Lions in West-Africa

[Lycaon]

Source/credits

: http://safaritalk.net/topic/18193-benin-2017-french-africa-awaits/


By the time we left the ellies we were well and truly into the "witching hour" and we were all hoping to catch a glimpse of Pendjari's famous lions in the daylight. The light had almost entirely faded by the time we approached the end of our return leg along the Circuit Sacree and I had to squint to make out a figure about a hundred metres away over one of the small bridges on the main roads that cover drainage lines. It raised the pulse, but I had almost convinced myself it was a kob before it started trotting towards us and the nearby kob erupted in a cacophany of alarm whistles - Lion!!

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In fact, a beautiful lioness was pacing towards us, clearly on the hunt. She wandered straight past our vehicle, pausing a moment to sit down and stare at us, puzzled. After fifteen minutes or so, we had to leave her as she continued along the road behind us into the darkness but what an amazing sighting we had. We got a good look at her injury, as you can see a deep wound on her face. She seemed unbothered by it, and of course many lions have survived far worse.

*This image is copyright of its original author

                             Imperfect Beauty

*This image is copyright of its original author

             Looking for supper Reply