking under a tree.  My heart skipped a beat as my eyes darted back to the young elephant and I realised just how vulnerable it was looking.  While part of me was excited to see a kill at some stage in Africa, I did not want to see a baby elephant brought down.

The mother took a few steps towards the lions, making it clear that she was ready for whatever the next few moments would bring.  The lions stood their ground ready, and as if sensing the impending danger, the mother gave a loud trumpet.  Out of the darkness a trumpet was returned and from the shadows another full grown elephant appeared, trumpeting again as it past the mother and walking or more accurately lumbering straight into the position of the lions, scattering them as it went.

The mother and baby moved into the watering hole while the second elephant made sure in no uncertain terms that the lions knew, tonight they were not welcomed.  The second elephant then also moved into the water hole, drunk and then left the mother and baby.  After a little while longer the mother and baby were finished and moved off as well.

As I watched the edge of where the lights reached, I saw the lions tentatively move back into their position under the tree.  After a while I saw some movement in the lion pride and realised that something else must be approaching.  Once again from the shadows two figures began to emerge, but this time not as large as the fully grown elephants.  I realised that it was a mother Rhino and her juvenile offspring, which was not a lot smaller than her.

Without too much warning the juvenile broke into a trot straight at the lions and once again they were scattered.  But as if not satisfied by this, and almost as if it was a game, the juvenile continued to chase the lions.  Watching this really interested me but I did have to remind myself that more often than not this is not actually a game but rather life and death.

And the Lions Return

The next morning after I had been watching the watering hole we set out on a game drive.  We were only a couple of hundred metres outside the camping area when I caught some movement out through the scrub.  It took a second to register, but then I opened my mouth and called out for the vehicle to stop.  I had just seen a pride of lions feeding on a zebra carcass.  Backing up brought the kill into sight and although it was some way off we had a reasonable view.  What was really interesting was that these would have been the same lions that I had witnessed last night being scattered by the elephant and rhino, so in the end it appears that they got their kill.

The lions were taking their time on the carcass, mainly due to the fact that they were constantly being harassed by about 30 or so jackals, which were being increasingly bold.  One of the lionesses would occasionally give a warning charge to the jackals but they would simply take a couple of steps back and then resume their harassment.  Reaching her limit the lioness leapt and I bore witness to the speed and power of this hunter because as the dust settled she stood and limp in her jaws was a lifeless jackal.  She looked at the other jackals as if saying to them ‘just try me’.  From the shadows of a tree a young male, with only a half developed mane, emerged to see what the commotion had been and as he approached the lioness dropped the jackal at his feet as an offering.  He looked at it, seemed to sum it up and turned around uninterested for it seems that if zebra is also on the menu that is much preferred over jackal.  The lioness also took another look at the jackal and also walked off uninterested in the kill.  The remaining jackals needed no more invitation and descended on the carcass of their own and tore it apart.

The Pack

We moved forward to a place called Chobe National Park and this time we had an encounter with a family of wild dogs, something which is really special as they are one of the rarest of the hunters.  There were four adults and seven pups and we were all in awe as they moved through the park playing with each other, seemingly without a care in the world and unperturbed with our presence.  Yet in an instant it all changed as two of the adults pricked their ears high and smelt the air.  Ahead were a herd of antelope.  I can also say that in that instant the feeling in our truck immediately change and full attention was given to what was in front of us.  The remaining two adults took the young further down wind and into a bit of a depression such that they would not interfere with the hunt while the remaining two adults were into stalk mode. 

As the adults moved in the antelopes were twitchy and it was obvious that they knew something was up.  I was very surprised when the dogs started the chase as I thought they would have tried to get much closer as they had left themselves a lot of ground to cover.  The herd split with the majority heading to the left so the dogs followed the few that went to the right.  The dominate male of the herd was doing his best to take the full attention of the two hunting dogs.  Both antelope and dogs were bounding across the plain in this ultimate race of survival.  The dogs managed to isolate a female and both the animals disappeared into the scrub in the distance.  We did not see a kill that day, but if you go by the ‘statistics’ it is probable that the dogs had run down the antelope and effected the kill given they are the most efficient hunters in Africa.

Time for the Cats

The last of my encounters occurred on the famous plains of Africa, the Serengeti and they were completely overwhelming.  The first was a cheetah who was calling across the plains trying to find its companion.  We followed this magnificent animal for some time, enjoying its melodic calls.  Watching it move so gracefully through the grass was such a treat, especially when you could see how well it blended into the surroundings.  At one stage it jumped up on a half fallen tree and just stood there as if posing for us, the fur looking simply magnificent.  Its belly was very round, obviously suggesting that it had recently eaten it’s full.  After a while the cheetah moved further into the grass, out of sight and we realised, somewhat reluctantly that our time here had come to an end.

Moving on through the plains our next encounter was with three lionesses and a male lion.  I will never forget the view of the male lion the first time that I saw him.  He was standing up, facing down wind, the power in his body clearly obvious.  However, as he surveyed across the Serengeti there was a peace in his gaze for he was surveying across his home.  The wind was gently blowing on his mane and the best that I can describe it is that it looked as if it had been washed and blow-dried and there was a fan blowing on it like in all of the glamour photo shoots that you see.  Just in front of him was a lioness and slowly he knelt and then lied next to her but a moment before he did, he raised his eyes and it felt he was looking straight at me.  This also happened while I was watching one of the lionesses who was lying in the grass.  She was looking out across the plains and then slowly turned and looked straight through the grass at me, as if looking deep into me.  I do not want to sound too dramatic but in both circumstances it felt as if they were piercing into my soul with their look and we shared a very unique moment.  Again we had to pull ourselves away from this group and continue our drive.  However, as we left I cast one last look back and just out of the grass, with the horizon in the background I could see the male lion once again watching across his domain with I took as such a calm.  It was a stunning scene and one that I will not readily forget.

As we moved further down the road we came to another pride of lions, this time they were perched high on some rocks.  Although they were some distance from the vehicle it became very apparent where the inspiration for the legendary movie The Lion King, and specifically pride rock, came from as they lazed up on the rock surveying across the plains.  As a side note, the sound track from the Lion King had become the official soundtrack of this leg of our trip.

The next of our encounters were basically unheard of until we experienced them.  There is a particular section in the park where it is known to see leopards so we headed to this area.  This area is fairly well wooded as the leopards prefer to be up a tree most of the time.  After a short while we spotted our first leopard.  It was some distance off and fairly well hidden in the fork of a tree but none the less we were able to make it out.  After watching this leopard for some time we decided to move on and this is where the truly exceptional happened.  Within only a few hundred metres we saw three other leopards, which is basically unheard of.  Leopards are very solitary animals and to have such a concentration was a real treat.

The last of the experiences that I will share is an encounter with a lioness.  We had stopped on the side of the road to watch a few lions out in the distance who obviously had a kill (not clearly visible) and where surrounded by many hyenas.  After a little while one of the lionesses apparently had had enough and started to walk in our direction.  Slowly she began to cover the distance between us and our driver moved the vehicle down to where he approximated she would cross the road and so did about another eight vehicles.  We all watched in awe as she came closer and closer obviously not bothered at all, or even the least bit interested, in the vehicles that were now stationary.  She came onto the road a few vehicles in front of us and actually scratched herself on one of the four-wheel drives, took a brief rest in the shade of the vehicle and then moved on.  All of the engines of the vehicles started and began to move off to follow her.  It was at this point I felt a little conflicted as it seemed like so many vehicles would harass her, but watching her demeanour she did not seem bothered at all.  Somehow our driver managed to manoeuvre our vehicle such that we were directly in front of the lioness and we all just watched in absolute silence and reverence as she ambled down the road, only a few metres from us. 

At one stage she came up next to the vehicle and I was looking out the side window and I am not exaggerating to say that I could have reached out and touched her.  I was hanging out of the window a little and being close to something so powerful, so wild, that could no doubt dispatch me with one skilfully placed bite, really was humbling and to be honest a little exhilarating.  One of the other things that really struck me about this lioness is that she was not what you would describe as a ‘pretty’ animal.  She was covered in scars and it was a poignant reminder that life on the savannah is not a simple one.