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Aubrey's Lion Week

In two days Aubrey Njobvu, manager of Kakuli Camp, and his guests spotted no less that 56 different lions! Here are a few highlights from his week:

September 1^st - Kakuli camp - game viewing report

Afternoon game-drive.

We are parked on the banks of the Luwi river just about 1km downstream from Camp and the confluence with the Luangwa. At this time of year the river has gone underground leaving pools of water along its course. We've been quietly watching three lionesses who are lying just 40 yards or so from the remains of a waterbuck killed a day and half or so previously.

As dusk begins to fall, a puku appears on the scene, seemingly oblivious to the presence of the three lionesses. Suddenly alert, the lionesses grab the hapless puku. They do not deliver the fatal bite to the throat instead appearing to play with him and eat him alive. For over five minutes the grisly scene is enacted with the puku, guts out, appearing to plead with the lionesses to end his agony. Finally he delivers his final prayer.

We turn back to the old carcass to see that a leopard is feeding whilst keeping a wary eye on the lionesses. Two minutes later a fourth lioness appears from the bush and sends the leopard up the river bank in a flash. As eyes turn back to the scene of the death of the puku, we see there is practically nothing left of him and the lionesses are lying on their sides as if nothing had happened.

By now it's 20 past seven and we decide to head back to camp.  

Sept 7^th

Morning game-drive.

We have just met the vehicle having enjoyed an early morning walk and will shortly be heading back to camp. I have some keen birders with me and am having a wonderful time sharing the joys of a melba finch with them. We are scanning a bush just alongside the Luangwa for the male about 1.5 kms downstream from camp. "this is boring" joke the "non-birders" who, despite themselves are scanning the bush nearly as excitedly as the twitchers!

Our eyes are attracted by a fire finch to our left towards the river and whilst following his progress I catch sight of a lioness swimming frantically at full speed across the Luangwa with  the bow wave of a large croc right on her tail - he is almost touching her. Abandoning the melba hunt, we rush to the waters edge just as the lioness starts to climb the opposite bank having miraculously escaped death by millimeters. Binoculars glued to our faces we follow her but before she can even draw breath - five lionesses break out of the bush and at flying speed charge towards the already shaken and exhausted lone lioness. Trapped between five lionesses who, despite being her own kind appear not to be of her own pride and were murderously unfriendly and an unknown number of crocs in the river with a distance of about 50 metres between the two, she weighs the dangers and chooses to swim back. In silence and with bated breath we wait with fingers and toes crossed and will her to safety. She makes it and walks past us -our sighs of relief mix with her exhausted panting which we can clearly hear as she passes, oblivious to us just 3 metres from the vehicle.

"right - let's find that melba finch".........

Afternoon game-drive.

We spot four lionesses in the Luangwa River bed about 100 yards from the bank where we are parked in the shade, unseen by the lions. Between us and the lions is a slight depression in the river bed close to a small pool of water. There are two tiny lion cubs, only a few weeks old playing together there. As we laugh and enjoy their antics we suddenly spot a croc slowly emerging from the pool heading intently toward the cubs  - they are oblivious to his presence. One of the lionesses suddenly realizes what's going on and, eyes glued on the croc she charges it making it retreat hurriedly back into his small pool. No-one could have guessed that such a meagre amount of water could have concealed this huge predator.

The other lionesses are now alert to the dreadful risk to the cubs and a second croc is spotted lying flat just to the left of them. A second lioness charges him, picks up the remains of an impala which we had not spotted before and leads the cubs away to safety. In fact of course, it could well have been the carcass that the crocs were after all along.

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