WE SPENT HUNDREDS OF DAYS IN THE FIELD, 16 HOURS A DAY STALKING US? SHE WAS LIKE A BIG KITTEN!
The Marsh lions have been television stars for more than 20 years, ever since they were featured in the BBC series Big Cat Diary in 1996. Camerawoman Sophie Darlington, who has spent more time watching and filming lions than most, points out: ‘We know the Marsh lions – we care about them – and we know they are used to people and vehicles, so they don’t change their behaviour when they’re being filmed.’ Sometimes, that could cause problems. Yaya in particular was very curious about the world around her. ‘She would poke her nose into absolutely everything, and was so inquisitive – nothing was safe. Including, by the way, us!’ says Sophie. To film the lions at their own level, right down in the grass, Sophie used a special platform built on the side of her vehicle. This led to a couple of close encounters with Yaya. ‘One day I was filming the pride as they walked past, a little distance away, when my guide and driver, Sammy Munene, suddenly started driving off. When I asked why, he pointed down into the grass and, sure enough, there was Yaya. She wasn’t exactly stalking me but, like all cats, she was very curious – she was just like a big kitten!’ Sammy didn’t just get Sophie out of trouble a few times; he also gave her an incredible insight into the lives of the lions he has been watching for so many years. ‘Sammy sat with me all day, and we spent hundreds of days in the field, 16 hours a day. He was so calm and patient, and gave me so many quiet words of wisdom about lions and their lives. We simply couldn’t have made this film without him.’ Sammy, along with brother-andsister team Dave and Tash Breed, has spent decades following the lions of the Masai Mara, and the Marsh Pride in particular. Not only did they spot and identify the lions more often than anyone else on the team (often relying on Tash’s drawings of the spots where their whiskers grow, which are in patterns that can be nearly as distinctive as our fingerprints), but they drove the filming cars too. For the team filming the lions, who had inevitably developed a deep affection for their subjects, the deaths from poisoning came as a real blow. Cameraman John Aitchison draws a grim lesson from this awful event. ‘If one animal represents the African wilderness, it is lions – and if this is happening to lions in the most protected place in the world, where they are watched by more people than anywhere else, then they are simply doomed.’ It’s a bleak prediction, born of the frustration of watching helplessly as animals the team had followed for months were callously killed. But John and Sophie have the consolation that their work is alerting millions of people to the grave dangers facing lions – and, hopefully, helping to save these breathtaking animals.