Lions Galore

Woke up to another beautiful morning in the Serengeti.

Walter’s plan was to go find the pride of lions belonging to the set of brothers we saw last evening. Easier said than done. We set out at 6:30AM and drove around for 4 hours looking for them. During those four hours we saw a smattering of other animals.

This cheetah was obviously looking for breakfast, and Joe and I wouldn’t have minded if we waited around to watch the hunt, but she was taking her sweet ole time, so Walter decided to go look for the lion pride.

On our way, we saw another cheetah mom, but without her cubs. Walter surmised that the cubs were probably very tiny and hidden away, and she was out looking for food.

Cheetah claws are not retractable like other cats (e.g., lions, leopards). This helps them grip the ground when they are running at top speed. With that said, cheetahs are speedsters but clumsy off the ground. This cheetah showed us how clumsy she was when she was attempting to climb a tree branch close to ground. She looked more like a dog than a cat.

Another nature’s example of the beautiful male and plain looking female.

It was as if all the cheetahs were out today. We ran into this set of brothers when we were looking for a spot to go ‘bushy bushy’. In fact, we were all ready to pile out of the jeep to go relieve ourselves, but then Walter decided to check the area for predators, and we saw these 2.

After 4 hours of driving, Walter still wouldn’t give up on the lion pride and his persistence finally paid off.

Thirteen lions in one spot – 4 lionesses and 9 cubs.

This pride belongs to the first set of males we saw last evening. The sad part is that they started off 32 strong, but because all the animals had migrated north during the dry season there was little food for the pride (had to subsist on warthogs), so a lot of the cubs had starved. The good news is that the animals are starting to return to this part of the park thanks to the rain. I’m sure the warthogs are singing their Hallelujahs.

Maybe it was the mud, but this group of lions looked shabbier than the ones we saw the day before. Walter said that the larger prides tend to suffer more during the dry season because they have more mouths to feed.

One of the guests in the jeep had his cap blown off while we were about to drive off. Walter decided to fetch it by driving closer to the cap. However, that ended up pushing the cap into the water towards the cubs. That got all their attention, and no one knew what to do. Then Mama lion nonchalantly walked over, plucked the cap out of the water, and walked away with it.

Mom walking away with the cap, and the cubs still staring at the water. Perhaps thinking more caps would appear.

After seeing 13 lions we were satisfied to return to camp. On our way back, we saw a Kori Bustard – the largest flying bird in Africa. It’s wingspan was as wide as our jeep!

But wait, did someone say hyena cubs? No, it’s lion cubs. More lions!

These guys were posing like they were taking a family portrait.

This smaller pride is actually the same pride we saw the first evening we arrived at Namiri Plains.

So in the span of an hour, we saw more lions that we did the entire week in Botswana! When it rains, it pours!

On the way to camp, we got a glimpse of a serval before it hid.

We took full advantage of the bar after lunch. Everyone else was back in their tent napping and facebooking. We sat in the lounge area and started our happy hour early.

4PM – evening game drive.

Walter told us we’d be heading southeast of the camp, which we hadn’t been. He said, we may not see much, or we may see something different.

The male is on the left and the female on the right.

The way to distinguish a male from a female giraffe is by looking at their horns. Male giraffes don’t have much hair (the tufts of black) left on their horn due to neck fighting with other male giraffes.

More lions…