I wrote this story some years ago. My then boyfriend, now husband, is still able to see kills aplenty BUT after working in the Maasai Mara for a High Season and then Zambia for a High Season and doing Freelance work in Sabi Sands and elsewhere my kill count is WAAAAY up and I have to say looking back at this story makes me smile. This was an AMAZING sighting and one I have not forgotten…Oh and by the way I also did not have my camera for this sighting either…ARGH!
Liefie! You’ll never guess what happened to me tonight! ‘nother lion kill perhaps…. Yeah! It was amaz….Wait! How’d you know? I am one of those unfortunate rangers who has to work very hard for the experience of the great and wonderful world of lion, leopard, hyena, and cheetah kills. Chases and near misses I’ve seen a plenty but the actual primal, (and huge tip securing), act of see-stalk-chase-grab-kill intermixed with dust billowing from paws and hooves and the every chilling yet fascinating and goose-bump causing squeals of death are not as close to my guide lexicon as my ever lucky, (and I swear muti wielding), boyfriend. Many a night via our radio or pillow talk am I regaled with stories of how he just happened to be showing his guests a nice sounder of warthog and bam! out of nowhere four subadult lionesses rocked up and devoured one little piggy, or the evening a female leopard was located after a very long dry spell of no sightings of these beautiful creatures. Every ranger on the property wanted in on this loc and here comes Roel, number six to view and in front of his vehicle she kills a duiker. (My guests and I were fortunate to still see her eating.) Another evening, again he responds, and is side-on to our large male lion interrupting a Black-Backed jackal trying to kill a young impala. The male chases off the jackal, nonchalantly squashes the the young impala’s head in and swallows it whole in one gulp. Lief, all you have to do is get the lions when they’re hungry and then drive close to a warthog burrow. Out pops a warthog and voila, you have a kill. With mouth agape and anger bubbling just below the surface at his breezy explanation of unethical, yet too true maneuvers, a competition begins!
the night of my first ever up close and personal kill is one I will never forget. I was driving Site Inspections, and not just any Sites but the kind that include a guide and his wife with their business partners and a single American whose whole job is to find suitable safari destinations for Presidents, Ex-Presidents and family or Cabinet Members. Great… So off we go, me trying desperately to get to Main Lodge on time and yet still dazzle the South African guide and his wife with my bush knowledge without loosing the American newbie’s interest. Not much to be seen along the way in terms of the ever sought after Big 5, but plenty of birds, trees, flowers, and quiet comments from the back along the lines of, So…Noelle…that tree there…what’s it’s medicinal purpose and Latin name, while I enthusiastically explain the answer and also try and show the American exactly which tree we are discussing. Plains game…check! Hippos…check! Finally something big that the American knows, (Dagga Boy)…check! On time to Main Lodge…not so much.
Business taken care of and a nice Sundowner experience behind us, but still no sign of lions, leopards, or even a rhino or elephant. Trying not to let my exasperation show, nor let myself get too down, we meander home. No stars to discuss with the cloud cover and not even a Bushbaby or Small Spotted Genet to liven things up, a cloud of disappointment can be felt from the back. Damn! Then up ahead eyes…GREAT! And there in the middle of the road is a very relaxed male spotted hyena. NOT a common sight with guests. For ten minutes or so he wanders near and around our vehicle, scent marks, sniffs, and then blends into the bush. Excitedly I explain that we see leopard more than hyena on the property and my guests seem just as happy as myself and my tracker to have been one of the lucky few to have had such a great sighting. Soon after we find ourselves back on the Western Sector and amid quite a busy scene. Lions and leopard have been viewed this side of the dam. We wait our turn to get in. Upon entering the sighting a huge smile lights my face. There, less than ten meters from us, is a beautiful quite relaxed female we call Mbilo. I shut off the engine and glide to a stop. She looks our way and then straight ahead again. I inch a bit closer and am rewarded with five-out-of-five visual not two meters from the vehicle. The South Africans are excited to be so close and get great pictures. The American is thrilled as he has now seen two out of the Big 5, with leopard being one. My tracker, Alfred, is all smiles as Ingwe is his favorite, and I can never get enough of seeing leopard. They’re just too beautiful.
After ten minutes or so in the sighting, and lots of whispered discussion on the species she starts to crouch in ernest. With a brief look to her right, she hones in on something in the bushes immediately in front of her and us. Lower and lower and lower she gets to the ground. Every muscle drawn tight and tendons thrumming with strain. With my unlucky gift of never having seen a kill I don’t hope for more than what we have. Then she pounces and as I’m about to turn to my guests and explain that if she had caught the prey she would have killed like this and this, a squeal pierces the night air and I realize I have just watch her stalk, pounce, and start to throttle what appears to be a small buck. WHAT! Speechless I stare and listen and just as I’ve gotten my voice enough to tell my guests how lucky we are to have not only seen a kill, but a leopard kill at that, three lionesses jump from behind her and chase her off into the night. We follow as best we can, but quickly loose Mbilo and follow two of the lionesses back to the scene of the kill, where the third lioness if quickly finishing it off. As the last squeals of what we now know is an adult female duiker, die into the night and the brief struggle between the three lions ends in two retreating and one claiming her prize and noisily devouring it, my guests and I watch, giggly now and then with the adrenaline of having witnessed a leopard kill and interaction between two super-predators, ending in a lionesses eating. We realize what we have seen may never been seen again by us, nor have many witnessed such and up-close and beautiful sighting as this.
You’ll never guess what happened to me tonight! Let me guess you got stuck and had to be pulled out by Johan? Not quite no…I saw Mbilo kill a duiker and the lions chase her off and eat it themselves… Ahhh! Silence and open mouthed gapes are quite satisfactory from time to time.
Bundu Mafasi 