BAOBAB

Its bark is fire resistant. Its fruit is edible. It scoffs at the driest droughts. It shrugs, and another decade has passed. It is the baobab, one of the longest-living, strangest looking trees in the world.

Several species exist in the genus Adansonia, mostly in the semi-deserts of Africa and southern Asia.

They can grow to be nearly 100 feet tall—but it’s the baobab’s bulk and stature that is so astonishing; many have trunks 30 feet in diameter.

Bizarre lion behaviour in the Okavango Delta

“We were on a game drive in the Okavango Delta when we heard lions fighting in the thickets. Upon investigation we came across four young male lions that had caught a young female lion from a nearby pride. The lioness was part of a small group of lions that had a kill too far into the other territory. They were surprised by the four males, the one lioness was caught whilst the rest fled. While the four had successfully subdued the female in what had been a vicious fight they began feeding on her while she was still alive. As the lioness took her last breaths, the four males were feeding on her as if it was a normal prey animal. More bizarre was when two lionesses from the four male lion’s pride joined them to feed and in a fairly short time cleaned up the carcass to only leave a few bones.
In 20 years of safari guiding, I have never come across such strange behavior of male lions towards a female and despite total submission, continued to kill her in an act of cannibalism partaken by all. This was more than a territorial dispute, it was totally abnormal lion behavior.”

© Ole Friede

© Ole Friede

A lesson learnt!

It was an uncharacteristically cold and rainy day in the Lowveld, and even though the weather resembled that of England rather than Africa, we went on a drive to look for some game, even bringing our cameras. The drive started slowly  (animals generally are not keen on the cold, wet weather either), but eventually we came across two young lions at the edge of a dam.

The two young lions exploring the edge of the dam

Many would think that a cold overcast day would be bad for photography,

 it’s actually quite the opposite, it makes metering and exposure much

 easier. So we started snapping away.

Whilst watching the youngsters we noticed something approaching on

 the opposite side of the dam. “Yes!” we all shared the same excitement. 

A cheetah, this was amazing, we had two big cats right in front of us.

The cheetah coming down for a drink

The lion takes a vantage point to see the cheetah more clearly

At the edge of the bush the cheetah notices the lions

Now we were  assuming that the cheetah would flee the scene in a cloud full
of dust, for fear of the adult lions being around but to prove us wrong he
 did the opposite and continued his course in a bold fashion. This sparks
 a reaction from the lions and we soon see a confrontation fast approaching
 “Get your cameras ready folks, this is going to be good!”

The lion decides this is a challenge and comes down

Things where fast becoming interesting as we watched the event unfold unsure
of what was going to happen. This is where our passion for wildlife really
comes peaks, seeing animals in unusual circumstances and watching it all
play out in front of your very eyes. We watched in anticipation…

The cheetah reaches the waters edge but crouches down as the smaller of the lions begins circling

The lion and cheetah soon get within a few meters of each other and the Cheetah
shows signs of submission, crouching he senses the danger of her younger, but
 much stronger stranger. The larger of the two lions makes the first move.
 She rushes in with a sudden burst of energy, showing her superior strength
 and gives the Cheetah (and us) quite a fright. From the ground the cheetah
 looks to be in trouble, but with a swift movement he swipes at the young
 female lion taking her by surprise and highlighting her inexperience in such
 conflicts.
Within a few clicks of the camera we spot the second, smaller lion who rushes
onto the scene to help his sister. Now the cheetah is outnumbered and
overpowered, seems like the only option here is to forget the fight and
 consider flight.

Suddenly the larger lion rushes in!

But the cheetah holds its ground and swipes at the inexperienced lion

Sensing an opportunity, the second lion joins in and they gang up on the cheetah

I am outta here! The cheetah makes a break for it

We are still silently watching the scene unfold in front of us with open mouths and white knuckles.

Defiantly the cheetah does not dash off but hisses and snarls at the cubs as they run parallel to him.

After he made his point the thirsty cheetah takes off into the bush with lions close behind.

The Cheetah has a moment of confidence (or madness) and stands his ground against the male cub, snarling and hissing.

The stand off lasts a few moments before the Cheetah puts on his running shoes and exits the scene with the lion hot on his heels but soon realises the game is over. The cheetah flees into the bush leaving the lions and us in his dust.

This all happened so fast and looking through the camera eyepiece, we found it hard to comprehend what actually happened till we looked at the images. Relieved that the confrontation turned out with no injuries, a good lesson was learnt by both cats. This experience also taught us a good lesson - always pick up your camera no matter what the conditions.