The king of the jungle (an odd name for a species that is rarely, if ever, found in the jungle) any encounter can be exciting. This is a species which is quite capable of killing and eating humans. Indeed, there are a number of books written on such occasions, such as “the maneaters of Tsavo” and the most recent “the maneaters of Eden” (this later one is about the man-eating lions of the Kruger). A great deal of care must be taken around a lion
Encounters…
- Selous: Lion visits camp Sitting around our fire in the dusk of the Selous we were enjoying some food and listening to the many sounds around us. If your experience is limited to places like the Kruger a reserve like the Selous will be quite an eye opener. Gone are the fences, indeed there is absolutely nothing to stop their animals from wandering through camp. It should be noted that in many places this does increase the costs as it requires rental of a night guard though as you will hear our night guard proved to be not worth their money at all. Given the fact that we had had to fly to Tanzania, we did not have large amounts of equipment, so we were sitting on the floor. Our night guard was a day guide, which is a complete rip-off, as when he arrived he checked we were okay and went to bed (before 8pm). So what could we hear? The main sound that we heard was the grunting of the hippos in the lake about 100m below us. Alongside this, we were listening to the occasional whoop of local hyenas, and the growls and roars of lions from all around the camp. Alongside this, was the constant buzz of the cicadas from all around. We had had a very simple supper (our driver had taken pity on us, and given us some of his, far more tasty than what we had procured), and were sitting listening to the sounds of the night. About 30 minutes after he went to bed, we were sitting, quietly listening to the wildlife around us, and generally enjoying being in this wild place. A fire was relatively close to us. This was built by our driver, and his intention was to keep the wildlife at bay. Without warning, a lioness silently padded towards us, out of the dark. As is quite common, when your light source is a fire, anything can appear very suddenly as the light does not extend far from the fire (partly also because the firelight dazzles people’s eyes making it hard to look into the dark. We watched her, as she continued her route straight through the campsite, keeping her gaze on us. That moment of eye contact will stay with me forever. As with any healthy lion, she did not see us as food and had a healthy fear of fire, so did not deviate from her route through the camp. Given our lack of chairs, we were sitting on the ground, so were the same height as she was. She continued on, and we watched her fade back into the dark of the night. We were left behind, having had one of our most exciting encounters, as we listened to the lions around us, communicating over distance (while dominant male lions will patrol the edge of their territory to scent-mark it, much of the claims are made vocally as well, though humans are unclear how much information can be understood from a roar). On the only walk we did in the Selous, we also had an eye opening experience. In the Kruger, if you hear lions, the general response is to change direction. In the Selous though, on the only occasion we kept on walking straight towards the lion. While it is true that the lion was quite a distance off, it is also true that the Selous is the only place where it is legal to track lions on foot (not to kill them, but merely to enjoy seeing them.
