Wim’s News from the Wildebeest Migration Safari: Buffalos Scare Lions Being the last morning for the first ODP Safari group, we decided to start extra early with a quick game drive close to the Lodge, hoping to find the leopard that left its kill in a tree. We did find him – a large, handsome fellow – a strapping leopard in the prime of his life. We captured some fabulous shots of him before we moved on again to enter the park. Soon after getting into the park we came across three lionesses with four large males. They were surrounded by a large herd of almost 300 buffalo, and the buffalo were not impressed with the lions’ presence. The buffalo gathered, glared, lowered their horns and suddenly started to run towards the lions. Seeing so many thundering hooves and threatening horns coming towards them, the lions took flight – they scattered into a ditch – they ran … well, ran, scuttled, and half tumbled into the ditch … which was too steep for the buffalo to follow. Having done their job, the buffalo huffed around for a short while and then returned to their grazing. It was on this exciting, high note that the time came for the first safari to end. Everyone left wishing that they could remain just a little longer … This afternoon the plan was go the Maui Maui crossing point where we were told that masses of animals have gathered for their crossings. But before we reached the area, we found the same group of lions that we had seen this morning, now a safe distant from the buffalos, and what was most appealing was that one female was lying in the branches of a Green Thorn Acacia (Desert Date Tree). The sight was so beautiful that we could not tear ourselves away and we ended up spending the while afternoon there. Besides, we kind of hoped that the lioness would come down from the tree at some stage, giving us some some photo opps. But she was a little apprehensive as the four males were clustered around the base of the tree, and probably looked a bit daunting from her perspective. Because of the impressive numbers gathering at Maui Maui we plan to head straight there in the morning … Wim van den Heever Wildlife Photographer Ben Cranke Wildlife Photographer
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 07:18:20 +0000
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