The Birmingham Males

[Tshokwane]

Credits to Brock Cartlidge - Londolozi.

Guest post, A Surreal First Safari:

A Birmingham male in the fading evening light, in the moments between naptime and dinner.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Two of the Birmingham males at rest in a dry riverbed, the one in the background slightly more so…

*This image is copyright of its original author

Lions had been spotted earlier in the day, but in the evening, they were nowhere to be found. That was until Grant & Jerry were able to track the lions on foot and found one sleeping in tall grass. Upon further investigation, what we thought was a single female lion turned out to be two of the Birmingham males napping alongside four females.


We watched in awe as they slowly woke up, until all of the sudden, something in the distance caught the attention of a lioness and she took off running. Grant quickly put our vehicle in motion and followed her over the hill. The pursuit was thrilling. As we drove to catch up to her, the males were running alongside us. 

Clear frustration on the face of a lioness as she waits her turn to feed on the wildebeest.

*This image is copyright of its original author

In the few seconds lead that the lioness had on us, she was able to capture a wildebeest that had been distracted in a fight. It was incredible to see how this creature could bring down such a large animal in a split second. The males arrived just behind us and quickly stepped in to finish the gruesome task. For the next hour, we held our front-row seat to six lions eating the wildebeest. It was a surreal experience to watch this sequence from start to finish, to see them peacefully wake up from a nap to them devouring the wildebeest as the sun-faded from the sky.

One of the Birmingham males ends the wildebeest’s struggles.

*This image is copyright of its original author

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