The first night out with the Nduna pride went off with a bang!
The lions were all resting up at Chimbiya spring when we found them. At dusk they got active, well sort of. They played around a little.
Then I heard growling in the bush behind me, which finally ended with mating sounds. I was happy to know Nduna, the pride male, was back as he’d been away some time.
But when I found the mating couple it wasn’t Nduna. It was the 3 to 4 year male in the pride. Definitely under age but then he just couldn’t resist the lioness throwing herself all over him.
While they got to it every 5 minutes for hours on end, the rest of the pride chilled on the rocks.
So we took time to get some rest too. I sleep on my camera boxes so as not to have too comfortable a sleep because in a deep sleep I’d miss the lions moving off.
But also I’m quick to pick up on other sounds. When lying on the camera boxes my body is level with the door and I’m right up on the edge of the vehicle.
I was suddenly awakened to breathing sounds close to my face. The night was dark without any moon. But I suddenly realised what it was and bolted into an upright position an effort to scare the lion. I heard it jump back. On shining my spotlight there was a young male lion standing several feet from my door. He was just curious investigating this strange hominid lying in a pile.
Some while later there was some disturbance and my spotlight revealed Nduna had indeed come back. With little ado he moved the young male aside and took over from where he left off.
We left the mating pair and followed the rest of the pride heading east. They soon encountered a young elephant bull who trumpeted his annoyance at them. In response the whole pride roared. What an awesome sound when you’re so close!
It was now about 3am and the lions were still on the hunt. They had stopped several times resting up to listen and then continued east.
Then suddenly as if they’d been given the signal, they all split up moving in different directions. We stayed with a lioness. She kept moving on down the middle. Up ahead I saw an impala but it soon bolted. Then suddenly even further ahead there was a blur of action as one of the young male lions managed to grab hold of a sub adult female sable. The other lions were soon onto it too. The sable put up a bold fight and with 9 lions on her she kept standing for about a minute and then her strength gave in and it was all over. The really eerie thing was her wild high pitched screams that spoke of fear, death and abandonment.
By dawn there was little left of the sable except a few leg bones and her horns.
The well fed pride were quick to take time out at dawn resting in the shade.
No doubt we’ll find them this evening in the same place to take off from where we left and maybe another night of full on lion action.
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