Lion Kill
This is now the third newsletter since Brian and I have been at Kafunta Safaris and we cannot believe how quickly time goes and how the Luangwa Valley itself has changed. We have seen how wet the valley can be during the rainy season and floods, we have watched how this water has evaporated and the area become dry and dusty. This of course, does not change the beauty of the area or in fact our game viewing. Our game viewing over the last couple of months has been excellent, with lots of leopard, lion, elephant and hyena sightings just to mention a few. Of course, we always have herds of puku and impala in front of Kafunta River Lodge. Island Bush Camp too has had it’s fair share of good game sightings. There is however, one sighting that sticks in our mind and this is what I would like to talk about.
One evening a few weeks ago, Brian and I were sitting in our small garden outside our house, sipping our gin & tonics and discussing the day’s activities well after the sun had set. When we suddenly heard the hyena’s start cackling. For those who have never heard a hyena cackle, it is often referred to as laughter and hyenas generally only do this when there is food about. Needless to say this was only a few meters from our house and not much further from Kafunta, this was somewhat exciting. We then moved a little way from the house when a menacing growl was heard. The lions had moved in – the sounds were incredible, both the hyena and the lions were making rather a lot of noise. At this point, Brian ran back to the main building and grabbed a vehicle, to which we drove out to the open area to the side of the camp and in front of our house. There we found 6 lions on a fresh male impala kill. We spent a few minutes watching the interaction between the male and female lions (the male had possession of the kill), when we signalled our game drive vehicles and then returned to the lodge to pick up the guests who had only arrived at Kafunta the hour before.
Once back at the kill we spent another 30 minutes watching the interaction between these stunning cats. The male was extremely possessive of the carcass and as much as one young female tried to sneak in and pinch a morsel or two. This of course led to a few arguments and she was always unsuccessful. Meanwhile, the other females were giving each other displays of affection and we watched as 2 females greeted each other and rubbed faces. After watching this display for another 10-15 minutes, we all returned to the lodge for dinner.
After dinner the lions started territorial calling which is a fantastic sound and Brian and I lay in bed commenting on how fantastic this sound was. By midnight this calling was still ongoing and its initial charm was beginning to wear slightly thin on us. At 2am all initial charm was lost and we both debated which pair of shoes were dispensable so that it could be thrown at the lions in order to shut them up. The lions were of course, very vocal throughout the night until the early morning and we still have all of our shoes. Sadly there was no sign of the lions the next morning and all that was left of the poor impala was a pair of horns. This just goes to show that you do not always need to leave the comfort of the lodge to have brilliant wildlife sightings even if they do keep you awake all night.
Best regards