Etosha: Lions

Lions on the road near Etosha Pan

At Etosha Pan lookout, some South African visitors told me that lions had been seen 7km west of the turnoff to the lookout. So back I went. Almost exactly 7km from the turnoff two cars were on the side of the road, and two lions were on my right.

I grabbed the camera, but realized that the lions were walking towards me, and I'd driven too far. So I reversed, on the wrong side of the road, holding the camera with the long lens in one hand, steering with the other, grateful for the low speed limit and high tolerance of drivers.

I'd never seen a lion in the wild. And here were two males about 50m from me.

And my roll of film ran out. Never has a new film been loaded so fast!

The lions came towards my car, walking at their deliberate and stately pace, and crossed the road between the cars.

Taking photographs of lions in the wild is easier said than done! I reversed further up the road and continued watching. Now on the other side of the road, the lions padded on, through some bushes, across a patch of gravel, and eventually out of sight into scrub.

A driver of one of the cars that had been watching this told me that the lions were heading for a waterhole and would take a couple of hours to reach it.

It was my second full day at Etosha. I felt like I could now go home having seen everything there was to see. Yet late that afternoon, I saw two more lions while driving to Namutomi camp for the night. These were lying in the grass, retiring for the night, but were too far away for useful photos.

A pride of lions v. one giraffe at Homob

Two days after I saw the lions on the road, above, some German tourists told me they had spent over an hour looking at lions at the Homob waterhole. So off to Homob we went. What transpired still seems extraordinary.

This is the scene: it was 3.30pm at Homob waterhole, with trees and bushes beyond it, and an open area around the waterhole itself.

A pride of lions was snoozing under the trees. They had been there all day. You can see two lion just in front of the tree at the back on the left. Another is in the shade of the next, big, green tree. A fourth is behind the small green bush on the left, at the front. Some others are near the trunk of the main tree in the photo.

Click on the photo to see a cropped, larger version of the picture, if you can't see them.

When I first got there, half a dozen springbok were on the ridge near the cars. They were still and attentive, and wandered away.

Half an hour later a giraffe arrived, coming in from the right, browsing on the trees beyond the waterhole. He was about 100m from the lions.

As he browsed from tree to tree, he moved in much closer to the lions, heading for the waterhole.

As the giraffe reached the waterhole, the lions began to shift around, and he stood watching them closely for some time.

It was clear the giraffe wanted to drink. A giraffe can kill a lion with its feet, but they are vulnerable when drinking.

The giraffe had slowly moved round to our side of the waterhole. He wanted to drink. The lions kept shifting around. They stared at each other.

Here, he is looking straight at the lions under the trees.

It takes some time for a giraffe to prepare to drink. He must balance carefully, then spread his front legs widely to get down far enough. It's then that he would be vulnerable to attack.

It almost seemed as if he was prepared to risk it. After all, these were sleepy lions that had spent all day in the shade of some trees. But perhaps they were ready for dinner.

It was about now that I realized the lion pride included cubs. They're too small to see on the photos. But they made me think that the lions would have more reason to hunt.

Whatever her reason, one of the lionesses decided to act.

Follow the giraffe's line of sight, and you can just see a lioness between the two trees, behind the little bush.

She walked very slowly, very deliberately, to the waterhole.

She walked all the way to the waterhole. For a long time, the giraffe stood his ground. At some point, the lioness was too close for comfort. Then he bolted.

But he didn't go far. Only about 50m away. Then he stood still and again watched the lions.

And she drank. At length.

The giraffe looked on. Here we have a giraffe and a lion at a waterhole together. You can see the lioness's reflection in the water more easily than you can see her body against the ground.