The first animal I saw this evening was a cheetah! One who had just eaten an impala and had a very full belly. This has been the trip for cheetah sightings!
Then we ran across the leftover carcass of the impala. Vultures had just run off a jackal family, who had two little pups. No one looked well fed. I felt bad for them. There were 76! Vultures around the carcass—noisy, fighting each other. That went on a bit. Then two huge lappat-faced vultures who looked like kings in their robes stepped in and shooed all the other vultures away. The proceeded to finish the carcass on their own and the 76 other vultures sat around and watched.
From there we found five bull elephants; one with the longest tusks I have ever seen. He must be quite old.
We found the same lion pride from this morning and they had added a male 2-year old to the group bringing it to 8. I learned they only have one pride of lions in this area. The pride consists of 3 adult male brothers over it, 3 adult females and the remainder consisted of 2-year olds (litters from all three moms). So at this point I had seen one female and 7 2-year olds.
I am not going to see the numbers of lions I did on previous trips (2014-117; 2016-94). To do that I needed to go back to where I stayed previously. I purposefully decided to go to a new area. Since it abuts the old area, I mistakenly assumed there would be a lot of lions. Now I know. (For my next trip, which yes I am planning, I will go back there.) So I am determined to see each member of this pride.
A giraffe noticed this lion group while we were watching. He stared at them and kept walking toward them. He didn’t go right up to them but it was like he was saying I see you and I’m keeping an eye on you.
In the meantime a humongous Cape buffalo came up the side of the ravine to eat. Two of the young boys had been lying there. They were so interested in the buffalo. Then the buffalo saw them and snorted. The young lions got scared and literally jumped so all four feet where in the air. Then of course they had to try again and they got closer and the same thing happened. This time they ran to their mom! It was so funny.
I like zoos and I really admire and appreciate the work they do for conservation. You can learn a lot about animal behavior at a zoo. But what you cannot observe are the dynamics between species. That is what I am finding the most fascinating in the wild.
The sun went down while we were watching the lions. On the way back in the dark we found one of the male lions. He is so handsome – Only about 6 years old with a dark mane. He started walking so we followed him hoping he would lead us to the other group of lions. He did— he led us to the other two adult females. So tomorrow morning we are leaving especially early to go back.
And right after dinner from my room I heard a hyena!
Current count:
- Lions: 23
- Leopards: 6
- Cheetahs: 19
Looking Out Seeing Within 