Waking up after a siesta is never easy.
This lions was in fact known to our guide. Lions can live to 15 in the wild but our guide and his colleagues are pretty sure this guy was older. Even without a guide you would know this guy was the equivalent of a pensioner. His movements and behaviour was just slow and careful, just like any elderly human afraid of breaking a hip.
I was lucky to go straight out and find a lioness on my first game drive in the Masai Mara in Kenya. Well I thought I was lucky. Our guide explained afterwards that some animals are creatures of routine, and this lioness and her pride always took an afternoon siesta in similar places.
I was lucky to go straight out and find a lioness on my first game drive in the Masai Mara in Kenya. Well I thought I was lucky. Our guide explained afterwards that some animals are creatures of routine, and this lioness and her pride always took an afternoon siesta in similar places.
Serval's are one of Africa's lesser known cats. This is only because their size fails to grab the attention the way the big cats do. However they are equally adept at hunting and stalking and are amazing to see in the flesh.
Unfortunately I have yet to see a cheetah running at full speed. This guy did a little bit of stalking through the grass right beside our safari vehicle but then decided to just give up. I guess he decided it wasn't a realistic hunt and would be a waste of energy to go flat out just so I could get a photo.
I met this guy with his brother out for an evening stroll. They were just wandering as cheetah do. Just looking for a bit of prey that would be easy enough to stalk and capture. Since they found nothing they just settled under a bush for a bit of shade.
After the small rainy season the land is still relatively dry. However one or two afternoon storms make it a lot easier for animals to find water without the long trek to the nearest big river. At least there are no crocodiles in this puddle.
Sometimes animals come a bit too close to your safari vehicle. Cheetahs especially like to do this for shade, camouflage and sometimes climb on top for a better view point. I am not a fan of this though so we drove back a bit before he got any ideas.
Nothing compares to seeing the confidence of a male line strutting through the grasses of the savanna. If I was that big and strong I guess I would be equally confident that nothing could hurt me.
Everybody likes a good kopje for a lookout point. If we were allowed out of the vehicle in the national parks we would have climbed up too, to see what intersting prey we could find for our cameras.
As age catches up with you the warm hot days in the Serengeti can take their toll. Sitting out in the sun all day isn't good for a lion thought to be over 15 years old.
This lioness might not have eaten in a long time before I met her. Lions look powerful from a distance but up close you can really see when they are weak and hungry. However there is still a lot of reserve power in their hunting muscles.
This lioness was encountered on the famous S100 road in Kruger National park. I hadn't seen very many predators in my week there but when I got to this area I had lions all morning long.
This lioness was a little bit isolated from her pride but they were not too far away. It was just the long grasses that hide them so well when they are hunting that prevented me from photographing the others.
Leopards are probably the most difficult to see of the big cats. They hide and camouflage themselves so well. However given the warning calls of the monkeys and deer we were led to this beautiful specimen hiding carefully in the bush.
