06 Oct 2008
Brad and Julie have just returned to camp and by all accounts have had an exciting, if somewhat disturbing, day.
The lions have returned from the islands north of camp. They found them at midmorning in a pitiful state, all painfully thin. The cubs emaciated. 5 lionesses and 7 cubs were making their way south off Dead-tree island and the younger cubs could hardly walk fast enough to keep up with the pride, their skin sagging over ribs and pelvises. The lionesses had to keep waiting for the cubs to catch up and were themselves starving, refusing to let the desperate cubs suckle.
This pride, at full strength consisted of 6 lionesses, 2 pride males and 13 cubs of various ages born over a period of 6 months. For quite some time, the lionesses managed to sustain and protect all the cubs, but have since lost nearly half of them, 3 in the past 10 days. This pride relied heavily on a number of large buffalo herds that moved through the area on a regular basis. The buffalo’s presence has been very sporadic over the past few months and this has put visible pressure on the lionesses’ ability to sustain so many cubs.
Sitting with the lions in the early afternoon, Brad noticed a young elephant moving out of a treeline. This calf, about 6 or 7 years old but the looks of things, was all alone. This very seldom happens as elephants are incredibly diligent mothers and have such very strong maternal herd bonds. An elephant of this age is extremely vulnerable if undefended and the lions immediately saw their opportunity.
Things apparently happened incredibly quickly and Brad could not keep up with the lionesses as they tore off after the young elephant. He manged to get into position just after they had managed to pull the squealing calf down, writhing futilely. The lionesses took over an hour to eventually kill the calf and Brad and Julie arrived back in camp visibly disturbed by the scene they had witnessed.
This type of scene is always so difficult for us to reconcile on an emotional level. We try to remain dispassionate observes and record the natural world objectively, but it is not always easy. The lions were desperate. The remaining cubs were close to starvation. So, on the one hand it is a relief for them to have been able to feed. On the other, elephants are such gentle, sentient creatures and to see a young elephant suffer for so long like this is disturbing, even to the most hardened soul.
<< Previous entry | Next entry >>
