Bumper chew toy

QRON ANSELL from Durban writes: In August we spent two weeks in the Kruger Park. My wife Colleen turned 60 during our holiday and I joked that we would see unusual sightings because it was her birthday – in the end our trip exceeded my wildest expectations! One morning, on the H1-4 about 8 km north of Satara, we came across six young lions ambling down the road. We snapped away with our cameras and at one stage one of the lions stood right next to Colleen’s window, staring at her. We quickly checked that all the doors were locked. The lion then started chewing on the side mirror but soon lost interest. That’s when we felt something you never want to feel in the wild: Our vehicle started rocking. We heard plastic crack. A young lion was chewing on our bumper! I slowly inched the vehicle forward, but the lion’s teeth were stuck in the bumper and he moved with us. I didn’t want to hurt the lion so I stopped again. A few seconds later he walked away. With our hearts racing, we drove to the nearest picnic site to examine the damage. Our insurance broker, also a keen wildlife photographer, had never heard of a lion chewing on a bumper. Is this normal behaviour?

AWildlife expert LD VAN ESSEN says: Maybe the lion wasn’t a Sharks fan! Seriously though, young animals are generally curious. Chewing on things like branches is part of the sensory exploration of their surroundings. A vehicle’s bumper, tyre or side mirror is fun to chew on, especially if it has an interesting or unfamiliar smell. Traces of animal dung or urine on the vehicle will draw a lion’s attention – maybe your pooch did his business on your wheel at home? These incidents aren’t common but they do happen. I was once delayed for two days during a wildlife census in the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya after a hyena thought the tyre of our aeroplane would make a good chew toy. We had to wait for a new tyre to be flown in. Another time in the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve, a hyena also delayed me when it bit through the bumper of a new Sprinter bus I had rented, causing a lot of damage.