Saturday 20 October

Awesome and scary sight

John was leaving for his advance training at Satisla camp. We went to Tzaneen for some office work and returned around 12.00 noon. Had lunch outside. After returning Louise informed me that Lions are going to be fed today so Andre will drive me to the enclosures. Andre came around 3.00 PM with lot of meat in the back of his truck. Lion feeding is very temperamental affair in natural environment. Male lions don’t take active part in hunting which is mostly done by females, except when a larger pray is to be taken down, like a buffalo or small elephant. Lion society is female dominated where in lioness are related to each other across generations and share the complete responsibilities of raising the cubs. Male lions are mostly for protecting the pride and are always replaced by new lions taking over the pride. When females complete the hunt, males often eat first, followed by females and then cubs. However mom will always let cubs eat along with. This time feeding was mostly peaceful and everyone getting their share of meat. But the scene of male lion running toward approaching feeding vehicle is awesome and but can be a scary sight. Being in car is safer I guess. Male Lion weighing around 400 Kilos is sheer power and females who usually weigh less than males are phenomenal stalkers with extreme cunningness in positive way.

Around 4.00 PM we returned to camp and started feeding Meerkats, mongoose. Around 5.00 PM Louise drove me back to camp. She is an amazing personality with enormous amount of compassion and feelings for animals. I am lucky to be working for her at SanWild. I wish there are many more like her and hopefully they together can create a miracle and save further damage to wild animal kingdom. Just before we ended the day Louise told me that Albert and I will be going for a bush walk early tomorrow.

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