THE BIG PRIDE A VERY NICE BIG MEAL



I heared about the pride from a Wildlife officer and I wondered which one it was. The following day some of my guides drove in the direction and never found anything. The next day finally paid off,  Josiah came across the pride on an elephant carcas, he wasnt sure whether they killed it themselves but certainly not because they wouldnt attempt to go for such a big animal,anyway they are lions anything is possible. I drove there myself and only to find them, and this was the next day. It was a big pride of four females, eight cubs and two very large males,surely brothers from the look of their social bond.

They had eaten and just resting with cubs playing around, enjoying their childhood games of throat catches, dives and growls.

The next day I went there again and I found a very big male and his cubs eating. It was magnificient indeed. There were lots of other people there. While I was watching the pride I realized that the two males which were with the females and cubs belong to the coalition of the Savute boys , the super five. It was a fantastic sighting. The previous year, the larger male was mating with the females and now they were with the cubs. The pride is expanding, more successful hunts and a great change in the predatory patterns in the area. Hyenas will have to be careful because they won’t be having more of the lion’s share as usual because the mothers will always fully protect their kill for the young cubs to be well fed. If necessary, they will kill many persistent hyenas just to reduce competition because they eat wont them.

The females suddenly got bored and walked off with the young ones and the one male remained enjoying the tasty juicy elephant meal.

Not too far from on the Western side of Linyanti Vlei, I drove past a dead baby elephant, not an interesting sighting for me since baby elephants are one of my favorite five animals. After leaving the pride on my way to camp I found that there was already another Savuti predator taking care of the little sweet elephant. I still didn’t last long there, just took one shot and drove on before I had a nervous breakdown.

My day was almost over until I decided to take a short drive towards Sable Hill. As I was driving I came across huge barchelor herds of big elephants. As I hit around a small corner next to the beginning of the marsh, I saw one very unhappy looking-suprised kind of an elephant and its calf was feeling unsafe. As I got close I saw a spotted head sticking out from the small grasses, a leopard in a hole. Huh! at first I thought this fellow might have had an accident and only to learn that it was actually intentioanl. it was stalking the guinea fowls but the birds were getting away quickly. I felt very sorry for the ageing fellow.