Tanzania Honeymoon
Finishing our first loop and returning to the main road, we quickly came upon three lions dozing on a small kopje, two young males and a female. The female disappeared around back, and we drove around to find her 50 yds away in a crouch, scouting some reedbuck as potential prey. But they were aware of her presence, and they bounded away before she made her move. It often seems to come down to a question of distance between predator and prey. The predator needs to sneak up to within their striking distance before commencing their attack - to attack from too far away means almost certain failure, and expenditure of excessive amounts of energy. The prey, meanwhile, strives to maintain a minimum distance between themselves and the predator - if this 'flight' distance is broken, they bolt. And thus the continually unfolding question: can the predator sneak to within its striking distance before the prey becomes aware and their flight distance is breached. It's a fascinating scenario to watch.
     Having lost her prey, the lioness laid down to go to sleep. The lazy males soon appeared, (rarely ones to help in the hunt), and they strolled nonchalantly out to join her in the shade while passing right between our trucks. I couldn't believe how close we were.
    Just to finish off the list for the morning, we saw: two dead zebra carcasses, a gray heron, tawny eagle, yellow-billed storks, white-headed eagle, serval cat, agama lizard, gray-headed kingfisher, and hornbill.
    After lunch and a siesta, we went out on our afternoon drive. Saw a family of elephant feeding noisily near a spring-fed stream, and right nearby, another lioness dozing in the shade. In the distance a herd of hartebeest were slowly munching their way in the direction of the lion, seemingly unaware of her presence. We watched to see whether a chase would ensue, and we thought there was a chance, given that the wind was from the proper direction to hide the lion. However, the hartebeest turned around at some point (aware of the lion I couldnít tell), and the lion did not pursue.
    Farther along, we saw klipspringer (the only antelope to live among the kopjes), a giant eagle owl, crowned hornbill, and the other usual suspects. The greatest thrill came at the end, when we happened upon a pride of lions devouring a fresh buffalo kill (less than 6-8 hours old). A truly amazing sight - two males, four females, and ten cubs all together for the family feast. The feeding hierarchy in the pride was clear. The males (dominant first) had their fill, and then wandered a little ways off with bloody faces to sleep on their backs with their feet in the air, stuffed like humans after Thanksgiving dinner. They were oblivious to the rest of the pride, and to us for that matter, even though our rover was ten feet away from one of the males, and separated him from the others.