Lions of Timbavati

[Fredymrt]

From tintswalo sarafi lodge
Practicing the skills needed for adult life is the most important part of any young animals journey in the wild!

*This image is copyright of its original author

Always under the thorough supervision of the mothers, a litter of cubs may learn to hunt by trial and error. When cubs become adults, this game could turn and be fatal if the necessary hunting techniques was not properly observed while they were young!

*This image is copyright of its original author

The mothers of our resident Lion pride close to Tintswalo Safari Lodge, decided to take their cubs hunting lessons to the next level. They caught a young buffalo of less then a year and held on to the little bovid. Two of the lionesses remained close to the buffalo while one of the mothers went back to fetch the observing cubs that was waiting about 300m away in thick bush. a Grasshopper or the tip of father’s tail make equally exciting targets, but those days were gone for now and their schooling skipped too a new grade! At the time the cubs were about 5 months old and very inexperienced in the hunting department. The ‘trigger mechanism’ came into play when the young buffalo got up and tried to escape, motivating the cubs to rear up and thump their claws onto its rump and follow on his hind legs. Every now and then one of the mothers would step in and grab the buffalo by its throat (not killing it) to set an example of how to induce a fatal bite The entire ordeal went on for about an hour until one of the mothers ended the buffalo’s struggle. Its such a privilege to witness unique behaviour like this, but in the same breath its sad on the behalf of the young buffalo. But i guess in the wild , ‘natural selection’ does not ask questions when evolution selects those young animals of all species that rises up to accept the challenge of surviving

*This image is copyright of its original author

The Images that I’ve added was when the same cubs in the video were about 8 months old on another occasion.
In the following video clip, you will see that life is an endless game, or rather a series of games, for lion cubs

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