Safari Day 7 - Lions and lions and lions

Highlight of the day: all of the lions!

We were up before the sun this morning, but we happily jumped out of bed as we had an early morning walk with more lions. At about 6:30, we drove to a different lion enclosure in the park to meet Mel, Mufasa, Leo and Luke. There were more of us human pride members this time, but we took all 4 lions out together, along with Wean and 2 lion trainers. Mel and Mufasa are brother and sister, and Leo and Luke are brothers. All are about 15 months old, and they all live together in the same enclosure. It was so much fun to learn the personalities of these 4, and compare them with those of Amber and Arthur. Luke is the dominant one in the group, and recently they had all been picking on Luke because he has 2 cysts on the backs of his front legs. This occurs normally in the wild, and since they were posing no threat to Leo's health (they were going away), the vets did not want to interfere (the park staff only interfere when it's absolutely necessary). Although Mel is the only girl in this pride, she seemed to do okay with the boys. It was a gorgeous morning as we walked around the land, the sun rising to give the dried grass a soft orange glow. The paths are so narrow (and sometimes there are no paths at all) that most places we had to walk single file. At one stage, Wean was leading the group, and 3 of the lions were behind us. Nigel was up chatting with Wean and suddenly Mufasa raced from the back, whizzed right past most of us, then pounced on Wean from behind. No one saw this coming, and it happened extremely fast. Of course Mufasa was just playing, but he is a lot bigger and a lot stronger than Wean. And his claws are sharp. Wean was able to slap him off and scold him, but not before sustaining quite a few scratches down his back and a torn shirt. Later during the walk, Wean was playing with Luke and all of a sudden Leo leapt up onto Wean, his paws on his shoulders. Mufasa was nearby and they both ganged up on Wean. It was really scary watching, even though we knew they just wanted to play. Wean was able to fend them off long enough for one of the trainers to rush over and help him get the lions off. Apparently Wean hadn't walked with these guys in over a week, so Luke was obviously testing Wean's dominance. Wean was fine, but I think a bit shaken up at the surprise of it all. Meanwhile Nigel and I spent heaps of time petting Leo on his tummy and scratching him under the chin, which he absolutely loved. He is such a sweet boy, and happily lay there. Lions don't purr, but if they did, he would definitely have been.

We arrived back in camp around 9:00 for a late breakfast, followed by a relaxing afternoon. We did some laundry, fished in the lake, went for a paddle in the canoes and soaked our feet in the pool. It was nice to relax and not do much for a few hours. After lunch, we went to feed the cubs. Huge slabs of meat (and by slabs we mean whole pieces of animal, like a cow's back leg or a neck--fur, bones and all) are chucked over the fence to the cubs. Each cub gets his/her own slab. Once they had hold of them, we were able to go into the enclosure for a closer view. Wean took a stick (more like the limb of a tree) and got as close to the cubs as he could, trying to prod the meat with the stick. Suddenly our cute little friends showed their true wild sides. They let out a deep, rumbling growl and snapped at the stick and Wean. The purpose in doing this is so that the cubs learn that their meat is theirs alone and they need to defend it so it will not be taken away. In the wild, lions must defend their catch from hyenas, other lions and sometimes leopards.

After the feeding we had our first cub viewing. We got to go into the enclosure of some of the smaller cubs, only about 5 months old. This time we were with the 3 Ks (all have names that start with K-mum has a name that starts with K-, but we can't remember them). These guys are so adorable. They're a bit smaller than our dog Kyla to those of you who know how small that is. We spent about 20 minutes playing with them and patting them. We were a bit braver with these guys since they're a lot smaller than the cubs we walked with. But they also have sharp claws and sharp teeth. Before we knew it, our time was up and we rushed off for another evening lion walk. We walked with Amy and Elsa this time. They are not sisters but get along. Elsa is actually a Kenyan lioness and we could tell the difference. She's a bit taller, lighter in colour, and has a longer face. She was cool. She also took a liking to both Nigel and I. At one stage I was crouched down patting her when she rolled over and grabbed my leg with her paw. It was wrapped around my calf so tightly, the claws slightly digging in, that I couldn't move. Then she decided to have a taste of my leg, and she put her mouth around my entire calf. I wasn't really scared until some other silly bitch in the group (from another overland company) gripped my arm and tried to pull me away. This was the wrong thing to do (as I knew), not to mention the fact that Elsa's claws and teeth would have shredded my calf! But I was calm, and just smacked her on the nose and said 'NO!' until Wean came over and pried her off of me. It was much more exciting than frightening, and for days afterwards I showed off my bruises from her teeth to anyone who cared to see. Not long after this, Elsa walked over to Nige. It looked like she was just going walk right by, but as she rubbed up against his leg, she turned her head and had a taste of his calf as well. He loudly said 'NO!' straight away and she let go. But, sadly, no bruises to show off. It was fun to be out with 'just the girls,' but they were a bit difficult to get back into their enclosure. They were having too much fun and had to be chased down by Wean and the trainers. We were all standing in the cage as it got pretty dark when they finally made an appearance. I guess they like to be fashionably late!

Another fantastic dinner and beers by a huge fire to end one of the best days we've ever had.