The 2022 Africa Journals, Chapter 22: Tears on the Maasai Mara

 Chapter 22:

Tears on the Maasai Mara

“As a human being, I can easily relate to animals’ suffering because another animal died,” he says. “And maybe it is not so complicated. Maybe it does have to do with the kind of grieving that we humans feel. It may not be exactly the same, but it looks like it is related.”--Giovanni Bearzi, zoologist.

(NOTE:  If you want to see these photos in  larger images, click on one.   A filmstrip will open at the bottom and you can click through them.)

A lion cub was killed today.   While its mother was away searching for food to sustain herself and to suckle her three cubs, Cape buffalo found the cub and trampled it.

 

When the lioness returned to the brushy den where she had left her cubs earlier, she saw one lying dead in the open.   She lowered her head and sniffed it and no doubt caught the scent of the Cape buffalo that had trampled her cub.

 

Her two other cubs stumbled through the brush and grass to join her, no doubt frightened by the massive bovines that had killed their sibling.

Note the cub in the grass on the left.

 

That is the way with lions and Cape buffalo, elephants, hyenas, leopards, cheetahs, baboons, and other animals.   In a way, the trampling was revenge killing for all the buffalo and buffalo calves the lions prey upon.

The lioness knew she had to move her cubs to a different place, a safer den where the other animals couldn’t find them.  Lions don't "build dens."   They find secluded spots in thick brush to birth their cubs.   

She leaned down and grasped one cub around the neck and shoulders, picked it up and began walking.

Sometimes the second cub followed; sometimes it ran back in the direction of the old den.   When she set one cub down to get the second cub, sometimes it stayed, sometimes it followed, sometimes it ran back to where it had started.

 

It reminded me of a video I had seen of the black bear sow trying to get her four cubs across a highway.  Back and forth she went, 

Play the video!

Again and again, the lioness tried to gather her cubs in one spot.  The cubs were very young.   They had lost the blue-gray tint of just-opened eyes, and their ears stood up, rather than flop over like the ears of just born cubs.   But still, they were babies and they ran their little legs off trying to stay with mom or find a place where they felt safe.

Guide Dominick put Virginia and I in the perfect spots to photograph the lions with our long lenses.   Face on, profile, etc.  The long grass was a challenge, but we took many photos.

The second cub is on the left.

I can tell you, though, it is difficult to focus with tears in your eyes.  I began to feel that we were interfering with the lioness and her search for a safe den.  I almost said so aloud, but my feelings were not the only ones to consider.

Then the lioness reached the river bank and descended.   The guides drove us down into the sandy flats.   By this time, it was so late that my camera was useless.   It’s just as well.   The guides lingered a few moments because they wanted to know the area that she chose.   I put my camera down.

There is something about spending time with the animals of Africa that makes me feel connected to them, so when tragedy befalls them, when buffalo kill a lion cub, when a cheetah mother can't find enough food to feed her cubs, when hyenas do their dastardly deeds, tears well upon in my eyes and sometimes escape down my face.  So, I cried today.  I didn’t sob or wail or make it known that I was upset.   I kept it to myself, but I think my companions felt the same way.

It began to rain as we headed back to camp and the men put the canvas sides down so we wouldn’t get wet.  Virginia had mounted a GoPro camera on the front grill and it was turned on when we drove slowly through a herd of Cape buffalo.

 

The video below that I took with my phone from inside the truck shows exactly what the tracks in the Maasai Mara are like.

 

Play the video.

Dinner tonight was comfort food----steak, mashed potatoes, and vegetables.   I have not been taking many photos of food or videos because I did not bring the correct charging cord for my Nikon Coolpix, the little pocket camera I use for such things.   I tried to use my iPhone instead, but that brings its own problems.