Recently at Camp Savuti, wildlife photographer Kevin MacLaughlin captured this delightful series of pictures that would make any lion lover jealous. A pride of playful lion cubs gallivanted in the Savuti marshland, not a care in the world for the awed onlookers who were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.
The Savuti is famous for abundant elephant populations, and lions; both of which have been documented extensively on the likes of National Geographic by heavyweight filmmakers, Dereck and Beverly Joubert. The tragic, yet spectacular truth about the lions of the Savuti is their specialised ability to hunt and kill elephants – a feat that required the co-operation of entire prides to take down these huge beasts.
When the Savuti Channel was bone-dry during a 30-year drought, lion prides were large and they spanned vast territories, dominating this region of Chobe and acquiring a reputation that still stands today. Since the reintroduction of the flowing Savuti Channel, the occurrences of elephant killings have declined and the prides of the Savuti are more segmented; however the most likely place in Africa to witness this natural spectacle is right here in Camp Savuti’s back yard.
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