Lions at Na'ankuse

We were standing a meter or so from an electrified fence behind which were three lions.  All of a sudden there was an enormous roar and we all jumped back terrified.  Well, yes, they were behind that fence, but they were awfully close. It was Clarence the male who had emitted such an enormous roar.  

The three lions were related, and left orphaned when young cubs.  They live in a wide open area within that fence, and are fed each day by Na'ankuse staff.  So they know to appear at that spot in the fence every day.  They were the first visit of our Carnivore Feeding Tour here at Na'ankuse, and already the shadows were very long, because the tour had been delayed to accommodate some guests arriving late.  They never appeared, so the lighting was dim, but we did get a tour to ourselves - AND, we're going to get a whole make-up tour tomorrow.

One of the females was in heat and we saw the male mate twice with her.  He's had a vasectomy because Na'ankuse has no license to breed lions, but he hasn't lost the desire.

After a brief few seconds, the female hisses, swats, and drives away the male.

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.