The one everybody comes for
Lion
The lion is the animal that gets people onto the plane, and the animal they are most likely to see asleep. Lions rest for the better part of the day — sixteen to twenty hours is normal — and what you get at eleven in the morning is a tawny shape under a bush that does not move.
Its day begins when yours is almost over. Hunting happens in the cool of the night, and it is mostly the lionesses that set out. In the evening and in the first light of morning the pride starts moving, and after dark you hear lions best: their roar carries up to eight kilometres. If you have once lain awake in a tent and listened, you will not forget it.
The lion is the only big cat that lives in groups. That is what makes a sighting so special. A pride is a web of relationships: sisters raising cubs together, young animals testing their limits, and heads rubbed together in greeting. Sometimes males team up as well, usually brothers. They form a coalition, roam the land together, hunt as a team and defend their territory.
For the camera
- A sleeping lion is not a photograph. Wait for the yawn, the stretch or the head lifting — it comes, usually when everybody else has driven off.
- Black and white solves the biggest problem with lions: at midday the colour of a lion and the colour of dry grass are the same colour.
- The cubs are where the pictures are. They move while the adults do not.
Questions people ask
Am I likely to see lions?
The chances are best in the Kgalagadi and in Etosha. The terrain is open there, you can see far, and no bush blocks the view. In Etosha the lions gather especially at the waterholes. Scan the shade of the bushes and trees along the edge, because that is exactly where they like to lie.
But the chances are good in Kruger National Park, at the Chobe and in Mana Pools too. Do not be disappointed if you only see them asleep, or be patient: the moment will come when a lion that was sleeping sits up, scans its surroundings and shortly afterwards lets its head drop to the side again and goes back to sleep.
Is it safe in a car?
Yes, as long as you stay in the vehicle. Lions see a car neither as prey nor as a threat. To them it is a large, uninteresting shape. A person who gets out, on the other hand, is both a threat and potential prey.
