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Lions of Sabi Sands
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Credits to Gerrit Ackerman - Elephant Plains.
The Mhangene sub adults taking over a kill from the Nkuhuma pride: I have now been a guide for almost 5 years and this was by far my best lion sighting ever. My guests and I was doing a bit of star gazing when one of my guests said “I see a lion over there!” and ever so relaxed one of the Nkuhuma female lions merged from the bush then another two came out as well, I quickly grabbed the radio and called my other two colleges who I knew was close by. We then followed them for a short distance before they stopped right in their tracks, I then knew that they were on the hunt, they were sniffing the air smelling for a potential meal. While sitting in absolute silence we suddenly heard the clash of horns echoing through the darkness in front of us. the three lionesses took off like a bat out of hell following the sound. We knew from experience that it was two male impalas battling it out for mating rights as this is rutting season. We followed these three ladies down the road when the rest of the group came running in behind them. The whole pride was moving as one towards the fighting impalas. The lions suddenly stopped and stared into the darkness whilst listening to pin point the direction of the sound. All of a sudden, we could hear Impalas scattering into all directions trying to escape the claws of the hungry lions. As we switched our spot light on we saw two lionesses latching onto the one impala ram. A few of the other lionesses tried to get the second ram but was just too late. It was only a matter of seconds and the whole pride was on the impala male. While watching the Nkuhuma pride feasting away on their well-deserved kill we heard movement behind us. Out of the darkness the hungry and fearless 9 Mhangene sub adult lions merged and ran straight towards the Nkuhuma pride. These youngsters had nothing to lose and everything to gain so this made them a formidable force to be recon with. The 5 adult lionesses of the Nkuhuma pride quickly countered the charging Mhangene youngsters. Sundenly the sub adults of the Nkuhuma pride joined their mothers in the fight. This was chaos! We had lions to the front and the back of the vehicle Fighting to claim the last bits of this impala ram. The sound that we heard was immense at one stage I had Goosebumps. This was by far my best kill that I got to witness. |
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