It is always an unexpected thrill when Lions pass within hands reach of the vehicle. All nine Lions of the Thanda North Pride were walking along the northern fence line when we had this beautiful encounter.
The Thanda guests on this morning game drive loved it, even if their heart rate was up a bit 🙂
Below is the Thanda North Pride “Organization Chart”!
When I lived in the USA and in Europe I used to see children playing outside my front door, I saw joggers on their morning runs and dog owners out on a stroll. Occasionally a car came by and if I was very lucky when I got to see a bird from time to time.
My front door view has changed 🙂
I regularly see Giraffe, Buffalo, Elephants, Rhinos and many different other species around the house. Today the Thanda North Pride of Lions walked by the garden fence.
I saw the young mother with her cubs and our juvenile male at the fence. The other four Lions were already resting under a Fever Tree near by.
What a place to live!
If you think that only members of the human race make funny faces when attending to a little itch then have a look at our dominant male Lion.
He was scratching his left front leg with his left back paw. Judging by his funny face the procedure was quite successful.
The Thanda guests on my vehicle enjoyed the moment 🙂
PS: We had to wait for a long time for him to get up. He was sleeping for a long time in the grass. He even collected some spider webs in the process!
The sun was just setting when we found some of our South Pride Lions playing in a tree on top of a ridge. The Thanda guest on game drive enjoyed this most beautiful sighting until the light was gone completely and the Lions had left the tree and rested in the grass next to the road.
Have a good week!
Mother and son in a lengthy morning cleaning session. Lions are the only gregarious cats. They really enjoy being close to each other 🙂
These two Lions are part of the Thanda South Pride.
How about waking up in the middle of the night and hearing the sounds of mating Lions nearby?
When we met some of our guests for morning game drive they claimed that they heard the Lions all night. We drove up the hill in front of the lodge to investigate and found our dominant male and the oldest female of the South pride less than 100 meters from the Lodge.
The Thanda guest were most impressed how close they were all night to these formidable cats.
The picture shows the male Lion with the Thanda Luxury Lodge in the background. The female was hiding a few meters away in the bushes.
This morning’s game drive was amazing. We left the Lodge with the intention to track a herd of Buffalo. But on the way out we decided to have another quick look at our dominate male Lion and the oldest female of the South Pride (“Grandma”), who we saw the previous evening on top of hill.
When we arrived there we met eight Lions – three Sub-Adults (“Uncles” and “Aunt”) and a young Lioness (“Mum” with her two – eight month old – cubs (“Boy” and “Girl”), the Thanda Dominate Male and “Grandma”. This was the complete South pride. Over the next three hours we observed family life and family drama.
“Mum” had kept away the cubs from the rest of the pride for a long time. It was clear after a few minutes that the Thanda Dominate Male had accepted these cubs as his own, but “Mum” would not allow any of the “Uncles” and the “Aunt” near the cubs. (Note: The cubs were fathered by a male that is no longer on Thanda).
Every time one of the “Uncles” approached “Mum” became very aggressive and the Thanda Dominate Male joined her in defense of the cubs. “Grandma” sided with the three sub-adults and was also quite aggressive towards her grand-kids.
We observed “Mum” fighting for her cubs, the cubs playing, the “Aunt” climbing a tree, one of the “Uncles” mating with the “Aunt” (when the big male was not watching), all of them growling a lot at each other and the “Uncles” and “Aunt” in an attempt to hunt for Impala.
The Thanda guests on my vehicle, Behki and I have seldom enjoyed a game drive more, even so we only drove a few hundred meters during the three hours 🙂
I hope you enjoy this picture documentary!
PS: I have a included a “family chart” to make it easier to understand the relationships.
“Mum” disciplining her younger brother “Uncle 2”, who tried to get to close to her cubs.
The Thanda Dominate Male was watching the family drama from a distance.
The two cubs were playing while the adults were arguing about them!
The “Aunt” was observing the scene from a nearby tree.
Mating!
The (not successful) Impala Hunt 🙂
“Mum” getting upset again!
The Thanda South Pride.
Heavy rains and thunderstorms – again! This year is starting as wet as the last one has ended.
In the morning we showed our guests a Scorpion (in the few hours without rain). This is a picture collage of me presenting one of the large Scorpion species to our group of Swedish guests at our morning coffee stop. Bheki found this impressive specimen under a stone. After the presentation he returned “our performer” back to its stony home 🙂
On the evening game drive we were lucky to find a Lioness with her two cubs just before the skies opened and before the rains drove us back to the Tented Camp.
PS: The picture with me and the Scorpion were taken by one of our guests – Thanks a lot!
About Scorpions:
Scorpions are predatory arthropod animals. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by the pair of grasping claws and the narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back, ending with a venomous stinger. Scorpions range in size from 9 mm to 20 cm.
All known scorpion species possess venom and use it primarily to kill or paralyze their prey so that it can be eaten. In general, it is fast-acting, allowing for effective prey capture. It is also used as a defense against predators. Of the 1000+ known species of scorpion, only 25 have venom that is deadly to humans; most of those belong to the family Buthidae. However, all scorpions are able to penetrate human skin and deliver sharp, unpleasant stings, most of which usually leave redness around the stung area.
Our dominate male Lion was greeting us at the start of our morning game drive. He had rested on top of a hill for the night.
I do not often merge or manipulate images, but I had to play with this picture of Bheki – my Tracker – looking into a sunrise. I merged it with an image of our dominate male Lion.
We were looking for Lions at the time, so I created this collage in memory of that morning 🙂
Christian Sperka Photography | Custom Luxury Tours 