Lion

Quite early Wim and I set out towards one of the potential tourism sites upriver, to take some photos and start sketching out a rough layout.

Around 10 kilometres from camp, we were deep into the thrilling topic of immigration paperwork, when Wim suddenly screeched to a halt. A young lioness was resting in the shade of a tree, very unperturbed by the vehicle, so we watched her for a while whilst radioing the collaring team who by that point were returning from their nighttime surveying to slumber. They came to our location and clinically darted and collared the lioness, who will provide important datasets on her movements and how she can be best protected, especially if, as suspected, she’s casting out on her own and will form a new pride.

I was nervous of potential pride mates who may have been prowling in the vicinity, but they didn’t materialise. It took us a while to spot the disembowelled buffalo calf nearby, explaining why she hadn’t moved off. Buffalo are difficult prey for a lone lion as the adults defend their herd aggressively. In open savannah where there is no cover for a successful ambush, this can end in fatal injury for the lion. Here in a more wooded environment she could more easily cause the herd to scatter than be in line for their gory revenge.

We decided to continue onto the tourism site another day, as it could never live up to the same excitement. The day was subsequently filled up with the usual array of grant management and compliance. At dusk I was alerted to an elephant browsing trees behind the toilet block, which was another exciting wildlife moment for the day. I can accept endless grant administration if a day is bookended by lions and elephants.