GOING ON SAFARI!
Resident Your Cat expert Peter Neville joins up with his safari partner Andrew Rae to take us on a journey to meet the incredible big cats of Africa.
In a new series, we’re meeting the big cats of Africa.
Lions are an intrinsic part of savanna wilderness. They require enormous rangeland filled with legions of large, free-ranging prey, and they require distance from humankind.They are the apex carnivore that typifies an Africa before the arrival of modern man; before fences and agriculture, roads and towns, before the great continent was fragmented, divided, and ring-fenced by colonials and farmers as it is today.
APEX PREDATOR
The African Lion is enormous, second in size only to the Bengal Tiger, but unlike the tiger, the lions are inherently social, forming family groups known as prides. It is this group structure that makes them formidable. Huge ungulates (mammals with hooves) become viable prey if a lion pride works together to dispatch the quarry.
There are records of hippos, rhinoceroses, giraffes, and even elephants being taken down by large hunting prides.
They are also known to switch places with traditional scavengers when their number is reduced. One well known example of this is the Ngorongoro Crater in northern Tanzania where spotted hyenas outnumber the lion population by almost six to one. Here the roles are reversed and the hyena is the active apex predator with the lion adopting more of a scavenging role.
Lions have, on occasion, hunted people too.The now
famous maneaters of Tsavo in Kenya were two such animals, preying on a succession of railway labourers in the late 1800’s. Lt. Colonel JH Patterson, who recorded the events in his book, wrote that the two male lions claimed the lives of 135 souls in a ten-month period.Tsavo was in the grip of a severe drought at the time and the large herds of game had dispersed.The lions had simply turned their attention to an alternative and readily available protein resource.
The maneaters were eventually killed, stuffed, and are now immortalisedAinvethnet Field Museum in Chicago, USA.
We have watched these magnificent creatures in a myriad of wild settings, from the tropical savanna grasslands of the Serengeti and Masai Mara in east Africa to the desert dune-scapes of the Kgalagadi and waterside in the famous Okavango in Botswana. We both have marvelled at their agility and awareness, at the sheer frightening speed at which they change their manner, and the precision of their bite. One moment a great cuddly pussy cat stretching and yawning, the next a blur of muscle, claw, and tooth in cold, focused violence.
MEETING A LION
We have often guided and have had occasional part, fearful of mankind, and usually shuffle off as we approach. Sometimes though, there is defiance, particularly if one is injured or defending food or young cubs.Then there is an instant arousal and a terrifying sense of malevolence in the air.There’s the classic feline crouch, the ears flattened, and the tail flicking left and right — the entire display underpinned by a snarling soundtrack.
We retreat slowly, trusting that the lions will not stray far and leave either fresh food or young unprotected. But we carry a rifle, just in case. Discretion and a slow, watchful retreat has proved the better part of valour on every occasion.The rifle remains unfired; the lions left in peace on their thrones.
It takes a long time for our heart rates to fall, and some distance to be walked before numbed people start to giggle with relief and talk about what they have experienced. Meeting a lion in the bush and ‘surviving’ is simply the adrenalin rush of your life — for the rest of your life!
ALPHA MALES
Lions are incredibly variable in appearance across their range.We have seen blonde- and black-maned male lions in different parts of the continent, as well as mane-less adult males. Only last year, we hung around in a Land Cruiser watching the ‘White Lions’ of Timbavati, South Africa. A small group was just a couple of feet away and we sat enthralled at the antics of three quite grown-up cubs hiding, stalking, pouncing on, and generally tormenting their mother in play. However, the Timbavati lions are not albinos, nor even white, but a beautiful pale blonde colour.
There are significant differences between males and females, besides just the mane. Males can weigh up to 225kg, whereas females generally tip the scales at around 130kg. Males are generally actively territorial in their prime.Territory size can vary from a mere twenty square kilometres in game-rich habitat like the Serengeti to an enormous four hundred square kilometres in desert regions like the Marianflus region of northern Namibia.
Territories are often patrolled by coalitions of males who share the space and the pride or prides contained therein. Partners are often brothers or half-brothers. Coalitions of up to five males have been known to dominate rich territory for several years.
Lionesses are polyoestrous, meaning they are receptive to breeding several times a year from about the age of four and there is no seasonal breeding season. A male and female will generally pair off, separate from the pride.The female is generally receptive for about four days and copulation can take place up to fifty times a day. Quite an effort!
Gestation is 110 days on average and one to four blind and helpless cubs are born.The mother will generally re-join the pride when the cubs are six to eight weeks old. It is well documented that when a new dominant male (or males) usurps the resident male from a territory, he quickly commits infanticide and kills the predecessor’s offspring in bloodthirsty rampage. He may be injured after the fight of his life, but must find more energy for this gene-management massacre — he is not about to waste his time and effort raising some other male’s cubs.
The lionesses are not as upset as one might think.Their future protection against yet other males and chance to reproduce now falls to being part of the pride of a new male and they all swiftly come into oestrus so that the new male may sire his own offspring.
Males can weigh up to
225kg...
HOME OF LIONS
African lions occur throughout sub-Saharan Africa, avoiding rainforest. They have been seen as high as 3,600m above sea level on the slopes of Mount Elgon in Uganda and Mount Kenya, where Peter heard them roaring from far away at base camp, just below the summit on the night of his birthday in February 2020 on his last major expedition before Covid brought a halt to safaris and any other travel. A halt that thankfully looks over now and our safari order books are filling up fast for 2022, including a Big Cat special in South Africa, where we hope to renew our acquaintance with close-up encounters with lions, leopards, cheetahs, and the smaller guys: caracals, African Wild Cats, and maybe even a serval or two.
Outside of Africa, the Asiatic Lion was once widely distributed across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, but now occurs only in the Gir National Park in Gujarat, western India, where we hope also to run a safari one day.
CULTURAL ICON
Lions feature prominently in human history, culture, and belief.They have always been venerated as creatures of strength, fortitude, and courage, and are depicted in the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt, the Colosseum of
Rome, where they were set against gladiators for entertainment, and are also representative of the conquests of crusading, French-speaking, English king, Richard the Lionheart.
Today, the Maasai people of Kenya and Tanzania farm cattle in lion country and hold the king of beasts, that they learn to live alongside, in the highest esteem. Until recently, the killing of a lion with a spear was considered a rite of passage for young warriors, but in many villages this has now been curtailed in return for various agreements and the sharing of tourist income.
It is estimated that the world lion population has declined in the latter half of the 20th century by between 30 and 50 per cent, and so lions are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (ICUN). Human population expansion, fragmenting habitat, loss of rangeland, human/wildlife conflict, and poaching for skins and bones are all causes of the decline of the lion — and so many other animals — and their future lies perhaps entirely now in human hands.
However, southern and east Africa remain a veritable stronghold for the species and safaris to Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda are usually very productive when it comes to sightings of this most fantastic beast. Lions are as much a part of this continent as the dust that lies upon it, as much as the geology that forms its foundation.They are wilderness and evolution personified.They speak profoundly to us both of our own mortality and our own ancient history so intertwined with Africa, the very cradle of humanity.They are the very epitome of the word ‘wild.’
Not too long ago, Andrew sat in a Landcruiser with a small safari group in the Kgalagadi desert region of north-western South Africa on the border with Botswana. It was early morning and a fantastic diffused light infused the surrounding sand dunes with an unreal burnt bronze hue.A dusty herd of oryx were dawdling along in the dry riverbed next to us. A large shape materialised on the dune above and behind the oryx, and as it descended it sent them into a crazed dash for safety. A large Kalahari Lion, dark maned, all sinew and muscle came gliding out of the sand as we gaped in the sheer wonder of what played out so magnificently in front of us. He stopped at the nearby pan to lap water, all the while staring at us with those impossibly beautiful, stunningly confident, arrogant, yellow eyes.The eyes of an apex carnivore, a predator supreme — the king of beasts.
Find out more…
To learn more about the safari experiences that Andrew and Peter provide, visit https://raesafaris.co.za
Lions are listed as vulnerable...