I am ready for my close up!
Coming across lions when out on a game drive can be exciting if they are active. For the most part, like the majority of felines either wild or domesticated, they can spent up to 20 hours a day doing nothing except sleep. And occasionally roll over and re-position.
This particular pride, situated in Sabi Sabi, was 26 strong and with many youngsters of various ages, it was difficult for the adults to get to ‘escape’ from the attention of small sharp claws and teeth.
For us on the game drive vehicle, it meant an active sighting with part of the pride on a recent kill, while the rest lay around and digested their food.
Fun Fact: The roar of a lion can be heard up to 8km away from the source.
One of the ubiquitous Big 5. The Buffalo is possibly the most iconic of the African dangerous game species.
No matter how big or small an individual animal in the herd is, they always look at you as if you owe them money.
But for one particular animal, his contribution to the pride would be his life.
With at least 26 tummies to fill, an impala would not have supplied nearly enough sustenance.
Although taking down a buffalo can be extremely dangerous for predators, the ‘return-on-investment’ is well worth the energy expended and the risks taken.
By the time we arrived at the sighting, the buffalo had been dead for several hours and had been gorged on by not only the adult lions, but also by those cubs who were old enough to be eating solid food.
The youngsters in the pride who were not eating solids were still using their mothers as a feeding station, and at the same time saw the dead buffalo as a plaything to be explored and utilized for training purposes.
All the while keeping out of the way of the adults who were busy tearing into the mound of flesh that used to be a buffalo.
Not looking so happy. Perhaps this particular cub was not prepared to get involved with the family feeding frenzy.
There is always one, or possibly more in a pride of this size, that is ‘on the outside looking in’.
With all the cubs running around, this particular female spent a lot of her time calling, and waiting for an answer, from her cubs.
Luckily for her and the other lactating females, all of the cubs were safe and accounted for.
Time for a quick drink before continuing to make a nuisance of myself?
Together again. Mom and offspring share a moment in the shade away from the kill.
Sibling love.
Fun Fact: Lions are the only felines to live in groups (known as a pride)
This particular buffalo had no wings but it was lip-licking good food.
Lions are capable of consuming up to 40kg of meat in a single meal – around a quarter of their body weight.
Their tongues have sharp-pointed rasps, called papillae, which are used to scrape meat off the bones.
Wet from cleaning off the blood. It is amazing how fastidious lions are when it comes to cleaning themselves after sinking themselves chest deep into a carcass.
More suckling time…
After three days, this is all that was left of the buffalo.
But not much of the carcass remained. What the vultures did not take, the jackals and hyenas would.
This particular pride was seen for the three days that we were in the reserve. On this particular trip we stayed at Selati and Earth Lodge. For more about the various lodges and what they offer, check out the Sabi Sabi website by clicking on the logo above.
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