Lion kill in Serengeti , Africa.
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He looks no different than your average pet dog at home. But this guy is a lot lazier and loves to wallow like this all day. At night when the lionesses hunt and make a kill he simply bullies them all and walks away with the lion’s share.
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How I missed my `Lion-Kill’ moment one evening in Africa.
When we entered Serengeti the lions were doing what they do best. Sleeping. And that’s the way we found them scattered in the African plains. It was five and growing dark. The only thing on Musa’s (our driver cum guide) mind was the camp. It was left to us to find any life in the Savannas. A herd of wildebeests came along with their funny gallop shadowed by the zebra and crossed the road. We did not give them a second look. It was the migration season and we had just crossed miles and miles of them on the plains behind us. A fox was new but by the time Musa reacted it was too far gone into the grass. A female hyena was new too and it came close enough for us to see her enormous clitoris. There was a small debate in the jeep on whether she was a female at all. A topi stood majestic in the setting sun while the spritely thomson’s gazelles ran and dodged each other for practice.
The lioness closes in on the zebra. The zebra can only see until a few yards in the savanna grass. The lions need to be perfectly still and they were until..
In all of Serengeti lions were the lazy guys and nearer we approached our camp the faster my hopes of seeing a `wake’ lion evaporated. I was standing in the jeep for a better view and was about to settle down with the rest when I saw the lion in the distance. It was awake ! And it was crouching low. It meant only one thing. Musa halted and reversed. Wild-life film-makers and photographers never get tired of shooting a kill and I bet would have given a limb to be where we were. We felt blessed and chosen and we suddenly had trouble breathing normally. I saw three other lions in my viewfinder. Their tawny coats were visible from the height of our jeep. They all had a fixed gaze on a mother zebra and her foal. The zebra does not have a good eyesight even in the best of conditions and in the growing dark it was virtually blind. It could smell the lions but could not see them. The mother and foal took tentative steps in the grass towards the lions. The mother was in the front and the target. The moment was hair-raising and with blood-thirsty gladiatorial lust in our hearts we urged her towards her death.
A lioness makes a premature charge at the zebra making it stop in its tracks ..
Then from the corner of my viewfinder a lioness leapt. The zebra freezed and went back on its haunches before breaking into a run. The lioness gave chase. From our distance it looked the lioness almost had the zebra but there was almost 12 meters between them. The zebra accelerated and soon had the lioness trailing. The zebra crossed the road and waited for its foal to follow. The other three lionesses stood up from the grass beaten and sheepish. Musa said it was the adolescent lioness. She was impatient and blew up the evening meal. It was a sure kill and though we regretted missing our film-maker moment we were happy to see the lions awake at last.
Having lost their meal the lions get up from the grass and watch the zebra make its way