Lions for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner (October 2019)

[Mel]

Urikaruus - 14th October 2019

So far, we hadn't managed to do a tour of the Lower Dune Road down the lower Nossob into Twee Rivieren and up again on the Auob side. That was the plan for the day. It was quite overcast which we weren't too unhappy about since it meant that there might still be live by the time we arrived on the Nossob side.

First up were some elands that unfortunately legged it when we approached, so no photos there.

Next were Gina's 2016 Boys just north of Gemsbokplein.

Since they are seen in that area quite often, I think it's safe to assume that they have claimed and established their territory there now.

[Mel]

Since the boys wandered off halfway up the dunes and seeing that we still had some metres to kill, we didn't hang out with them for too long (which is rather unusual for us ).

The Dune Road wasn't particularly productive for us. Mainly birds that were far away, except for one kestrel at the entrance to Kij Gamies. But since there was already a car park we slowly carried on in order not to disturb the bird and the sighting of those birders.

Approaching Tierkop we found two cars parked already. Two cars on a Dune Road usually means something. And there was not disappointment this time either.

But the best part was that they had three tiny cubs with them The smallest I have ever seen (The SO had one up on me here when he went on an errand to Twee to pick up a spare tire for our car and saw equally small ones at Monro while I had opted to stay at Uri camp. )

First I had mistaken this female for the mum because the cubs seemed to be very attached to her, but it would turn out that it was "only" the aunty.

Unfortunately for the lions, the trough was empty...

[Mel]

... which was probably down to the elands finishing it off which one of them paid with its life

[Mel]

Here we stayed quite a bit - not so bothered about what we might not see along the Nossob anymore because we would get there too late in the morning It was awesome to watch the lions interacting - and of course the cute antics of the youngsters. Only downside was that they were a bit far off, but hey, beggars are no choosers

Reassuring the family bond

And just hanging out together

I quite like this shot because it kinda gives the illusion that the one-eyed female got a mane and four ears

[Mel]

While we were watching the pride, another female made her way down from the dunes.

Since there were even more cubs with the pride at some later point, I suspect that she had also given birth but her cubs were not old enough to be introduced yet.

[Mel]

And of course the stars of the show

Alas, I never managed to get all three of them together in one shot, but two is better than none

They were pretty agile and not scared of their dad at all, but then again, he was very gentle with them and never even so much as hissed at them.

Mum on the other hand was less patient with one of them crawling on top of her...

... and just got up to stop that nonsense.

[Mel]

Once they started sucking, we decided to leave because the cubs would probably fall asleep after having been fed anyways.

[Mel]

Arriving on the Nossob side, we saw a congregation of a variety of antelopes including eland and their carcasses. However, it was extremely busy with cars there which we are not good at, so we carried on and turned north first because we a) hoped to see the young leopard that had been hanging out there in the past and b) to use the facility at Melkvlei. Instead of the leopard we found more lions just a few metres north of the waterhole. But they were rather far away and kipping anyway, so we kept moving.

Returning to Kij Kij later on, the scene had changed quite a bit. There were even more animals and even more cars plus some big lumps underneath a tree about 200 m away from the actual waterhole. At first I had the lumps for yet more lions but it quickly turned out to be five spotted hyenas who had obviously worked on the eland carcasses around the waterhole, judging by the size of their bellies. Photo conditions were awful since the sun had come out by then and the hyenas were too far not to catch that heat glare on a picture. Hence, nothing from that sighting. One of the hyenas had been lying in the sun and got up to join the others in the shade. As that was the most commotion that was to be expected until much later in the day we got going again.

The guy in the car in front of us noticed our packing up and hurried to get on the road before us. He didn't go very far - only a few kays - before he stopped again on the left side of the road. We couldn't see what that was all about but it didn't take long for the critter to show itself.

[Mel]

Obviously that guy had already seen the caracal on his way up and knew where to find it again. But the caracal didn't play to his rules and walked towards us instead which gave us the prime position to watch it

As you can see from the pix, it was stalking something, but we totally couldn't make out what it was.

All of a sudden the caracal ran, pounced and then there was only sand dust... And despite having been in the best position to shoot photos of the chase, I managed to screw up royally.

At least one can see that it was a squirrel the caracal had been after (Sorry, Lis!)

[Mel]

A hell of a day that had been! And it was round off with the Verraux close to the entrance gate at Twee - inside the camp that is!

I strongly suspect that this is the one that could be found on an old weaver nest a few kays outside of Twee for years and that had decided it was time for a move.