A distant rumble and cough-like roar echoes through the Kwatale concession. The night is piercingly quiet, yet full of promise. The crisp stillness of the darkness hovering over the landscape ensures that sound carries far – a prime reason as to why cats contact call during the dead of night. The sound reverberating through the Kwatale is passive yet firm enough to make those at Tuskers Bush Camp stop and listen. If sounds were accurately interpreted, these roars would be deciphered as “this is my turf, I’m here – where’s my gang?”
The rasp of the contact calling from the lions is often heard in the early hours of the morning and by all accounts, they seem to be in close proximity to camp. But, where are they hiding? They’re there all right – it’s just a case of Dan and the team honing in on their tracking skills. Which is exactly what happened a few nights ago. The pan in front of the camp was the chosen spot for the cats. At 4:30 am, Dan set out to track and observe the lions of Tuskers Bush Camp. He uncovered a part of the puzzle – there appeared to be two males and one lioness on the scene.
It was reported that there were other lionesses in the thickets but there was no visual. This leads us to believe that this is the loosely constructed pride often seen on our traverse.
Before we regale the story of Dan’s cat viewing experience, let’s recap about our recorded sightings of the lions of the Kwatale Concession. This is an excerpt taken from another one of our Kwatale lion blog posts.
A large male lion was photographed on our secret camera trap. There is confirmation that we have four lions in the immediate area and one large, dominant male. Two males and two females were seen over the weekend in the vicinity of the partially filled pan. One lioness appears to be quite a bit older than the rest – at least 4/5 years old and there’s speculation that she is the mother of at least two lions.
It appears Dan spotted 3 lions from the above the pride. When Dan went on his lion spotting expedition, little did he know what lay ahead. By the time he’d reached the pan where the calls were coming from, the lions had wandered off in hot pursuit of something more entertaining.
Visibility was poor which meant Dan couldn’t follow the tracks. A despondent Dan decided to switch off the hum of the engine so he could listen to the sounds of the night and the potential return of the lions. Unfortunately, his efforts lead him nowhere. Out of the blue Dan heard a lone elephant kicking up a fuss on the road close to the pan. The lions were contact calling close the elephant drama so Dan followed his instincts and decided to investigate. What he found was an angry elephant in musth!
Dan was now engaged in a serious comedy of errors – he couldn’t move because of the temperamental elephant but desperately wanted to locate the lions! At that moment in time, the lions decided to walk across the road, providing a nice sighting for Dan.
However, the angry pachyderm took it upon himself to knock over a tree and block the access road. Dan watched the highlight of the night’s sighting rapidly disappear over the ridge close to the road. Not one to give up, he found a different route and spotted his lions.
We can confirm that this slightly splintered pride operates in the area surrounding Tuskers Bush Camp.
Stay tuned for information about the lions of the Kwatale concession.
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