Looking through some pics to make some prints and I discovered this lion pic from 2018. They really are strange-looking cats. Very long and lean. I guess they’re built for more endurance than Tigers and most other cats that are ambush hunters. Lions have to keep up with prey for longer periods of time, I think.
There’s a non-zero chance that this is the same Cape Buffalo that I photographed chasing off that leopard at this same waterhole the other day. Impervious to leopards though they be, the boldest African lions can lay them low. As I understand it, the usually-complacent male lions are the ones that hunt buffalo - since it requires all of their massive strength to kill one of these aggressive bovine behemoths. ...
@sophdex, you’ll feel for me when I tell you the leopard was far away and got chased off by a buffalo, and the first lot of lions were unconscious and motionless, so you’ll agree we recovered something from the day by running into the second lot who walked all around the car and posed nicely for their closeups.
Young lions being sweet. This is a bit unusual to see. 90% of the time lions do nothing at all. 8% of the time they’re terrifying murder-machines that set our ancient alert system on defcon GTFO. All their other behaviour fits in that last bit. If this seems a weird environment for a wild lion outside India, this is what the bushveld looks like after heavy rains. Kruger is mostly described as, “savannah woodland,” with plenty of large trees. This was in December 2013. ...
#throwbackthursday in more ways than one. This is the skin of the lion that jumped Harry Wolhuter - a hunter turned The Kruger National Park’s first game ranger. The lions ambushed him and he was thrown from his horse. He came to being dragged by the shoulder between the animal’s legs. He reached for his knife, praying it hadn’t been thrown clear as it had on two previous occasions. It was there. He then had to awkwardly reach around with his left hand as the lion’s jaws had completely incapacitated his right arm. He stabbed the lion thrice where, as a hunter, he knew its heart to be. It grunted and released him. After an awful night tied up in a tree by his belt, he was rescued by his retinue and they tracked the blood trail to the lion’s body. The puncture wounds are clearly visible. On a visit to England he went to buy another of these knives. He told the guy at the counter that he’d killed a lion with one. The clerk said sarcastically, “Yes sir. Here we use them to kill sheep.
Mad kitter. I’ve shot a lot of wildlife footage over the years but I’ve never done anything with it. Maybe it’s time to actually cut some of it together - even though the gear I used is pretty primitive by todays standards.
I hate to brag… actually I love to brag about stuff that’s inconsequential… but this was lion sighting 4 out of 8 so far since Wednesday. Four of those were today. First up was a set of heavy boys who were shaking up the morning bush with their calls. Photographically speaking, not the best day. But I used some 19th Century style photo printing techniques to make the most of this. Only it’s a lot easier on digital where you don’t have to wave bits of card under enlargers for set numbers of carefully planned seconds.
While I’m going through some ancient pics, this is one I’ve always been fond of. Scanned a bit small. I used a clunky old Takumar 400mm lens and my old Pentax MX with Tri-X film. I’m still interested in making wildlife pics with B&W, though it’s not as original an idea as it was back in 2002 or whenever.
A tough old boy we got to see doing his thing this morning. I’m pretty sure all of us have some kind of species memory for when we were very much on these guys’ menu. There’s an eerie feeling when you see them up close. And they feature often in my nightmares.