Adult male lion yawning. Photo by Addison Spitzer.
By Amber Davis, UVM
Le kae? That means “how are you doing?” in Setswana. I am doing quite fine. Fellow students and I have just reached our three-week mark here in Botswana. It has been a hot, sweaty and exciting adventure so far. The first night we arrived in Maun, our instructors asked us to go around the table at dinner and list the things we were most looking forward to seeing during our time here in Africa. While I had always wanted to see an elephant (Loxodonta africana), my dream was to see lions (Panthera leo).
Our entire group was gifted with a pride of four lions on our drive to Tau camp, our first concession in NG18. While this sighting was exciting for me, I craved to see them during the daytime. During our stay at Tau camp, we heard some lions calling during the night, but they were never close enough for us to see them. One morning on transect, I was with my instructor Sixteen and two other students. Sixteen had seen fresh lion tracks on the sandy road. We tracked them along the transect for about 15 minutes without any luck of seeing lions.
“Lions, lions, LIONS, LIONS” I heard Sixteen say. He is quite the jokester and since I didn’t see any lions, I thought he was joking around with me since he knew how much I wanted to see them. As our truck (lovingly named “Uncle Duke”) pulled closer, I saw two brown lumps in the grass and sure enough it was two adult male lions resting in the cool early morning breeze after enjoying a hunt together. Their paws were still a little bloody from a kill. As Sixteen pulled up to the first lion, who was perched atop a little grass mound, I could feel my heart racing. He was the most majestic animal I have ever seen. He was poised and calm, he did not care that we were five feet away from him. After taking some pictures, we moved on from the lions and drove to our transect.
Duke (our vehicle) and lion. Photo by Samara Muller.
A week later, we drove to another concession, NG 19. I had been told that there were more lions there, but I didn’t want to get my expectations too high since lions had been a rare sighting for us thus far. The second night in NG19 the guys, Samara and one of the escort guides from Khwai went to get firewood while the rest of the group stayed behind in camp, catching up on our school readings.
After about an hour, they pulled back in and Samara told us to quickly grab our cameras and jump in the car. Immediately I knew it was a lion. She drove us ten minutes down windy, bumpy sandy roads and through the grass to a spot that had four other safari vehicles parked there. We got in line and waited our turn to view the prized sighting. As we got closer, I saw four lion cubs about four months in age. They were snacking on the remaining leg of an unidentified animal and playing with each other. Not only did we get to see these adorable and awkward lion cubs, but they also put on a show for us and started to play with one another.
The sun was setting in the West as the four cubs played with one another. It was one of those picturesque moments that cannot be captured with a picture but only with the mind and naked eye. It was one of those moments where I knew I came to Africa for all the right reasons. I haven’t seen any more lions since this, but my classmates have and we hear them calling out during the night from our campsite. I know that I will see at least one more of the most beautiful animals before I leave Africa, but for now ga gona mathata (“no worries”).
Lion cubs. Photo by Amber Davis.