The Lion's Share

The three lions feeding together on the wildebeest are from the Tshaba pride in the Madikwe Game Reserve. When we saw them this morning they were very hungry and made several hunting attempts on impala and kudu, but no luck.

As usual the youngsters are over eager.

They decided to take rest close to a water hole, with the wind in their favour. When we went to see them again in the afternoon they were busy feasting on a wildebeest or gnu. It looked like they haven’t eaten in years. What a sight it was.

As you can see in the top picture, at one stage 4 lions wanted to eat on the same piece of meat. Surprisingly, the mother was very tolerant towards the young male. One could see the big female did not have her fill, probably because she was still tired of the hunt.

The next morning they were gone. There was loads of hyena tracks around the area of the kill and no carcass. We suspect that the lions were chased of the kill by the spotties as unluckily for the lions they killed the wildebeest quite close to where there there is a spottie den - bad luck for them!

About 4 days later we found another pride that killed a wildebeest right on the Western Airstrip - This time it was the Dipelos. One female and three youngsters. The two big males weren’t there, probably on patrol. (I’ll post a photo of theses legends in Madikwe, the Batia Brothers, that will do them proud!)

I am sure the planes that came in had a interesting landing and view. One could see this wildebeest when we first got there the neck was snapped in two. It is then I only realized again the strength of lions. One tends to become blaze when walking in the bush... :)

Until next time!

Written by Grant Marcus

(To view more of Grant's images or to contact him, visit his page on Photo-Africa!)