May 17 2008
sleepy cats galore
Here are a few observations from yesterday.
One of the younger cubs from Nempakai’s pride. Clearly a very satisfying stretch.
I’d never really thought about this before, but it occurred to me yesterday while I was sitting with them that lions have an interesting way of wrinkling their noses when they yawn. I think that its a way of keeping their whiskers out of their faces. The lion below is one of the adult females in the pride. Its a kind of grimace, and looks a little bit silly. Not ferocious really.
Just as the sun was about to dip below the horizon the pride started to wake up. My camera shutter caught the attention of one of the older cubs.
Technorati : conservation, lion behaviour, lions, research, wildlife
6 responses so far
Beautiful pictures. Thank you for sharing them. The cub looks like he/she could be part leopard with those spots. Are cubs usually spotted at that age? Lisa
Seamus, just how close were you, when you shot these pics? Are these lions starting to accept your presence? Don’t know if you saw the documentary, where Dave Salomi tried to get as close as he could to a pride of wild lions. Everyday, he would inch his way closer, carrying only a very big stick. He would talk to them saying “nice lion” or if they started to move towards him, he would say “backing away”. The lions learned to associate these phrases with his actions…he finaly got to about 25 yards or so distance to them. Pretty interesting stuff. BTW, all your lion pictures are spectacular, love the themes. Thank you!
Thank you!
Lisa - they are spotted when young, but not always so pronounced. I’ll post a bit of video soon on this topic.
Theresa - about 25 metres, while in the vehicle. To some extent these lions are comfortable with the presence of a carefully driven vehicle. Partly because its a very large pride; many of them are youngsters; and they spent a few months in Amboseli National Park. Nope, I didn’t see that particular documentary.
Glad to see photographic evidence of your lions. After my two trips to your place, without so much as a whiff of a lion, I was starting to think you were a fantasist with a knack for writing brilliant project proposals
Crilly old chap. As I live and breathe. So glad you haven’t been maimed / killed by pirates, warlords, ethiopian military forces or american bombers up north there. Yes I have a confession to make. I’m just a fantasist, with no pretensions of being able to write funding proposals, let alone brilliant ones. Hence I eke out a living by micro-donations from WD!