The impact of our Africa safari still has its influence on me, it’s hard not to blog non-stop about it! One critter I wanted to really see in the wild was a big maned African Lion. Why? Seen them in zoos, seen them at the start of movies, wanted to actually see one that had nothing to do with man. If you’ve ever watched The Ghost and the Darkness, you just gotta wonder if you see these magnificent critters in the wild, if you’ll survive the encounter. Since I’m here talking about it and I have photos, it would appear I did survive my encounter with male African Lions. And my desire to spend time with them is even more intense after doing so!
The biology of Lions is really, well, just darn cool! The first thing that still amazes me is they sleep on average 20hrs a day! This is why in part seeing them actually making a kill, not just eating on a carcass, but actually witnessing the take down and kill is so prized. It’s a rare siting! Next was the pride, the group of lions that hang and operate together. A pride might be just two females, it might be 12 females but often it does not include full mane males. The males hang in their own little groups and often range far and wide from the pride of females they associate with. These two younger males had just started that behavior and had returned just prior to our arrival to Africa. We spent an hour watching the interactions of these males and it was fascinating. Using the D4s / 800mm w/1.25x not only to capture the moments but as a scope to get in close helped a lot. In some ways, they are just giant house cats pawing at a passing leaf or staring at a twitching tail tip until they pounced on it. The next moment they are showing their male dominance in very graphic, male ways. And being at times so close that one could reach out and grab their mane as they passed the Landie was, well, simply mind blowing and life altering. They are one of the reasons we’re heading back to Africa in 2015, I didn’t see the giant maned male or get enough time with these fascinating and magnificent members of our wild heritage!