21st June 2011
As we rode the track towards the north we saw a number of vehicles parked up, all quietly watching the zebras in the long grasses to the east.
Salvatory brought us to a stop next to another jeep, and leaned across the Patrol to chat to the guide. He then moved us back a touch, to ensure that guides view was no longer blocked, and told us what he had learnt.
He whispered...
"A lion has been spotted. She is hunting the zebra..."
Making wide eyes at each other, Phillipa and I jumped up, she with her binos, me with my camera. I cracked the zoom to full extension and pointed towards the area Salvatory had gestured toward. I quickly prepped the camera for continuous shooting, and looked through the viewfinder with a dry mouth.
And literally that quickly, it happened...
Salvatory had put us immediately right in front of the action - there was not a better spot than the one we occupied - we were not the first there, nor the last, but we had the best spot without a doubt!
I heard a harsh, "there she goes" from Salvatory, and then intakes of breath all around me. My finger depressed the shutter button even before I had seen movement. The camera started taking shot after shot, 3.4 every second... We were extremely lucky, and we got the whole story:
 |
| Pow!!! Here she comes, out of nowhere... |
 |
| Lions will attack like this as zebra's backs are weak - it's the easiest way to bring them down... |
 |
| Zebra nearly getting away... |
 |
| But the lioness is too quick... Notice the unconcerned zebra in the background!! |
 |
| Amazing... |
 |
| The beginning of the end... The lioness's back legs have shredded the zebras stomach... |
 |
| She gets the throat... |
 |
| Horrible to see the other zebra watching on... |
 |
| This zebra was phenomenally strong... Even hurt, with the lioness biting her throat, still she fought... |
 |
| It's over... |
 |
| Hind quarters dark with the blood of the kill... |
There was very little time from the lioness's first pounce, to her bringing the zebra down, but on the ground the zebra fought for maybe 15 minutes before dying. Salvatory said that the zebra must have been very strong, and that the lioness possibly did not get the correct grip on her throat...
Phillipa and I were giddy... Salvatory was jumping up and down happily chanting, "I did my job, I did my job!!". You see, Phillipa, from the moment we met Salvatory, talked incessantly about her desire to see a kill.
Salvatory was pretty quiet about this, commenting only that it is the one thing everyone wishes to see, but that you have to be very, very lucky. He told us afterward that he was really worried we would not see one and this would disappoint him - he genuinely cares so much about the people in his charge. As you can imagine therefore, he was as pleased as we were to see the kill :-)
After some deep breaths, I turned to Phillipa to see her tearing up. She had begun to empathise with the zebra...
My wife (fiancée at this stage of course) is a woman of extremes - she can hanker for and cheer on a lion with the vigour of a gangster on the front row of a Vegas prize fight, and two seconds later cry like a lost child for the zebra who gave its life for the pride. I gave her a hug and we then spent a good while conversing in 'wows' and 'did you see that's?'.
We hung around for some time, as Salvatory watched the skies. He told us to keep our eyes out for vultures. If they spotted the kill, their circling would then bring others... We excitedly peered around, looking for vultures, hoping that they would bring hyenas and jackals...
Nothing.
We waited...
Still, nothing.
In the end, Salvatory decided that we were better off moving. It seemed doubtful that anything was going to discover the kill anytime soon. There was daylight left after all, and plenty more to see in the crater.
And Phillipa and I would soon take the most exciting toilet break of our lives, right out in the bush!
No comments:
Post a Comment