On our morning drive my tracker and I came across some fresh lion tracks. I asked my guests if they would like to try follow them and they said we should try.

After following the tracks for about half an hour we came across the female lioness and she was stalking some zebra. As she closed in on the zebra, they got wind of her scent and ran for safety.

We carried on following her and she led us to her cub and another female on top of a termite mound. The cub was at a warthog hole hitting at the entrance (something she must have learnt from her mother). When a huge male warthog came running out, the youngster got such a fright and jumped right over the warthog. The two females gave chase but the warthog fled for its life and the lionesses gave up on their prey.

We decided to stay with them even though my tracker informed me we had a slight tyre problem. After about five minutes, they came across sub-adult rhino, too big to be prey for such a small pride, but that didn’t stop them from trying. The female actually started stalking the rhino. She chased it down, jumped on to its back and tried in vain to bring it down. Needless to say the rhino got away.

The lions will go hungry today but it just goes to show what a mother will do for her family.

Michael Lester – Kapama River Lodge
03/09/2012