Lions and Buffalo - and some Elephants

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. 

Having a Drink

Beginning to Stalk - Note the Cattle Egret on the Buffalo's Back

Then the elephants arrived from out in the water. They were done with their evening drinking and ablutions and ready to head inland.

Elephants Arrival

Buffalo Begin to Leave

 When the buffalo saw them, they decided it was time to leave, too.

The Lion is Hiding on the Right Edge of the Picture - Click to Enlarge

The Buffalo Notices

The stalking lion tried to show she was serious, but her half-hearted chase belied the intent. 

We headed home for dinner.
Here is a video Linda shot with her iPhone.

Chobe Chilwelo, Botswana

Our first night in Botswana we took a boat ride on the Chobe River. The Chobe is one of the main tributaries to the Zambezi. Chobe National Park fronts a wide spot in the river and provides visitors with both land and water safaris. As you will see from the pictures we were lucky enough to see several animals and birds. Enjoy.

Fish Eagles are abundant on this stretch of the river. We have not seen one catch a fish, but did see one eating.

Giant Cormorant - The only one we have seen.

Red-Billed Hornbills are noisy and busy. One of them was trying to fight its own reflection in our window this afternoon

African Jacanas are sometimes called Jesus birds for their ability to walk on water. They area actually walking on the lily pads eating insects.

A highlight was seeing this baby riding mama's back.

We have seen several mongoose, but this was the first of this species.

This herd of elephants entertained us for almost half an hour.

A nice pair of young ones.

Time for feeding

Hippo feeding. Note the elephants in the background.

Our guide watched the hippos as caredully as these highly territorial animals watched us.

We often see cattle egrets riding the hippos.

This lioness had lost her pride. Her moanful cries would be frightening on a dark night.

As Linda says, cats do the stretching thing better than any other animal.

Sunsets really are spectacular here. They literally fill the entire sky.

We just have to share these sunsets.

The sun is behind us.