I just received photos of a spectacular lion kill that occurred about a week ago. At the same time, we had another lion kill (all in front of guests) about two weeks ago, which was even filmed. We are just working on this film footage and will post it here shortly. It is gruesome, but extremely gripping, I can promise you that much!
We have now seen 4 lion kills on our reserve over the course of the last 6 months. That is a very high number for a lodge to generate over such a small amount of time. Most rangers will have seen 3-5 kills in their whole careers. Mike has seen two over the last 6 months, Pierre one, and Jonathan the other. So that shows how lucky they have been over a few months only.
What’s interesting also is the fact that all four kills involved (poor them!) warthogs. We have found carcasses of killed kudus, giraffes, as well as wildebeest, so they catch anything (especially the giraffes requires enormeous skill and tactical savvy so we were very impressed), but they seem to catch warthogs every day, and indeed they have specialised in digging out warthogs out of their burrows, and enjoying them as pre-meal appetisers. Well, who doesn’t like some bacon for breakfast? They certainly do.
Please see again here the footage of the lion kill about 6 months ago, where big daddy showed the little ones how hunting warthogs is done:
Now the little ones have grown up, and they enjoy hunting warthogs themselves. How fast they grew up! Just 6 months ago they were scared like chicken of the tiniest warthog, and now they go for anything and everything. They have been raised well!
