The Hunt Is On

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M – Having seen a group of lions devouring their breakfast on our first day we were now trying to top that experience by actually seeing an actual kill. On day 2 we rounded a corner and pulled up yards from this group of lions. We sat no more that 15 yards behind them in our car and watched as one by one they walked away and over the brow of a nearby hill.

During the whole time they didn’t even glance in our direction nor did we see them make any obvious signals between each other as to when it was a particular lions turn to go forward. After they had all moved on we drove on a little and followed them
over the hill.

On the other side of the hill was a large watering hole. On a plateau some 75 yards above the watering hole were around 100 zebra and a few wildebeest. The lions were moving into position one by one around the watering hole waiting for one of the other animals to approach. They did a pretty good job of hiding themselves in the rocks and long grass such that it took us and the park guides in the truck next to us a few minutes to count them all. There were a total of 7 lions waiting for their opportunity. We sat for about an hour silently waiting to see if we might see our first kill.

Unfortunately for the lions the zebra and wildebeest were much better at spotting the lions than us and were aware of their presence and would not come down to the warer to drink. In fact they actually stood incredibly still for a long time, presumably using their senses to work out what was happening around them.

Eventually the zebra moved on and over time others herds approached but all seemed to sense something was up and didn't venture to the water and eventually moved on.

Unlike the lions we enjoyed our packed lunch and moved on!

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