Official Ivory Tree Game Lodge Website

Ivory Tree Blog

Lion hunting Zebra...(18 March 09)

It was a chilly Tuesday morning and my guests and I were searching for lions. So far nothing had turned up, not even their tracks. Even though we were that morning on a mission to find Lions we were still appreciating all the other wild life the park has to offer, Impala in the hundreds, zebra, wildebeest and some fantastic rhino not far off the road. It was while we were watching these rhino that another game viewer informed us that Lions had been spotted between Kubu picnic spot and Lengau dam which was quite a distance from our current location on Tshwene. After a very quick discussion we decided to risk it and carry on searching the area we were in as I was confident the two young central pride males were in the area.

About 45min later still nothing had turned up and even I was starting to get worried, maybe we should have tried to get to the other Lion sighting. It was just as this thought was running through my head for the 5th time that I spotted the unmistakable form of a lion crouched low in the grass just off Tshwene drive, I recognised it as one of the young males from the central pride, just the guys we had been looking for. His eyes were locked forward and when we followed his gaze we knew why, he was hunting zebra. About 50 meters ahead of him was a herd of 8 zebra, and they had no idea he was there. The zebra calmly went about their business while the young male stalked closer and closer, just as he was reaching a distance he would have been able to charge from his brother, whom we had not seen until then, crossed the road also in a hunting stance. However, without the cover of the grass some wildebeest easily spotted him. The wildebeest gave off alarm calls that alerted all the other animals in the area including the Zebra. The 1st male could not get any closer as the zebra were now very alert, he decided to try and charged from his position, but the zebra were ready and he was not close enough. Zebra scattered and the chase lasted the whole of a few seconds, the lion knew he was out of luck this time.

As he stood watching his breakfast running off into the distance, he gave a very disgusted glance back at his brother. The message must have been received as the 2nd lion strolled over and rubbed his head against his brothers as if to say "sorry, my fault." All was forgiven and the two lay down in the shade of a large Rhus lancea, probably plotting their next attempt. Peter Breedveld
Guide
Ivory Tree Game Lodge