The Birmingham Males

[sik94]

An Encounter to remember

ELEPHANT PLAINS GAME LODGE·TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2017

 
We set out on an early morning game drive at Elephant Plains Game Lodge, as every morning starts you don’t really have a set plan to where you want to go, usually just play it by ear. So we set off in a southerly direction from camp on the search for some lions we heard roaring in the distance. Having spotted the Breakaway lions and two Majingilane males the previous night around a similar area where the calling was coming from we figured it’s them. To our surprise we couldn’t see any sign of the huge group of lions, they changed their initial course completely. Driving about looking for tracks we got a call on the radio, two male lions!! We immediately left the search for the tracks as we assumed it’s the Majingilalne males that we were looking for. Eventually when we got to the lions they looked a bit too nice. Nice with context to how little scars they have over their faces. The Birmingham males! There we were with two of the Birmingham boys far out of their usual territory. We followed them for some time but they walked with purpose. We tried to keep up as they walked through blocks of thick bush, eventually they crossed a road and into the Manyeleti river. We quickly drove around to the opposite bank only to find one of the males running across this open plain. It all became clear after about two seconds as we saw them chasing after an injured buffalo bull. It almost seemed like it was not this particular buffalo`s first encounter with these lions as he went running for the hills. We obviously followed the chase and right in the middle of this block with a load of red bushwillow trees around us, the two lions and buffalo had a standoff! It did not last too long and the buffalo decided the only why for him to stay alive is not to run but attack. He was limping when we first saw him but with all the adrenaline pumping through the veins of this huge dagga boy nothing was stopping him. He came charging towards the one male close to us, we had to rush to get ourselves out of the raging buffalo`s path. This lasted for a good half hour, what the lions were doing became quite obvious as they were tiring the buffalo out. We watched the back and forth chasing from a distance. Then at a certain point the buffalo decided to stop running and they stood there watching each other, neither the two lions nor the buffalo moving a muscle. Who was the one to make the first move? Well fortunately for the buffalo the lions got impatient and maybe a little played out. They went laying down flat in the grass. The buffalo took the gap and moved away, vanishing in this thicket like a ghost in thin air. The lions tried to follow him but soon they lost interest and to our amazement they gave up the hunt. There was a sigh of relieve on my vehicle as a couple of the guests wouldn’t have been able to witness an attack on this buffalo. Everybody was happy except the two boys that missed out on their breakfast. Maybe better luck next time for them. I hope that you found the article informative. For our weekly updated sightings, please visit our Big 5 blog at https://www.elephantplains.co.za/big-5-blog/2017/07/big-5-sightings-03-09-july-2017/
Ep Ranger
Dawie Jacobs Reply