Last night on drive, my guests and I were lucky to view our male lion having a nice cat nap on one of our dam walls. After a few minutes of watching him acting lazy after the hot day, his head jerked up as his interest was turned towards two Dagga Boys, (old male buffalo), who were making their way down to the dam to drink. One of the buffalo spotted our male lion watching him and proceeded to charge up the dam wall. A male lion can take down large prey like giraffe and eland, but an old male buffalo weighing roughly 900 kg running at about 55 km/h towards him was too much for our boy. He quickly ran off the dam wall and tried to climb up a rather steep embankment on the other side. My guests and I watched with great amusement as he struggled in a cloud of dust to get away from the threat of horns and hooves. After several moments in vain, he managed to reach the top and stood there staring at the two buffalo before returning to his cat nap, now safe from any threat. My guests and I continued on game drive, laughing a bit, and enjoying the fantastic sighting we had just had.

By: John Mbetse – River Lodge Ranger