Lions for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner (October 2019)

[Mel]

Good gracious, Mello!

A caracal kill away from water!

That one-eyed lioness probably scares her prey to death...

Such quality pics and interesting poses and vignettes...you really are very clever!

so much for your continued support and your ever encouraging comments

You know, I thought, the one-eyed female should actually the famous one-eyed male.
Wouldn't be too unreal either as they don't live that far apart

[Mel]

Hey, what a day I could need one of those

When the cubs are so small they are simply irrisistable

I suppose that also caracals must eat and a squirrel is better sized than a mouse I don't know how many caracals there are in KTP, but it is certainly not a common sighting.

Great text

Happy you liked the writing too Thank you!

And you know how much I love my cheetah. Hence I was always totally happy with our Hanri sightings.
But this was definitely the busiest day with pretty good sightings throughout

[Mel]

Wow, never thought about Caracals preying on squirrels, but it makes sense.

AW-w-w SO glad you got to see such tiny lion cubs, and great pictures to boot Simply wonderful.

Ex!

However, I wouldn't have disagreed with the pride being closer still
But I'm still happy with what I got. Beggars are no choosers

The caracal was probably tired of the "poultry" so it went for some different taste

[Mel]

The lion with the blind eye is kinda scary looking! Such cute babas!!

Wow, amazing caracal sighting!!

I got more blind eye to come at some point, so take your blanket to hide

so much, Flutts!

[Mel]

Great sightings

[Mel]

Urikaruus - 15th October 2019

After our grand day we did hear about two leopards at 14th AND 13th in the morning and evening respectively. The SO shares my love for the cheetahs, granted, but his love for the leopards is even greater, hence he was antsy to check out the north rather than going down south immediately. Most of the other guests at the camp had already gone - and it wasn't even half an hour after gate opening yet

We didn't have to go far before we bumped into all of them again. And even though we couldn't see a thing, we were pretty sure that they had picked up one of the leopards because all cars were set on reverse and we doubted everyone would do so on a trip when lions could be seen almost everywhere. Ex and I have since established that it was her and her hubby who confirmed our suspicion, albeit not knowing we were talking to each other back then

Anyways, a few pix of another leopard I've always wanted to see - Botshelo.

[Mel]

We were the last on the scene and Botshelo was moving in our direction. All cars still reversing, we very quickly decided that we had our very lucky share and wouldn't want to get in the way and upset those who were at the scene first, so we let everyone pass. One of the other passengers briefly talked to us as well and mentioned kinda as a side note that they had thought that the lions at 13th already had been their sighting of the day. Of course we had to go and check those out too

Here they are:

Stretchhhh

Both not looking too enchanted

Trying out some b/w

And "normal" again

[Mel]

Lions will be lions - and males on top of it - so they soon settled into mode and I lost interest. After all it was still leopard o'clock and there was still a chance that Miera might show up down south. Therefore we turned around and headed back again. Just before the camp entrance we quickly discussed going back to camp to see if Botshelo might amble through, seeing that he had vanished in the shrubs that lead there, but I was adamant not to lose precious time and to carry on. We should later learn that the leopard had indeed visited the camp waterhole and I still feel kinda guilty that I didn't succumb to the SO's idea who had been rather inclined to go back and see if Botshelo would arrive

Also, we traded, no - I traded, another perfectly astonishing leopard sighting (like with all the right lighting) against another one of the generally more exciting sightings but still a rather "lame" sighting of yet more lions

[Mel]

On the evening drive which took us up north we found the lions still even though there were antelopes, including elands close by. And a watehole further we found a pretty eland calf very close to the road

Otherwise things were pretty quiet, even at the camp waterhole that night.

[Peter Betts]

Hey, what a day I could need one of those

When the cubs are so small they are simply irrisistable

I suppose that also caracals must eat and a squirrel is better sized than a mouse I don't know how many caracals there are in KTP, but it is certainly not a common sighting.

Great text

Happy you liked the writing too Thank you!

And you know how much I love my cheetah. Hence I was always totally happy with our Hanri sightings.
But this was definitely the busiest day with pretty good sightings throughout

Plenty caracal in KTP ..Not a common sighting as they are almost 100% Nocturnal