Lions
Yep, the good ole King of the Jungle. There is something about these animals that captivates my mind like nothing else. Whenever I've found myself around them on a safari, I feel like I could sit there and watch them for days on end and not get bored. The combination of power and beauty in a lioness is unbelievable...then a MALE lion, well, throw out the beauty and you've got straight power. Sitting mere feet away looking into a full-maned lion's yellow eyes, you get the distinct feeling that he knows he could rip you apart without breaking a sweat, but its not worth his effort for something as puny as a human. That'll get the adrenalin going for sure!Jane and I went out to the Masai Mara a couple of weeks ago with a CFA trip from Dogwood Church in Atlanta, and we were blessed with a couple of awesome lion encounters. The first occurred at dusk on our first day, when we came upon a big herd of wildebeest and zebra and were told that hunting lions had been spotted nearby. We watched as a young cub stalked through the grass and made a half-hearted run at a few straggling wildebeest - apparently it was just practice, though, because he seemed to go back to his mother and get a lesson (along with some playful swatting). Next, a lioness made a second attempt at a group of zebra, but she seemed to realize pretty quickly that it wasn't going to turn out well and broke off her run.
Wildebeest and zebra seem to have dangerously short memories, though, because a few minutes later another lioness began stalking through the grass toward the back of the herd. We watched as she stretched out her body low to the ground, eyes up and ears flat back against her head. She moved with infinite patience, slowly taking a step whenever all eyes were on other places. After getting within about 30 meters of the wildebeest, she sprang out of the grass and the herd took off like a rocket. One large wildebeest got separated from the group and squared off against the charging lion, face to face. Now, the wildebeest probably has a couple of hundred pounds on the lion, along with some nasty curved horns, so the lion can only kill it by jumping from behind. Both animals seemed to know this, so they spent the next minute or so winding back and forth in a tense circle - the lion trying to sprint around behind the wildebeest and the wildebeest always keeping the lion in front of his horns. It was amazing to watch the lion in "attack mode," with her tail high behind her, crouching low the ground, bounding to one side and then the other. Unfortunately (for the lion) she eventually slipped in the mud and the wildebeest was able to run away to the safety of the herd.
On the second morning, we came upon a different, but still fascinating scene. A pride of lions had killed a wildebeest sometime that morning, and we found arrived while the males were eating their fill. A pride of lions always has one "dominant" male, but if that leader has a brother, he will allow the brother to tag along with the pride, helping to defend them from challenging outside males (although he's not allowed to mate with the females). The dominant lion will always eat first, followed by a "beta male," then the females and cubs. This pride has two males, and each of them were eating on different parts of the wildebeest carcass. The smaller male was swinging around a long string of flesh and chewing on the meat, while the larger male chowed down on the stomach (or some other internal organs). It was one of those sights that kind-of makes you feel sick, but is awesomely "real" at the same time - definitely not the Disney-movie picture of a lion, but amazing nonetheless!
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