Lion

What would you most hope to see on a safari in Africa?  Certainly lion would be near the top of the list (note the use of the collective term lion, instead of plural lions).  Well, we lucked out for sure.

Our very first afternoon game drive after we arrived by plane from Johannesburg, and we had the luck of seeing a single lion beside his recent kill of a Cape Buffalo.  His presence was signalled by a number of vultures in the tree nearby.  

This lion is known to the rangers and is known as a rare lion who can bring down an animal the size of a buffalo by himself.  (This also smashes the clear knowledge we had that only females do the hunting!)  He's eaten off the ear and started on the haunch.  We're told this kill will last him many days.  Already the - ah - aroma of the buffalo is quite strong.  The lion raises his head lazily and then settles back to continue his sleep.  I think the head just came up because he knew I wanted to take a photo.  Although I did have telephoto on, this lion was very very close - maybe 3 metres?

We returned to the site of this kill two days later.  The lion was still there, lying lazily with obviously full tummy, and again just lazily raised his head to greet us.  He had moved the buffalo, and an amazing amount of it had been eaten.