It146;s the lioness

Is the lion king of the African jungle? I8217;m not sure anymore. It probably depends on what you mean by king. But the lioness is surely queen. Only yesterday she came close to our four-wheel drive at the Ngorongoro Crater and brought her cubs along. The sun was beating down hard and the driver said she wanted to lie down in the shade of the car. Personally, I think she came over to say hello. She looked me in the eye and I looked back at the gorgeous yellow brown eyes and was mesmerised. In the African jungle it is the lioness who rules. She hunts and brings home the bacon. She brings up the cubs and is seen about more often then the male who is generally taking a siesta under some rock.

And then in the evening we had just entered Serengetti National Park and our driver took a detour. We saw three jeeps under an acacia tree. Our first reaction was that there was a leopard in the tree. But no. It was lion and a lioness perched high in the branches. How they got there, only God knows. But they seemed mighty comfortable and were looking curiously at us below while we stared up at them. A few minutes passed and the lioness seemed to think that this was too much of a good thing. Deftly she picked her way down the acacia tree. The lion followed her and made it down alright though he hesitated somewhat in the lower branches.

Boniface, our driver and guide, said that they were off hunting. Less than half a kilometer away, migration was going on and the pair made its way towards it. Hundreds of wilderbeast were moving in a row from Serengetti to Masai Mara in search of water and grazing. There were a few zebras, but mainly it was a wilderbeast migration. The lion stalked the wilderbeast and then lunged, scattering them and pushing them towards the lioness who attacked. But somehow the wilderbeast escaped. However, it was an extremely telling example of playing second fiddle.

Two days later at Masai Mara National Park, we came upon a most impressive sight. Four young male lions were busy demolishing what looked like the carcass of a baby buffalo. They were crunching at the bones and trying to escape the tse tse flies buzzing around. The eating was interspersed with an occasional toss of the mane and a roar. The hyenas, jackals and vultures were hovering around just out of reach. It was a primeval scene. There were no lionesses around. But I wondered whether the cape buffalo had been brought down by a lioness.