Injured lioness gets company: Video
Published by Wildcaster 1 year, 2 months ago Tags: adventure, africa, animal kingdom, blogumentary, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, elephant, endangered species, experience, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, lions, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open Content Alliance, pamushana, peace parks, photos, podcasting, predators, sable, teach, video, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife documentary, zimbabwe..Manyari looked a lot more upbeat last night.
When I got back to Manyari at sunset her cubs were back with her and she looked a lot happier having them there.
Her cubs had left the other 3 youngsters they had been travelling with since Manyari was injured. We heard those youngsters calling a long ways to the south. They must be looking for the rest of the pride now that their team leader, Manyari, is out of action.
Manyari’s cubs seemed oblivious of her condition still wanting to roll and tumble with her, which only hurt more.
Soon after dark she slowly got on the move but once going she moved at a good pace, the cubs trailing way behind at times.
She took them straight to Lojaan dam where she drank for ages. The cubs didn’t drink, probably having drunk the day before.
Having settled her thirst Manyari’s family rested up at the dam all night, while the other lions were calling way off in the distance.
At dawn Manyari took her family away from the dam to rest up a few hundred meters away. A good idea as elephant and other animal activity could have been dangerous for her in her state.
Her wounds look terrible but at least she seems to be able to keep them clean and at this time of year there aren’t that many bugs around.
On my travels home some Sable were drinking at Bandama pan when this elephant bull arrived and for no apparent reason chased them well our of the area.
I was happy to see my first Lichtenstein’s Hartebeest calves of the season at Hwata pan. These little guys are very new, only a day or two old.
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Hi Kim,
great to see that the lioness is doing much better, or at least not as bad as I expected.
Hopefully a full recovery is on its way!
Cheers,
D.
Is it possible that Manyari’s wounds were caused by a zebra kick? They appear about the right distance apart and about the same size.
Sue
Sue: Yes i thought about that but looking at the way the front wound has been shredded and also the extent of the back wound, I decided it wasn’t a zebra kick. But then what do I know? The area she was hunting is also full of fallen over stumps. Anyway whatever caused it, she’s in a bad way. Each day I look at new footage the wound looks worse than I thought. Scary.
I’m assuming she won’t be able to hunt for a long, long time. Will the cubs bring something down without her? Even if she takes care of the wounds, how will she eat?
Great work Wollie
You only get better by the day.
Kim, again off the subject of Wildcast. I just got a hold of a copy of Beauty and the Beast. WOW. That was some amazing stuff. I just kept asking myself what is gonna happen next? Its natures way but man the lioness with the broken back leg… than the birth of the cub. Harsh stuff. It was a long time ago but how did she break the leg in the first place? Do you remember? Than the hyena that got its front leg caught in the tree. It was so full of suspense!! It was outstanding film. Truely a joy to watch! Now about the photo. Did you get a chance to look it up? As if you didnt have enough to do right? By the way I didnt think you would go to Botswana in person, wondered about a visit on the forums.
Paige
Paige: don’t know how she injured her leg. i don’t actually think it was a break. I think she tore some ligaments. Sorry not had chance to check on that pic. Does it have a title?
Kim I believe the title was “We can see you”. You’ve very busy I know so if you dont get to it dont worry. Its just my curious nature. Question: What has been the hardest think you’ve had to watch in the wild and be able to do anything about? I know its nature but it was too bad the lion cub in the film wasnt saved. I know saved for what, a life in a zoo? I dont think so. I do understand its just hard sometimes.
Paige
Definitely the hardest thing for me to watch in all my time filmmaking was from the film Beauty and the Beasts when those male lions killed that injured lioness. I felt that deep in my stomach and am still baffled as to why they did it and with such passion.
oh… I don’t think I’ll ever watch it. I’m such a whuss when it comes to watching the suffering of any living thing. If it bothered you, I probably wouldn’t be able to handle it at all.