I really can’t get my mind around how lions work. They are so haphazard in their manners that I’m sure not even they know what’s going on. Last night the Nyari pride headed south. They moved all the way down to Malevula hills across some really rough terrain of hardened clay pitted with deep elephant tracks. At the hills they split seeming to be flanking some prey animals. We never saw the prey and doubt they did, but now we were one lion short. Magwaza had gone off on her own. The rest of the pride waited and waited for her to return. Nobody even roared. When the wind picked up the lions took off straight into it. Some distance further on they found this zebra carcass. The skin was still mostly in tact and still draped itself of the boney framework of the animal. Vultures had cleaned it up from the inside leaving nothing but the skin and bones. And the lions just weren’t interested. Realising vultures had been at it they moved on and Manyari didn’t even bother to inspect the kill. The lions moved back down wind and waited. Where was Magwaza? Some time later they got active again heading west. But now somehow Manyari managed to shake off the males when she went zebra hunting. Alone she called softly and eventually Magwaza arrived. But still no sign of the males. The girls continued west hunting. Eventually Manyari managed to pluck a young impala from the herd. When Magwaza arrived she was greeted with a cold reception and Manyari had no plans on sharing her carcass. But when she started feeding Magwaza took her chance and managed to sneak in on the carcass. The girls fed in relative peace without the boys around. An hour later there was little left but the bloodstains on the grass. The males had been roaring to the east and now that the girls had finished their meal they roared back but neither party seemed in any rush to join up. I’m going to be leaving the lions for a few weeks now, although I might bump into them occasionally, to concentrate on the wild dogs. My next plan is to get a hide up near the den and see if I have any success. On my way south to the lions last night a huge herd of buffalo were on their way to drink at Banyini. Some panicked at the sight of my car and stampeded leaving a stunning orange dust behind them. africa, african, animal, animal kingdom, animals, blog, blogumentary, buffalo, buffalo stampede, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, experience, film, filmaker, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, hunting, impala, kill, lion, lions, malilangwe, manyari, mashable, narrowcasting, nature, night, Open Content Alliance, pamushana, peace parks, photo, photos, podcasting, predators, teach, video, wildcast, wildcasting, wilderness, wildlife, wildlife documentary, youtube, zimbabwe
