Last night we followed a pair of lionesses trying to hunt
The lionesses are about 26 months old and they rely on their mothers for food up to the age of 12 months than they start catching small prey for themselves! In the wild lions normally have a success rate of 20% when they hunt ,so generally lion are not good hunter if you think about it. And last night we observed that.
We followed the 2 lionesses for about 15 minutes when they came across impala, zebra and blue wildebeest all together, they stalked them from about 200m before they both went their different directions to try and surround the animals. The vegetation was thick so we were ready to see a kill. We drove closer to the herd of animals to wait for the lions witch disappeared in the dense bush. After about 10 minutes waiting the one lioness appeared right next to our vehicle, stalking her prey. We silently waited and then the next moment the other lioness gave a soft call to look for her friend?
Why would she do that? The animals became aware of them and that’s what happened, the impala gave alarm calls, zebra were running for their life, but at least the lionesses found each other. What a disappointment. Just shows you even though they were build for hunting, they still need to develop their own tactics.
Story by: Hendrik Erasmus-Kapama River Lodge Ranger
