Travels and Birds: Lions and Buffalo

The Lions Arrive

Poniso, our guide, and I were contentedly figuring out that the little bird we saw was a southern grey-headed sparrow, when Linda quietly said, “Lion!” All thoughts of the bird vanished as Poniso sped down the road towards the female wandering across the road about 100 meters ahead. She was soon joined by a half dozen younger females and cubs including a couple of males starting to grow their manes. They were apparently heading towards the river, but after a few moments, they started to settle under the shade of a tree by the road.

Note the Growing Mane

Another Arrives

And Two More

Relaxing - If Only for a Moment

All of a sudden, one more female tore across the road and the rest were up and gone towards the river before we had a good chance to see them leave.

Panic

Poniso supposed it was a male who was chasing them, but he was proven wrong when three cape buffalos came out of the bush after the lions.

Cape Buffalo

Dangerous

And Scary

They followed the lion’s path to the river, so we reversed our path and headed back to the river ourselves where we were soon joined by other vehicles enjoying the evening spectacle. The lions mostly rested in the evening sun while the buffalo blithely forgot the lions were there.

Relaxation

Looking at Us

Powerful Legs

One lion, however, did take an interest in the buffalo even though they had obviously eaten recently. As a young female, perhaps she wanted the practice. We watched her slowly and carefully approach the buffalo from downwind while the buffalo enjoyed his time at the river.