First we managed to catch up with the Notch Coalition, south of the Talek River, although sadly arriving at the sighting when the light had started to become a little 'harsh' and unfortunately not during the 'golden hour' in which every photographer prays for a good sighting!
Apparently all 5 males of the coalition (including the Notch) were in the area but by the time we had arrived we could only see 3 of the males, Notch 2, Caesar and Grimace.
Notch 2 had clearly won the battle for mating rights as we found him with a female, and quite a young female at that (around 4- 4.5 years old). It looked as if they were in the early days of mating as the frequency of such was quite something and in the course of just an hour mated at least 6 times, but this would inevitably reduce in the next few days.
Mating lions is always quite an aggressive affair and this was certainly no exception and surprisingly each 'session' went on for quite some duration with the usual aggressive and violent 'dismount'. Despite the fact that the heat was growing in intensity the pair did not relent and Notch 2 was focussed on procreating, even though the female may have been in 'false oestrus' and may not even conceive as a result of the activities that would inevitably continue for the next 2-4 days. Despite the onset of a bit of 'heat shimmer' we managed to get a few nice shots.
Grimace was located a couple of hundred metres away and tucked up inside a Croton bush with two other females, one who was also young, around 4 years and we were fairly sure (like the one that Notch 2 was mating with) were females from the original Olkiombo Pride. Although Grimace failed to lift his head you could just about make out that there has been some infighting as he sported a slight injury to his left eye and looked his usual dishevelled self! and our thoughts were that this has occurred over tensions of who was going to mate with the receptive female that Notch 2 was with. Again some 100 metres away from Notch 2 and Grimace we could see the male that looked to be Caesar (but again, long grass and no clear view made it hard to be 100% on this)
We looked under what felt like every Croton in the surrounding area but were unable to find Notch or the male called 'Ron', although guides had reported they were around but had also lost them when they escaped the heat and retreated to shade in thick bush. So seeing Notch properly on this trip has still evaded us!!!
Later we headed again to look for 'Malaika' the Cheetah and her two cubs. First we came across what had apparently been a kill that she had made a few hours prior, and in a similar area to the last sighting of her. By now she had moved away and what remained was now being devoured by Vultures and a couple of cheeky jackals who zipped in, stole a bone or two and scampered off!
Looking in the the surrounding area we soon found the Cheetah family, resting in the long grass. The unbelievably cute and adorable cubs frolicked around as Malaika rested, despite her little ones trying to clamber all over her. However, our sighting of them was sadly a brief affair, whilst there were several vehicles at the sighting it was a peaceful scene and the cubs and mother were not surrounded and remained relaxed. That was sadly interrupted about 10 minutes later when it then turned into a bit of a 'circus', with several other game vehicles racing to the sighting and without any thought or understanding of how to conduct themselves ethically at a sighting, as they almost encircled the poor cats. With some rowdy tourists shrieked ridiculously loudly at delight. Ok, we were all happy at seeing the cubs and perhaps it was their first time to see Cheetah babies but you would have thought common sense may have prevailed to keep noise to a minimum given how tiny and fragile these little ones were, but sadly not! Many game vehicles, including us became quite annoyed and decided that we had to do something, so quickly moved away from the area and watched from afar, fortunately encouraging most other vehicles to follow and give the Cheetah some space. This meant we could no longer get any images but at times like this you have to forget photography and prioritise the animals welfare.
So that brought about the end to the day and another good one at that, even though it had been spoiled a little at the end by some crazy people!
'Notch 2'
.jpg)
Notch 2 mating with a lioness
.jpg)
Cute babies!
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment