We find the Big Cats

Our South Africa safari did not include lions and we were anxious to see them in person.  After checking out the wild dogs, we were on a mission to find one of the big ones.

Lions really are the top of the food chain in the savanna, although there are animals they won’t go after – adult elephants, for example.  And elephants hate lions and will chase them away on general principle, although they don’t want them for food.

We did find a lone lioness, but it’s a bit of a sad story.  A pair of brothers, one of whom was the father of her cub, had recently moved out of the area and a new set of males had moved into the territory.  They would not tolerate the cub and killed it.  Mom was affected by the loss and at an age where she might not bear another cub.  CJ didn’t know why she was not with a pride, which might have helped her save the cub.

She was resting in the shade of a tree when we located her.  She noticed the truck and our presence, but as long as we don’t make sudden movements or loud noises, we appear as one large “animal” to her, one that, in her experience, does not cause harm and eventually goes away.  After a while, she decided to go after a red lechwe several hundred yards away.

The lechwe is a type of antelope common in Botswana, larger than an impala and smaller than Colorado’s elk.  The lionness had her eye on the lechwe baby and she waited until the male lechwe wasn’t paying much attention to her.  

Then the lion started to circle around the marsh separating her from the lechwe family and used the cover of grass to make an approach.  The lion started to run toward the lechwes.

The male went one direction, the baby stuck with mama and the chase was on.  Mama and baby headed for the grass you can see behind them and soon we couldn’t see much of the animals except for the head of the female lechwe bouncing in the grasses on occasion.  She was running in a jagged line, trying to throw the lion off track.  By then she had hidden the baby somewhere in the grass.

Eventually the lionness reappeared out of the grass with no kill.  Score:  Red lechwe = 1, Lion = 0.  On that day, the prey had outsmarted the predator.

S.