Over the last few nights, the hills have been resonating with the roar of lions coming from all directions. Not only that, the cubs had been spotted daily near one of the camps. I decided to go find myself some lions; I climbed the highest point to get a direction, but got no help from my receiver. I might have had the faintest beep, but I thought I was hearing crickets in the grass. I headed in the direction anyway and out of some miraculous positioning found signal.
Simon and the crew had climbed aboard and we were hot on Manyari’s tail. In the tall grass she popped her head up not looking very surprised to see us and carried on sleeping. As it got dark the lioness began moving and then began roaring, this is the most awesome thing about lions, when you’re close and can literally feel the thunder of their call.
Today the dogs slept in at the den and I cruised around not finding much happing. Later at the hyena den we waited for the cubs to come out…something was wrong. I thought that when it got dark they’d pop their heads out so I went looking for the dogs again, but ended up back at the den.
Now I knew they were not there. A few hundred meters south the hyenas were calling so like homing pigeons returning home we made a way through the Mopane where there seemed to be no way. Like a secret weapon, a hyena den positioning system, I landed up straight on the doorstep of the other den. All six cubs and two adults greeted us, I was very relieved, they are such fun little guys! I’m glad we have the position on the new den now and can stay on the cubs as they grow up, they may still return to the other den though, they might have been spooked by something on the other side.
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