The 2025 Botswana Journals, Ch. 24: The Conundrum of Too Many Photos

(Remember:   Click on one photo and a film strip will come that allows full-screen viewing of photos only.)        

What a conundrum I face as I try to adequately tell you about November 9^th at Mashatu Game Reserve.

        No, not “tell.”   “Show.”  The golden rule of writing is the axiomatic “show, don’t tell.” 

        Well, while going through the photos from our morning game drive, I selected 91 photos and four videos for the period from 5 AM until we returned to Tuli Lodge for lunch.

        That isn’t going to work.  It’s too much for one chapter.   I decided that henceforth, Nov. 9 will be divided into three chapters, with two concentrating on specific animals—lions and elephants.   And that's just for the morning!

        So, we begin at 5 AM today as we pull out of camp into the most beautiful and vivid sunrise I’ve seen yet.

        And the resident hornbills are there to greet the day with us.   These three photos were taken shortly after 5 AM.

These birds look large, but they are the smallest too the hornbills, about 17 inches long and not weighing even a pound.   Compare that to the Alaskan common raven, which is about 2.5 lbs., and up to 27 inches long.

        By 6 AM, we are in the company of a pride of flat cats.  The lions are all stretched out, bellies like volley balls, sated after eating a zebra.   

        There is a dining hierarchy in lion prides.  The male ALWAYS eats first.   Since the male can consume 88 lbs. of meat from a kill, that can be problematic for the other lions in the pride.

One of the younger cubs.

  

        Then, the adult females eat, and then the cubs.   I have witnessed this often in my travels in Africa.  

 

                Of course, if the alpha male isn’t around when females take down an animal, the females eat first, then the cubs.  

        If Big Daddy shows up after the females have done the hard part, he takes over, and the others wait their turns.  He might allow the adult females to join him eventually, and later, he will stay around to guard what’s left of the kill.

         That is the point at which they were when we joined the pride.

Video of the lions at the kill and Big Daddy guarding it.   Cell phone video in early morning so the color is a bit off.

        The youngest cubs are chewing on bones, trying to get the last morsels of meat.   Big Daddy is right next to the kill, as is one adult lioness.   Big Daddy is quite alert and looking in the direction of several sub-adult lions in some bushes.

 

 

Note the sub-adult cubs watching from a distance.

        The alpha male gets distracted by a scent from the lioness.

        

        

        NO!! She snarls,  and "go away!"

        Below, in three photos, the lion exhibits the Flehman response, in which a scent is a form of chemical communication.   The scent is drawn through the mouth, lips curled,  to an olfactory scent organ. Many animals react to urine and other scents to determine if another is ready for mating, as well as other indicators, such as territorial markings.

Be sure to look at the photo below in full screen to see the lion's expression.

        With a "NO" from the lioness, he marks his territory.

        A little close- up of lion anatomy.  Yes, they pee and spray backwards.

Testicles and the penile sheath.   That's ho0w they can pee and spray backwards.  You always wanted to know that, right?  Or is it TMI?

        Lazing about, but with a watchful eye on the sub-adults.

Sub-adults making a move?   Or just changing positions?

        Look out, youngster!! 

                Big Daddy sees what the youngsters are doing.   And decides to reassert his authority.

        Now that he's reminded the sub-adults of the hierarchy,  the alpha male returns to guard what's left of the kill, and marks his territory again.

        The next day, someone sees one of the sub-adult cubs looking like it had been in a scuffle.   It was pretty beat and limping.

I have no idea why Marg doesn't have a camera in her hands.

   I thought about the lion encounter for a long time and came up with a theory that I shared with Bashi, and he agreed that my thoughts were very likely what happened.

        My theory:   Based on the belly sizes, I figured the lionesses brought down the zebra and then ate,  with or followed by the sub-adults, and then the young cubs.

        Somewhere along the line, before the sub-adults had eaten very much, the alpha male showed up and ran everyone away until he'd eaten his fill.   The youngest cubs were then allowed back to the kill, but the sub-adult males were not.

        Most likely, and Bashi agreed, the sub-adult males would be run off soon and not allowed back in the pride because they are almost mature.   The males will form a coalition and seek to get their own pride.   They might even fight Big Daddy for this pride, or find another pride to take over.

            The females will stay with the pride.

        If and when this happens, all the cubs from this pride or another are in danger of being killed.

We drive about 15 minutes away and stop for the morning tea break.