Eight lionesses drinking at a waterhole at Africa on Foot
Changing your status on Facebook to “not eaten yet” doesn’t seem as funny when you are tracking lions through scrub at night in an open Land Rover with a spotlight!
We had seen the pride in the afternoon when they had been lying asleep in a huddle, absentmindedly flicking their tails and occasionally opening an eye to let us know they knew we were there. It seemed almost pedestrian.
However, being blasé about “they’re asleep” is quite different at night. We all felt very exposed sitting on top of an open-topped Land Rover and soon remembered how difficult they were to spot in the long grass in daylight. Every tussock could have been a potential dinner date with us on the menu.
When we finally came across the group, they didn’t appear to have moved. Then they began to stir and yawn (apparently to increase their oxygen, according to our guide), ready for action. One of the females appeared to be in season, raising her tail and backing up to the males. One gave a perfect example of spraying, and I should have taken a photograph for the animal behaviourist, Kirsti Seksel! The smell of spraying is bad enough with my Burmese cats in my kitchen, so I hate to think what a couple of pints of lioness spray smells like. One couple seemed very interested in each other, and for a while, I hoped we would see them mating, but the lionesses were keener to go off hunting.
The lions kept well back and made themselves comfortable wriggling down on their haunches and waiting, just like your average tabby in a spot of sunshine. Once it got dark, our spotter, sitting in a small seat perched on the left-hand side of the bonnet, kept moving his light over the pride – probably a good idea in keeping an eye on what they were doing but not quite so good for photography.
I was sitting in the back of the jeep with my Canon 5D MkII and a 100 to 400 lens. I had started with a monopod, which certainly gave more stability, but but I couldn’t move around enough, particularly as everyone in front was wearing a hat!
The “real” wildlife photographers sit for 8 hours waiting for the perfect shot, but that would really drive me insane! But all is a compromise. So I increased the ISO as the sun went down and tried to maximise the shutter speed.
Lionesses strolling next to our jeep at night
Lioness strolling next to our jeep at night
