this program features live coverage of
an African safari and may include animal
kills and caucuses viewer discretion is
advised
good afternoon everybody welcome once
again to the Sun set Safari yeah down in
Juma in the South Africa where we sit
with a few lions lying down here just on
the side of the road my name is Steven
I’m joined by Sebastian ROM be on camera
and we are very excited to be out on
this very cool and blustery afternoon
it’s about 22 degrees Celsius about 63
degrees Fahrenheit him well we found
them this morning and we have managed to
find them again so that guy there is the
Avoca male known as snarly or mohawk
neither one he’s got a very distinctive
sort of mohawk to him he’s got a very
beaten up face since last us so I’m will
hopefully get another look at him and he
is with also amber eyes I think I’m not
sure at the moment which one is our
buyers and which one is the purple eye
but amber eyes is one of those two and
purple eye is the other one they’re both
pretty old lionesses DUP and apparently
though we didn’t see it this morning but
apparently there was at least one mating
session with the server camille and
amber eyes which is quite exciting
Tristan and I were just chatting at
about it before and wouldn’t it be
wonderful if the uncle homers gave birth
to a number of cabs just like the baby
boom of the Mara that is taking place
right now to go in conjunction with our
hyena den the Juma clan baby boom as
well vodkas are well-established now
they’ve been here since about February
March last year coming in and out and
since about May or so they haven’t
really been challenged by anyone that we
know about down here in Juma what goes
on up in the northern areas of before
suck up into Mannie later to the north
of us very hard to say but now that they
are looking off these females maybe it
will be time for some Cubs to follow
anyway I’m not the only one out the
South that entry Charlotte has
a little bit further west for me she’s
going to see if she can find the other
group of from this morning well I’m so
glad you’ve come over to me to see what
I’m doing because I have just arrived at
a wonderful sighting let’s see
surprise more lions how exciting is that
sorry guys I didn’t even get to
introduce myself I got excited here at
the lion sighting but I’m sure she’ll
and I’ve got Craig on camera and we’re
really excited to be here with these
lions now if she look closely you’ll see
the male is an extreme right you can see
sort of the main stunning so apparently
they’ve made it really really soon a
couple minutes ago so it might be a few
more minutes till they made again and
until then they will probably be sitting
around like this and sitting around in
sort of the shade it’s a bit cooler now
and then I’ll get up do a bit of
I’d love to get a really good look at
mrs. Avenue is that it you are you are
saying that are they all you’re asking
are these more think of miss I was just
about to tell you guys these this these
both of these females are in fact in
kokoomus and the one male there is the
Avoca male now you know these are our
resident pride or our resident pride in
humans and the Avoca males is the male
coalition that’s formed with the
increments so they will often be mating
together they sort of only Houmas in a
way if that makes sense but this group
of this pride of females belongs to the
Avoca males now I’d like to know which
one it is if he lifts his lovely head up
we’ll be able to see but from what I
understand these two lionesses on the
ground share is originals and one of the
both very tired I suppose exhausted from
the day’s mating but they found
themselves a nice patch but of @m Bertie
well these lines will be here for a
while which means so will I because it’s
only a matter of time until they get up
and start to mate which would be really
awesome I love to see that I’ve always
really liked when I see mating animals
it’s just such a special thing anyway
David up in the Maasai Mara seems to be
battling a bit of a storm and he’s
driving around so let’s go to him to say
[Music]
jumbo everyone and welcome to their very
ready mara triangle I’m sure nothing
looks familiar here but this tells you
those are the wrong ones the long rains
have started but we are going to survive
my name is David and uncover with me is
a Manu yesterday we were in the mid of a
very big storm
now the signs are still there that the
rains will continue but nothing worried
we are or Collison Manu have a very
special window who he wants just maybe
slightly give you a snippet of what is
outside there this is the inside we just
have an idea of how things look out
there and I’m sure you can hear it
can you hear the rain ladies and
gentlemen can you see that I’m sure you
can see a huge wall of rain yes and I’m
sure em in the final control is directly
show and and I’m sure you’d like to know
what transpired yesterday and we are all
very good we survived so what we did
very quickly we had to power down and
brought all the flaps down hoping things
will get better and we waited for about
45 minutes one hour and the rain got
bigger and bigger and we made a quick
decision back in the camp have a cup of
tea have a cup of coffee and look what
they will bring but I’m very hopeful
things will not be bad and it’s steep
having started Lions trishal of lions
that’s a good sign lots of lions in
Douma hopefully we are going to get our
STPs
which are going to look for and
definitely Steve and Trish Allah have
already requested you for comments and
questions as usual
hashtag Safari live on Twitter well as
much as it’s raining it’s a bit warm
here is 25 degrees Celsius and 77
degrees Fahrenheit which me works very
well so third man who yesterday we were
not really caught off guard but today we
are more prepared than yesterday or what
you see there is nothing but rain now
the long range will always touch the
month of March going all the way to June
but this time they have started in the
month of April as you shortly didn’t
gentlemen I’m sure you always do my plan
I’ll get into the sausage Republic and
ice I do that within your back to Vova
thanks Gigi
try and stay dry this evening and don’t
get washed off the road like you did
yesterday here we go that’s am bars on
the left everybody that’s purple I in
the middle and that is snidely the
Mohawk two vocal male on the right they
are thoroughly enjoying lying our chair
honor the soft grass they haven’t done
much apart from a rollover slightly so
maybe we’ll get to see a mating session
between them but one mating session for
the whole day because we had Ollie who
came out just to just to keep an eye on
the Lions today just to make sure that
they didn’t leave and well you only saw
them mate once so it’s very interesting
because normally when their mating pair
are busy you can almost time it in the
beginning it’s seven eight minutes and
then slows down to every 15 minutes and
then towards the end of it it starts
becoming over twenty five thirty minutes
and once in a day
well I remember excuse me being with em
bars and one of the Birmingham boys up
at before sook damn probably about this
time actually last year I can’t remember
exactly maybe but earlier and the entire
time we spent with her they’re only
mates at once she was a very grumpy lady
almost as if she is in East respeto her
mood is not quite there which is always
but right now it seems like lions are
hello soul yes most certainly Lions will
essentially lose their pride during is
sort of the mating sort of story during
the situation and the female or the male
will follow the female invariably the
pride moves away or they could stay in a
similar sort of area depending on food
if they’ve gone hunting or whatever it
might be and after two three days four
days maybe the female and the male both
of them will come to sort of a a hunger
sort of stalemate and they’ll split
apart to go and eat and then you’ll
often find that female rejoining the
pride and trying her level best to lose
sort of the attention of the male who
has been trying to follow her the entire
time so that is the ideal situation but
we saw up in the Maasai Mara their kinky
tail seemed to be in sort of a mating
relationship before almost three weeks
and that was very interesting to see
I’ve never seen anything quite like that
before but then everybody lions don’t
read the books so but they don’t need to
return to the pride they can be quite
successful hunting on their own but they
are much more successful with their
sisters and family in tow we’ve seen
amber eyes last year as well when she
had Cubs over in the West she would
stash the Cubs not that we ever saw them
with that information from the guides in
the West and then she’d come charging
all the way to the other side of June I
could actually track her from the West
come in to find the pride so as to get
some food and then she’d spend a few
days before going back unfortunately
each time that happened she had some
failures with regards to maybe that den
site she chose not really sure I heard
some stories that hyenas had gotten to
one of the litters but anyway but it is
a very sad state of affairs but amber
eyes as yet as far as we are aware she
successfully Rhea
Christus okay well everybody has you
know it and there’s also another person
up this afternoon or maybe we didn’t
know that but Tristan has found some
tracks of Columba and he would really
like to find us let’s go and see how
he’s getting on indeed Alice Fleur I
don’t have any tawny colored cats
I’m the unlucky one Hart this afternoon
but that’s fine because that allows me
to go looking for the spotted ones which
we all know I prefer anyway as Steve
mentioned my name is Tristan on camera
have got scenes over this afternoon and
we are going to be looking for spotty
cats I’m gonna try and see if we can
find if there’s tracks for lions here
which I suspect must be the same ones
that Stephen Trishula
have seen I don’t know I want to ask
them just not just one of the tracks now
but I’m pretty sure these lines come up
and I think they must meet up with those
ones that Steve and Shoshanna have but
he also found tracks for a lipid looks
like four claw Lamba coming from a
little block that she was last seen mr.
Sharla which tends to suggest that maybe
she had a kill in there the last couple
days and she’s now come out and so she
looks as though she’s hitting kind of
southwards so I want to just check
treehouse Dam and twin dams in case
she’s gone for water I drove past some
impalas just before I spotted the tracks
and they looked seriously jumpy they
were not in any way relaxed they were
kind of steering in different directions
and sort of as the car came past they
were kind of bolt upright so I don’t
know if they maybe saw her during the
course of the day except that the
problem is is that the tracks have been
driven over by a vehicle this morning
there’s definitely Lion tracks yeah so I
don’t know if anyone didn’t drive yo
what the story is but they come up from
here the sticks pride is also around so
it could very well be some of them they
were seen yesterday on Torchwood moving
about so they back from their little
joints into the West so you know kind of
pay attention for them too they also
could just appear out of nowhere given
how mobile they’ve been
of late so lots of things to kind of
follow up on down in the south here
while Trish and Steve up in the north
hopefully we’ll have some sort of luck
with some of these animals and we’ll be
able to find what we’re looking for it’s
not great we’re there for kind of
waterhole Patrol it’s kind of overcast
there’s a bit of a wind that’s blowing
fairly chilly it’s not really the best
kind of weather to Drive cats to go and
drink but you never know maybe we get
lucky and we’ll find something Linda I
suspect that you might be right there’s
a lot of potential this evening for a
very nice TV show and we’ve obviously
got the two sets of lions hopefully we
can add roaring from them there’s the
hyena den that might be active a little
bit later which if the other two are
busy with I’ll head to there and then
there’s always a potential as we know of
a spotty cat in this area as well as a
multitude of other animals so you know
there’s lots going on and hopefully
we’ll be able to get lucky with
something from outsiders where’s Steven
trishula are most definitely already
lucky at this stage okay so nothing at
tryouts damn which is not really that
surprising as I was saying I’m just
checking the water points in case clap
McKay more for kills she might have gone
for water you can just be lounging about
so it’s worth just checking around good
as we gonna head off we’re gonna go and
check Curtin um so we’re gonna go
scratch around and see what we can find
in the meantime send you back across the
Steve who’s sitting with his lions and
hopefully you know and they’ll be busy
well my liens have moved just slightly
and I can see that one of the females
has rolled over and the other one has
her head caught underneath the one
females foot very sweet and you find
that bonding social bonding and touching
and beams actual physical contact with
each other it’s such an important thing
for lions and you’ll find them often
doing it in fact apparently it’s it’s
the same for all mammals and there
there’s something called a bliss
molecule or serotonin that sort of gets
released and that those pleasure centers
in our brain they they get activated oh
they’re happy when when we’re in contact
with people so I said that’s the same
for lots of mammals it applies the same
sort of to us as well in general people
feel some sort of happiness or something
gets rewarded in the head when they bond
with others and it’s the same here and
when you an inner pride together and
you’re constantly with this group that
you’re going to hunt together live
together help each other survive you can
twitch twitch I wonder what they’re
I Luna a really interesting question
you’d like to know how I can tell we can
tell when a sub-adult lioness actually
becomes an adult
well lions are fully grown at about 3 to
4 years old and usually in terms of
aging to be or being able to just by
sight look at her apart from actually
knowing their date of birth or something
like that you would notice that as the
years go on the nose of the lioness
which is probably very pink when they’re
sub-adult so it is quite pink when
they’re sub-adults gets darker that’s
one of the things that is quite obvious
you also notice even stature size that
sort of thing but I find it most the
most obvious thing to me is that a lot
of the time before they are fully grown
adults or they sort of reach their peak
which is about 7 years old
you’ll find that their face still looks
quite young if that makes sense if these
two just look at us then I could show
you what I mean but you’ll find that
they they do look still look a bit cub
like that usually goes away by the time
they’re about 2 or 3 I find but then
after that it’s there you’re pretty much
looking at at an adult once it’s capable
but like I said they’re fully grown and
they reach a maximum size at around 7
years old so in these two look at us
especially looking at their faces I
always find looking at their face is
Phee tonight it always amuses me how
they sit and relax and how it seems that
no matter how much I speak around them
or the vehicle coming in they might just
lift up their head once look at me and
that’s about it
it seems like everyone’s lions are not
bothered well they will be bother
bothered very soon when it becomes a
little bit darker and they become active
and we’ll we’ll be right here when that
does happen so Steve’s
lions are also very very lazy so let’s
go to him and see if they’ll decide to
move for you well stand by everybody you
might get to see an ear flick that’s all
that’s happening at the moment this male
did sit up for a moment and that’s the
mohawk that gives him away because his
face is covered in new and fresh scars
that I haven’t seen last time I saw him
he didn’t have as many so we don’t
really know what goes on under the cover
of darkness
I remember developing an ID kids for a
pride of lions and the Kruger years ago
there were 9 sub adult males and as
Trish says it’s just the facial features
change so regularly specially males and
I had put together Nardi kits and there
are some very very sort of prevalent
scars that made it quite easy to
identify a few and then a week later
another one looked the same and it’s
just the scars on the face make it very
very tricky especially with there’s 9 9
young males all looking similar each
week you’d have to change the
photographs females they do change but
not as much as the males they’re not as
hello foul enough amber eyes as Cubs
would have amber eyes well essentially
eye color and many other traits that
someone will some organism wolf sort of
carry on as normally derived from the
parent but it all depends on how it
really transfers you know depends of
suppose also on what dad and his eyes
look like I mean if dad’s got some
light-colored eyes
maybe his genes are but stronger than
hers in in from the chromosome level
really hard to say one thing that I’ve
definitely noticed with lions is how
they do definitely inherit their fathers
mane I’ve seen that before where I was
talking about those eight young males
that was clearly by the identification
features at least a two of the dominant
males in the area with the father’s you
can actually sort of link the main
development and to how they were looking
okay I think that’s purple I said amber
eyes if you got his purple like there we
go look at those teeth
it’s given us a yawn everybody you know
what this normally means don’t you and
we’re gonna count down from ten nine
seven six five four that looks like
they’re gonna do some grooming but the
afternoon is quite cool they’re not in
any shade whatsoever so the Sun has
clearly done an issue for them this is a
very good chance we might see these
animals up earlier than normal and with
them if you look at the male on the
right there his belly is emptying
certain whether he’s interested in food
or more like amber eyes it’s hard to say
but definitely the purple eye darkness
was hunting this morning in a spend time
with her early and she definitely was
excited to try to catch something hello
Rob well I didn’t see him but apparently
there were tracks of a male line heading
from north where we are now all the way
to the east and on our eastern boundary
with tortured a road called cheetah cut
line apparently the male lion was found
on that cut line this morning by one of
the cheetah Plains vehicles it’s he her
left canine is wearing down a little bit
she was born in 2012 and she injured her
eye in about April 2017 probably from
either from a claw while feeding maybe
she got one of those bad abscesses in
the eye or maybe she got kicked by
something that she was trying to eat I
suppose you can’t blame an animal’s like
kicking a lion in the face can you it’s
about to get mauled to the ground and
ripped apart okay so what are you gonna
do now
it’s incredible the male line is mating
with two different lions I found that
incredible I’ve never heard of that
before when they align a little menage
on twat if you’ve heard of that before
sip will you you speak French of course
you’ve heard the term before but have
you ever heard of a male line being with
with two females that is a first for me
but then amber eyes mating with two
brothers and tag-teaming I found
incredible she made it for three weeks
and Bazar no cos I was there and she
changed up honestly it took me a bit of
effort to understand who she was mating
with but Nikki Austin our producer knows
lions are very very well and that was
definitely him mating with purple eye
and he mated with amber eyes earlier
today so everybody I really don’t know
what to say it’s something very new for
me seeing a male line mating with one
and then if you’re gonna mate with the
second one then we’re definitely gonna
see it ourselves Louie
purring I suppose you could say it is
purring I mean they are just very big
cats and essentially that noise
that you hear is one of the
communication signals that Lions use
there’s a warning involved there’s all
sorts of of sort of behavior being sort
of shown when they call like it if
you’re walking on foot and you don’t see
a lion that little is pretty much what
you hear long before you see them if
you’re listening and when they mate
that’s what you see when they’re feed
you also have that so it’s basically a
communication with close quarters
communication between lions that
probably indicates all sorts of things
excitement over feeding there’s
definitely excitement
there’s also dominance between it
because a big animal it’s gonna
make more noise more resonance so for
example a cab if it he has a male lion
make that noise will invariably go okay
I’ve overstepped some form of boundary
leopards do a similar sort of sound it’s
just not as loud but indeed it’s
definitely got something to do with
excitement and well I suppose Alliance
mating is rather exciting for them quite
exciting to watch as well and I’m going
to set my clock now and see what’s going
on because now 16:25 that that happened
so let’s see if he gets up again but you
saw how she initiated it she was on
initiated that not him so he’s keen but
anyway we’re going to stay with his lies
we’re not gonna go anyway let the action
unfold and let’s go see if the rain has
very good super well done and very
interesting to see one male I admit in
with two lionesses it’s nothing out of
the ordinary that happens every in that
one then we see that happening and not
much we have achieved where we are but
the good news are the rains have
subsided or raba the rains have stopped
out all that truly very good news and if
you look carefully now my vehicle is not
like how it was before you see mine is
showing you those flaps are up on one
side and also those flaps are also up on
the other side but I’ve just left
windshield you know right there and the
flops in front just in case that makes
it easier for me now to turn left and
turn right to hopefully get my subsidies
I have already gotten into the public
regardless of the rain and for those of
you would wonder what the public means
is one area we see a particular pride
that I call the sauce the true pride
that pride has made this place its poem
it doesn’t move and even if it moves we
don’t see anybody else who will come and
occupy this particular area and the
females do not only fight other lions
but they also fight other predators for
example hyenas leopards they do not
entertain any other predator in this
area so we keep looking like this is
because I had told me he thought he saw
a lion as a game ranger he thought she
saw a lioness with two cups around where
we are
nothing as yet but I do not want to miss
anything so I have to get my eyes out
and hopefully I gonna see her well after
having ranged so much chances are they
might have gone under some trees and
Rosaleen how are you you would like to
know how much it rains in the Mara what
annually in tomorrow we get about a
thousand millimeters of rainfall 1 zero
zero zero annually and that is every
last year Rosaleen chances are I think
we might have gotten more than a
thousand we do not know what amount
you’ll get this year but in average we
get about a thousand millimeters of
rainfall in a row Green I will give you
a question to today give you an idea how
much rain you get where you come from
I’d be happy to know and I’m sure you
know how to give me that answer as I
keep looking for that one particular
lioness my friend to me about unless she
has moved it was this particular area we
are now so today I have double
challenges the grass as I’m sure you can
see how jollity and also see how solid
grasses and also the rain I’ll have to
stick you know in the middle of the road
as far as it will take and not take
chances with the black cotton soil which
could be quite quite a challenge to try
with secrets of good daylight so I’m not
worried of darkness alone as the latest
their chances are I’ll be able to catch
up with this particular pride
okay devour the chemistry here we have a
lot of black cotton soil and it’s not as
tough soil as the black cotton soil
especially when it rains it gets very
very sticky you have to be very careful
every time you do a move because you
don’t want to get stuck and when you get
stuck in a four-wheel drive like this
one and you try to come out you try to
spin the tires every time you try
spinning you keep adding yourself so the
best thing we do when you get stuck is
to come out assess you know how stuck
you are and we try and get some branches
and you put under the tires and then you
get some good traction and then you come
out of where you’ve been stuck
otherwise you once you get stuck you
don’t panic and you keep pushing the car
and you know putting more gas in it
digging yourself very good I’m not
getting stuck but I’m sure Trish is
yes I’m marshmallows with the Lions at
the moment
thank goodness not actually marshmallows
that I’m so happy that the desert hasn’t
happened to me yet but
touchwood that there’s no wood around
there we go my bottle cap touch wit that
that doesn’t happen because last time I
said something doesn’t happen like I
said oh I’ve never broken a foot before
I’ve never broken a bone and then what
happened
I broke one I’m not gonna say that I’ll
never get stuck but I’m glad that I
haven’t yet and I really hope that David
doesn’t get stuck too especially with
that rain at least it’s cleared up a bit
I hope that it doesn’t rain here it’s
looking a bit cloudy and a little
overcast but there is no rain predicted
I think not until the late evening so we
should be good
there’s our male on his back relaxing
Oh boohoo you’d like to know why Lions
lift their legs when they’re sleeping
well there’s a few theories as to why it
lifts its legs sometimes it’s just about
comfort ability maybe they’re an awkward
position but one of the more prevalent
theories is that because they’re on
their back and they’re exposing sort of
the thin thinnest skin on the underneath
and you’ll see that their legs sort of
flop apart so that thin skin is on this
is being exposed that they’ll actually
be able to cool themselves down easier
with their legs that way now you’ll see
that or will will see when they start to
mate that the female doesn’t as well but
she’ll do it in a different way or for a
different reason when you see lions just
like this and they’re just chilling on
their backs it’s probably that they’re
trying to cool themselves with that thin
skin but when you see females after
mating rolling on their back it’s more
likely that they’re trying
it’s sort of an instinctual thing
they’re rolling on their back after they
mate because apparently it may help in
getting the sperm all the way up into
the lioness so that maybe we’ll can get
some lion cubs or that the chance of it
may be higher but it seems to be an
instinctual thing they just kind of roll
onto their backs afterwards but that is
the theory it’s not actually very hot in
fact I’ve just put my my jacket on
because I’m feeling a bit chilly but
obviously this Avoca male is still
feeling a bit warm well if you’re going
that’s probably it’s probably worth your
wrist Sarah did you say maybe because
it’s comfortable yes absolutely I think
that – it might just be a comfortable
position it’s not always there’s not
always a biological reason for it that
we know of yet it might just be a
comfort well maybe he’s just decided
it’s a bit itchy on that side I’m gonna
roll over it definitely could just be
that
Oh some movement we’ve got us a canine
sticking out there from one of the
females but that is the extent of the
movement at the moment her lip flopped
down to reveal that kala was a massive
it was so much excitement it is it’s
endless Emma says it’s endless I agree
they’ll spend most of the day like that
in fact I’m going to take a bet at what
time I think they’ll start to move I
think in about quarter to 6:00 that’s my
guess it’s like I said it’s when I was
speaking about the Avoca mail and
talking about him feeling hot or perhaps
feeling warm and that’s why he’s doing
that is that they’re going to make at
least or estimated Mountain amount of
about three thousand times before an
actual cub will be assigned or at least
the the male’s would and that’s I think
that’s quite incredible it also gives
you an idea of how much effort it takes
to produce one litter of Cubs and then
obviously has to do with the fact that
most of the mating is in order to induce
ovulation in the females and that once
ovulation is actually induced it’s about
a 95 percent chance of that egg actually
being fertilized so most of this mating
has a lot more to do with trying to get
that female to ovulate and then one that
once that’s done we can look forward to
Cubs butts like I said that might take
that’s very true we do have double the
chance with these lions and the ones
with Steve so let’s go to him and see if
his have done any exciting things like
mmm juice I’m sitting right here waiting
for some more action to unfold but you
are very right I’ve got a very strong
suspicion that I don’t know exactly when
but at some stage this afternoon no
doubt the two groups are going to join I
have a feeling that will happen and it
might not happen you never know but
there probably are wherever the risk
that when Google map riders they
probably offer summer as well Tristan
was telling me earlier that there were
some tracks down towards a SUP of
another single Lion so not sure exactly
there seems to be lions all over the
place and the wind is coming from our
left-hand side which is a good thing
because well I don’t know if it’s a good
thing it’s a good thing for us because
it means that these Lions if they do get
up he’ll probably start walking in that
general direction I know some of you out
there don’t agree with me but it’s
something I see time in and time out so
also there’s generally a nice herd of
all the Bears to these days that have
moved back onto the quarantine open area
which is off towards our left-hand side
and always many many impala hello Joyce
you want to know how males find females
and east rest’s well they have they have
a Twitter account and they started
joking
they don’t have social media but they do
have their own form of social media
females will urinate and scent mark as
well as they go and males are constantly
patrolling their areas and ever do pick
up on any smells of lions anyway they
post they tend to post or profile left
on the corner of somewhere then they
will very quickly try and find where
that lioness is they’ve got very good
sense of smell and I’ve followed a young
mare line following its pride that was
probably about five or six kilometres
away it’s about three four miles away
and it found it by just smelling the
ground I wish I could track like that
just sniffing out the Lions but they’ve
got a very keen sense of smell and
that’s just for the footprints
so once there’s been a discharge sore
urination whatever it might be
the male line will pick that up and
inside his brain suddenly a driver queue
goes and says your everybody there are
there is an e stris female nearby and
the males will push each other out of
the way to get there first and generally
in a coalition you might see a bit of
animosity towards each other but it’s
not extremely aggressive when it comes
to Lions Lions can be very very very
tough on each other but coalition
members although they will growl and
stall and fight each other but they’re
generally the first male to find the
females Cheerilee the one who is left
with her although there might be a
little bit of our ji bhaji it’s
generally not too serious if it was URI
the lion did that too we’d probably be
in quite a lot of pain but these animals
are designed for hitting and punching
and fighting and clawing and biting each
other that’s part and parcel of being a
lion and well if they’re not tough
enough to do it
they definitely signed up to be the
wrong species and as it starts off from
an early age
competing for mums milk and every time
they feed on a carcass they have to
compete and by the time they are fully
fledged dominant males have been through
their fair share of confrontations right
now there’s not much confrontation
happening and this is um the lioness
with the injured eye again and a few
people on Twitter are suggesting we
should rename her I don’t have the power
to rename our Lions or leopards I’m
afraid everybody it is a tricky topic
and for now I’m just going to leave it
as it is they wait for James to get back
and maybe he can address that the new
mate Tristan is just on the other side
of the reserve looking for any tracks of
Columba let’s go and see what he’s come
well it’s good and bad I mean we haven’t
found what we’re looking for yet but the
tracks are getting fresher and fresher
for Little Miss column all I think it’s
her and that we’re following at the
moment we found that she went to chill a
pan and she’s now come down across the
Malati and is kind of moving eastwards
in general but her tracks are getting
better and better they’re on top of
everything they nice and crisp and clear
and because we’ve had wind today you’d
expect some disturbance on them but
these tracks are kind of shining a
little bit and so I’m hoping that we’re
gonna bump into somewhere around this
area just taking it very very slow
because the tracks are almost impossible
to see in places the roads haven’t quite
softened up just yet what’s what have we
got your sins so there we go it looks
like she walked yep there we go so she’s
walked on this left side I’ll try pull
over so sins can show you but there’s a
track that’s just there that’s going up
this pathway and she’s walking kind of
on the road there you can kind of see
that’s the tracks that we’re looking for
and they’re starting to look really nice
and crisp and clear which is really good
news so hopefully we’re gonna track her
down
it could be Tandy it’s possible but I
suspect that this is Columba that we’re
following just given where it’s come
from I mean it’s we’ve been tracking for
a long time now we’ve gone a long way so
let’s see if we can find it there’s a
little pan up ahead here it’s got no
warts in it so it’s very possible that
she kind of came here to look for sir
but because there’s no water she might
have moved off naturally it’s incredibly
difficult to track the lumber because
she doesn’t walk on roads as much scent
marking she’s kind of just goes wherever
her heart feels she just kind of bounces
around and crosses roads all over the
place and she’s incredibly active she
doesn’t sit still for long periods of
time at all which makes finding her and
night me you’ve got to just kind of be
in the right place at the right time a
lot of it because she just doesn’t
really stop and when she does stop she
tends to stop in thicker areas at the
moments
exactly she is a strong independent
lipid that doesn’t need anything really
she makes life a little bit tricky in
that regard but it’s it’s nice because
she is active which means that a lot of
time when lipids are active particularly
young inexperienced lipids they bring
about alarm calls on themselves which
means that if she is moving and she’s
close by here somewhere she’s going to
spark an alarm call and that’s going to
help us and we’re gonna be able to then
find her because of that now there’s a
part that comes past this sort of dry
pad and that I was talking about and I
just want to double check if she didn’t
cross over somewhere here it kind of
goes off in towards this drainage where
she spent a lot of time as a small cub
it doesn’t look like she’s come over
here we’ll just check a little bit
further because sometimes they go over a
little bit further on is I can little
kind of to track that goes off to my
right now you see she’s been up and down
here I just heard of Franklin I think
she’s very close I don’t think we’re far
behind her at all at the moment the
tracks are just starting to look better
and better looks like they came out yeah
I also part of me is wondering if maybe
just maybe it’s not
tungee because this is exactly where we
first had our first visual of Columba in
the den site is where we are right now
so it’s very possible that she’s maybe
scouting if she is pregnant for possible
but these tracks are all over the place
yeah they look like she’s been kind of
doing circles which on really is not
definitive in terms of who it actually
is I just want to go down because I
heard a Franco an alarm call here
quickly sighs when a chick right now we
have our work cut out for us especially
where we are now Trish and Steve don’t
and so Trish is taking it very easy with
her lines that are lounging away the
afternoon I worked hard to get your
Tristan I promise I drove all the way
from camp it’s actually not that far and
we were lucky enough that they were here
in the morning as well as it was not too
much work but I wish Tristan the best of
luck with finding that little one that
would just be awesome it’d be such a
catty
Katty Sunday I’ll cheer for us yeah we
have another view of the Avoca mail now
we think that this is the dark maned
mail often sometimes referred to as the
Crump email Puma you’d like to know how
far away I am from the other Lions
probably not that far prepared two K’s
not even they’re fairly close I’ve been
the austell and in juma but this is sort
of in the North West whereas the other
lions are bit more centrally located but
almost on the same Road but just at
different points in the road so they are
quite close it it almost reminds me of a
bit of a double date you know boys
arrived together the girls arrive
together and then they decide to go to
they probably met up on tinder like
it does seem like an awesome day to have
a nap it’s just the perfect temperature
just a little little chilly you know
when it’s just it’s not cold it’s just
mgn you say what about the rest of the
pride well I don’t actually know what
the rest of the pride is up to for well
as many as we know as we’re accounting
for the for females yeah and I think the
one other Avoca male so we’ve got the
mohawk one would Steve and I think I’ve
got the dark mane one here and then
there’s the blonde male the blonde male
I think was last seen much more North in
there so I say much more but past the
boundary north of this so they are round
and I’m sure that the rest of the Inca
Houmas are around as well but you’ll
often find that when they’re mating
they’ll break away into these pairs or
very cool so we’ve got this guy then
we’ve got the two females that you’re
looking at there and we said that one is
the youngest lioness of the program is a
youngest lioness when I say hence you
say it makes you want to take a nap but
definitely makes you want to take a nap
it makes me want to take a nap just
looks so so comfortable now we are
talking about these two so we’ve got the
youngest lioness as in the youngest
adult lioness and that is tatty yes or
we call it a tear but she’s also called
youngest lioness how apt and she was
born in about 2013 and then the other
one that we have is of course the
originals female that I have seen mating
with the Evoque as before luckily I was
very excited to see that in fact a few
times I think I’ve seen the originals
female mating with the Evoque I think
once the one time I did see it was with
the dark band male as well but she was
born in 2012 so there’s only about a
year between them so be nice to have a
look at their faces and you have a nice
comparison of if that year even makes
that much of a difference in terms of
the way that they look now their vocal
males they were all born in the in 2013
so ridge nose is a bit older than him
but tat ears our youngest female she’s
she’s more age-appropriate but of course
none of that matters in Lion Society in
fact a female will mate with any adult
male that comes along when she’s in East
hrus she’ll just have to make sure that
the male that she brings into the
territory doesn’t attract attention of
this one or any of the coalition members
because then there will be trouble
amongst the coalition members they will
fight for mating rights within their
coalition and within that pride but
they’re hardly ever fights that result
in any kind of serious and injury but if
an
a male that’s from outside this
territory not part of this coalition
comes in it can be fighting to the death
and you’ll actually see the difference
in the way that they fight you can see
one sort of gesture but a bit not
playful but you could see it more
forewarning or this is my lair lioness
stay away whereas when you see them
fighting because they’re actually from
two different territories are two
we’re all looking for lines today it
seems and for once I think we’ve got the
Lions before David has but I have no
doubt that he will also find some lions
because he’s special like that so let’s
go up to the masai mara well Trish My
Luck has not come yet I’m still working
very hard hopefully to see the
associative ride but yes as you say it’s
quite brutal to see a lot of fights but
that’s what it’s meant to be the males
will always go for each other especially
during takeovers the lords and that’s
mine spring
of a particular male that used to rain
in this territory of the sausages was
called a pulley which I think optional
his one male
I respect because in one day I saw
people fighting two males in one day one
in the morning and one in the afternoon
the good news is he won’t both battles
as much as he incurred a very big scar I
think on his right side on his radar
I got a huge I fingered a claw mark but
he warned you don’t want to see lions
fighting but of course if they fight for
good reason why not now initially my
flaps on the left to the Rays subsided
and the ones on the right and now the
front it’s all clear so the only job me
and man who have now is get lions we
have no excuse not to get them we have
no reason not to see the Lions but the
second if you look on the right there
you can see the kind of clouds we got
money’s gonna show the viewers how the
clouds looked like there and you can see
and I hope you can hear the rains or
rather thunderstorms going there anyhow
this is such the Republic not a single
drop now or the only seeing is a bit of
lightning needle in the sky shook shoot
going and coming and then of course
should be after that we get
thunderstorms which is very normal
that’s how the sequence goes first
listening followed by thunderstorms and
we are here to try and smoke these
Leone’s out my friend who taught me had
seen a lioness around this area he’s a
gambler and I’m really counting on him
so much not that I doubted him but most
likely that one female he saw would have
risen up and maybe walked away so I’m
deciding to look at a dict area because
so money sent we did something with my
audio let me just check what could be
happening
I think either my comms are not getting
tomorrow very well everything seems to
be in place moment just making it a
little tighter bitter Mouse is happy
alright
why you never know what happens in
okay left right see you can either smell
these files I’m sure definitely not
after the race let me first send you
David I don’t worry about lions
these lions are fast asleep I’m hoping
at some stage they’re going to get up
and do something but the longer they
hold off doing anything well the longer
we can probably stay with them because
you know how quickly these lions can
move and cover quite a lot of distance
if they do start moving and if they are
hungry well they can move and move and
move and talk they secure some food but
it’s an interesting situation Arian now
because essentially there is one male
mating the two females so are they even
hungry at all the purple eyed lioness
was definitely hungry this morning due
to the fact that she was hunting but
maybe it was also because she didn’t
have a consort with him at the time and
well now she’s yawning again maybe we’re
gonna see it getting up again everybody
this is what heralded the lost mating
session and it has been exactly 30
minutes so definitely not an intense
sort of situation going on here Oh gotta
scratch yourself that looks very nice
you scratch my back aah I know I’ll just
scratch my own back you see a couple of
the wounds on the back there’s some old
wounds a lot of those up I received from
fighting around kills sorry em how I
heard Joe asked the question about the
sub-adults I didn’t quite quite get all
of that question there but one thing I
can tell you for sure is the young males
of the warmer would not want to be
anywhere near yes of course so Joe thus
about us not necessarily but the males
the young males definitely would be at
very very high risk and the ink warm up
ryder’s just sort of accepted that
mundane email now and so I don’t think
they were anyone to just throw him to
the wolves as it were so probably there
would have been some form of calling
some form of connection with the Avoca
males and the rest the pride probably
just disappeared elsewhere it’s possible
they’ve gone south I’m Tristan says he’s
got tracks all the way around treehouse
dam area so we didn’t actually spend any
time tracking this morning myself and
said we came out to we went and while we
did a little bit of tracking but we
would directly eat the west from where
we are got the drone up in the air no
tracks where we had been and then we
found these lines using the thermal
drone so if there is the pride had come
in before we hadn’t seen any sign of
that so I don’t know where they are but
it could be south of us they could still
be north it’s very hard to say but one
thing’s for certain the young males
wouldn’t want any part of these Avoca
boys that is for sure because
unfortunately the reality is and we
don’t even know it happened maybe the
vocal males got into it with those two
young males and maybe they’ve been
chased maybe there’s been a fight we
don’t know so it’s crazy to see it
because you never actually know it goes
on while you’re not watching if indeed
there’s been some interaction between
the big males and the young males you
probably wouldn’t see too much of the in
the way of injury when the two Avoca
males and from what I saw this morning I
didn’t see any
fresh sort of science or they a number
of sort of nourish scars but nothing
from the last day or so
so if indeed those two youngsters young
males of the pride that includes the
monk any male if they even saw these
Avoca mouths they would just take off
there’s no point standing their ground
they’ll just get a hiding but then up in
the mara last year we saw a pulley move
into the sausage tree pride and accept
those two young sausage tree pride males
so things do happen you never know what
could happen but what I’ve experienced
in the past is when a big male lion
comes across a young males they’re
generally head for the hills and quite
often you can even see the prides
behavior we saw them goomers last year
when the Birmingham’s had moved south
their voters were establishing a sort of
the the rain in the north and you’d hear
them calling and the Houmas would all
stand up and walk in the opposite
direction I’ve seen that many times
before with prides that have got sub
adults especially young males they’re
just moving another way that I want to
lose their genetics but then eventually
and the desire to mate kicks in the
driver the East recycle and essentially
the females then will seek out the
dominant males don’t want to mate with
the subordinate males with males that
haven’t established themselves haven’t
proven their worth that’s one of the
reasons what conception in lions is very
very low James I haven’t heard anything
about the Birmingham boys as far as I’m
aware now they’re still doing very well
down in the south I haven’t paid any too
much attention to their Facebook
profiles those of you didn’t know most
of our animals have got some form of
Facebook profile and this one is trying
to do a very interesting licking
back how many of you can do that yoga
teachers out there can you lick your
back that very long tongue so I’m sure
the Birmingham’s are down south I’ll
have a little look-see now and see
there’s anything going on but the heaven
come north that’s for sure haven’t heard
of any any movements of them up towards
us sort of the areas of Chitra and the
areas sort of just south of us they seem
to be quite happy in their pride lands
now in the sort of south central parts
of the sabi sands where they are very
very good game numbers permanent water
and in the form of the sabi and the sand
or evap I think they’re quite happy down
so no one has yet admitted to being as
flexible as this line and being able to
buy to their own lick their own back
she’s being irritated to buy some flyers
now must be a constant source of
irritation as a lion having flies
constantly just buzzing around your face
albeit with the rains having seemingly
passed most of the flies have kind of
head for the hills
I was looking a little bit closer at the
male lions bottom earlier and it looked
quite inflamed with a number of the
Flyers on it so don’t know exactly
what’s happened there but let’s jump
over to Trish who’s about a kilometer to
my right inside and see if her lions are
giving us any more action than these
three well the flies haven’t managed to
get here yet and they haven’t done
anything to make my Lions move but I’m
slightly thankful because at least I’d
like the Flyers are not gonna bother me
because they can be quite irritating
when you’re sitting in the lion sighting
especially when you have a whole lot of
biting flies trying to eat at you so
good luck Steve to deal with that cuz
that’s coming once they start irritating
the Lions you see the occasional flick
of the yeah oh there we have one little
fly landed there we go Lions host so
many pests it seems like they’re
constantly riddled with something or the
other if it’s not flies
sometimes there’s mange in fact speaking
of mange and Steve was telling you about
how sub-adults would like to be far away
I’m sure those man Guinea or that one
monkey an email will want to be very far
away away from this big male this of
Elka male who might decide to chase him
away and I think for an animal like that
that is so oh not as vulnerable but
definitely still recovering he is
looking great compared to what he was
looking like I was utterly surprised
when I saw him and and how much better
he’s looking but even for him I suppose
he’s not totally 100%
but he’s hair and tail tuft and mane is
starting to grow back just a little so I
think he might be feeling a bit
vulnerable and the last thing he needs
is a big main dominant lion coming after
you wouldn’t say these floppy lazy cats
are actually quite efficient killing
I couldn’t quite get the name then I
must apologize because I am sounding a
bit muffled today or rather FC is
sounding a bit muffled to me today but I
did get the question the question was if
there was a higher mortality in Cubs if
because of mange I suppose I mean that
could be but mostly the problem with
Cubs in the fact that they have such a
high mortality rate in lots of big cats
is the fact that no male that comes into
a situation wants to be taking care of
Cubs that are not his own so the biggest
threat to them are other males that are
going to come in and very likely kill
them to bring their mothers into Easter
so that she can actually have his own
Cubs in terms of mange mange being a
problem now mange is a mite that buries
itself into the skin and I suppose Cubs
could get mange but mange is not really
going to not going to kill you what’s
going to kill you is the deterioration
of the body once mange has infected you
so it’s a mange does get a cub or two I
don’t think it will really shift shift
the stats to say that maybe mange is
causing a high mortality it’s mostly
because of other males that may come in
or infanticide as you might have heard
before and of course availability of
food because a lot of the time you’ll
find that especially with lions Cubs eat
last and they often don’t eat at all
because there might not be anything left
oh there was a bit of a yawn there from
one male starting to move but of a
yes but mortality is is really really
high in lots of these cats and after
about a year all that starts to drop
and cats actually tend to be weaned
quite earlier and earlier than say a
hyena heinous hyenas feeds their young
milk up into about a year and a half in
some in some cases whereas lion cubs
you’re more looking at about 7 to 9
months old that they’re going to be
weaned by by vehicle that’s the sound
that you’re hearing of a vehicle startup
Oh a big you on there so already between
at about seven to nine months when they
are weaned oh it seems that Steve’s
lioness is up so let’s go to him and
we’ll carry on our cub and weaning
forty-two minutes since the last time
that was the purple eyed Linus again he
was having a little bit of an
interesting time with her tail before
she stood up and she was flicking a tail
and trying to bite it and then she
prostrated herself in front of him and
now they are flat again rolling over to
potentially try and assist in the
possible fertilization that’s something
you often see in big cats after mating
their roll over
but such strange sounds aren’t there
from that male that sort of higher
squeaking sound I don’t really know what
it’s about but there’s a very
interesting nonetheless
and you can test just in time there cuz
not much it happened before she was busy
nambas hasn’t even raised her head as
you can see how well camouflage they are
they can’t you and Tony cats in the Tony
hello magic dragon wizard the most
amount of Cubs that I’ve seen was five
they were initially six but it didn’t
survive early stages so five and there
were two lionesses that had five at a
very similar stage amazing how quickly
you can grow the prides numbers when you
have uh such numbers but that was in a
very high resource rich area whereby
there is enormous numbers of buffalo
zebra and for the best so I have no
doubt that food resource it’s also an
important driving force behind the
number of lion cubs that are born but
then I might be completely wrong there I
mean you can see how the sausage tree
pride is producing sorry said my break
is on up to apologize sausage tree pride
is producing but the most that they get
in there is three so six have been
recorded with lions it’s not very often
that you see it and whether they do
survive that early stages is also quite
tricky because we know how difficult it
is for lion cubs in those very early
stages but not like wild dogs that can
have many many many pups they grow their
population very quickly they reckon it
takes a very long time to successfully
reintroduce individual Lions into the
population and obviously good parenting
and bias hasn’t done them very well and
purple are lioness I do believe has been
and I’m thinking she wants to be
successful again so she has had three
cups that we know about in the first
that set was introduced to the pride and
was first seen in 6th of July in 2016
and that is a long time again so one of
them is a male and two females she is
and hopefully she will be able to
provide us with symbol cuteness okay
well it sounds as if Trish Allah’s Lions
have not beaten us to the punch because
we had some action they are so just
having a little bit of a snooze
afterwards there’s a bin mobile let’s go
and see which direction they’re gonna
hit oh it seems it is contagious and you
Steve may say that as a joke but he
knows exactly what he’s saying if the
behavior is if often termed contagious
because it happens so much when the
animal when one animal gets up starts to
scratch lick start to defecate and
urinate and that’s usually a sign that
things are going to be there’s gonna be
some action happening soon Oh mr. mail
here has just just realized that these
females have woken up here bit late
buddy she’s moved just a little bit’s
look at that stretch I’m sure that
reminds you a lot of your house cat just
Raymond you’d like this oh you think
that this mail looks a bit scrawny
there’s something wrong with him
he doesn’t look too bad he is he is a
bit thin but he might not have been
eating very well during this time of
mating but his condition looks quite
good oh now we’re talking about aging as
well when you saw there and he opened
his mouth you would have seen his teeth
a slightly yellow or they starting to
yellow a little bit and that’s also
indication of age how older a lion gets
the yellower their teeth will get cute
I love a male lion it’s just one of the
most beautiful oh and look at that one
of the most beautiful animals really
magnificent oh oh you had better selfies
main caught in his teeth there give it a
nice scratch now we will continue our
cubs and weeding and a like discussion
soon I just want to see he’s actually
going to get up to follow these females
who are now behind the car and I can’t
actually see them very clearly but they
did move behind I don’t know if they’ve
moved further but he will not let them
out of his sight so as long as I stick
with him we should be fine he was just
the last one to wake up as well the
other two got up and he didn’t seem to
hello you handsome thing oh they started
now you’ll often see that the male’s
will actually follow females so intently
that they kind of step on each other’s
feet it’s just quite hilarious to watch
actually it’s amazing to watch it this
sort of beast kind of be doting on these
giving himself a bit of a groom I
suppose with all the pests around it’s
not an that’s probably a good thing for
him
Gina you say he’s a player oh look at
Gina he’s giving you a full look at
exactly his stature so he’s I think he
agrees with you I’m a player yo I feel
that definitely walking my vehicle so
they have moved behind me at the moment
so I’m going to have to do the same just
excuse our aerial there you can see
Craig’s had to fold him all the and you
stop to look so I’m gonna move around a
little bit but they’re very unlikely to
go far at all they’re probably just just
move position slightly I’ve noticed that
a lot when they mate they will sort of
move a few meters than a few meters just
also want to be careful as as I reverse
because there was a small pile of lion
who and that’s last thing you want in
your tights anyway let me get into a
better position oh no no don’t do it
don’t do it they’re about to mate
they’re about to mate Oh No
false alarm false alarm everybody so let
me send you up to David in the Masai
very good Trish if I can tell you here
we are just swimming in the mud in the
black cotton soil because it has gotten
stickier where we are and especially
when you’re going uphill it becomes
tough I think I’m better off dealing
with my Trish that you’re dealing with a
lane pool because mud is what sometimes
I call clean – you know in general most
old proof of my cuts or chicos cuts you
know I the cheetah who live for the lion
of a very strong smell very strong you
know
and for me I’m better off dealing with
you know elephant dung already John or
zebra tongue but anything dropped by
fats is always very powerful in terms of
smell just because of what they eat the
important it has generally I do not
think they digest it very well and I’m
not thinking because of the amino acids
in the meat that they eat
of Scilly the Republic not going
anywhere and I have a lot of time to do
what they want but sketching sometimes a
bit Murray I have to put my four-wheel
drive especially in this particular area
I’m coming too so what I have to do
sometimes just to prepare well just put
in momentum so before I get to the very
sticky part in a momentum to keep going
they said alia the top of the long glass
the rains of course the mud have
compounded my situation but what you do
and get split up it’s just to stop
somewhere and just listen for any calls
from their lairs because once it’s rains
most of the scent marking including even
full outputs it’s always washed away by
the rain and most cats will always have
to resent again just to make sure that
the males have MS you know this area is
occupied of course if the Lions and the
same case would happen to leopards let’s
find out if this violence in Juma on the
yes everybody sorry I was keeping quiet
there just you came just in time for the
action once again and that is the purple
a lioness am buyers has just moved off
so that was 15 minutes very interesting
that’s normal sort of time about 15
and buyers stood up and walked away
but this young lady is a little bit more
or than she is I’m sorry I’m sorry Sonny
getting very busy here this afternoon we
are just next to our main road or very
till access and so a few vehicles coming
to have a look of course so we managed
to get a third mating session
very good maybe she’s building up to it
everybody
but amber Aizen has disappeared too
behind us and maybe she’s decided she
wants to go and get herself a summit an
app just like Trish’s lionesses it
almost seems like they’re on the same
sort of alarm clock temperatures are
hello Safari love that well lines can
walk and five they want to while their
mate they can also stay in the same area
it really depends on on the needs you
know their puppies will drink during
their mating so if there’s water nearby
there’s no need for them to walk but
essentially what we normally see here is
when you do have a mating pair they
often sort of hang out in the same sort
of area they don’t walk too far and if
they’re due it’s probably got to do with
the fact that maybe there’s a little bit
of hunger developing or they’re
following someone or it’s towards the
beginning or the end of the actual
intense mating session when I was with a
kinky tail up in the Mara she didn’t
leave sort of the one area for they did
entire time she was there but there was
plenty of water nearby so that’s the one
thing that would probably make them move
while they’re in that sort of that
mating cycle eventually it’s the desire
to eat that leads them to completely
leave the mating circle all together
amber eyes is having none of it
can you still see ridore sip it’s gone
home we thought it would just stay with
he’s behind the bush of course we will
reposition short key we’ve just got
ourselves into a little bit of a
that is the weight and it works
okay well why are we trying to probably
get you a bit of you gonna send you over
the Tristan who I believe had a little
bit more information about a leopard
he’s on the trail off well unfortunately
I wish I had better news for you because
we just found a leopard on foots but it
ran away and I cannot for the life of me
find it with the vehicle and we’ve
searched high and low and unfortunately
I was tracking it through this horrible
block that we’re in and she was ahead of
me and then kind of walked past and
luckily sins are actually got a view of
her as well so it’s kind of roughly
either direction at we hating at the
moment but I don’t know if we’re going
to be able to find her in fact I think
maybe we’ll ask save and Steve to help
us with the drone just now and see if we
can get some sort of kind of action
there but I’ll play your little replay
if you want to sins will you play them a
replay so just be killed on there’s
going to be a little bit of a filmstrip
kind of thing that you’re gonna see and
maybe you guys can tell me which lipid
this actually is since I was going to
show you quickly from his recording that
he made very heavily in two seconds of
us kind of well lovely sort of walking
and sins actually sort of paying
attention so sins is gonna play it down
so I’m ready I think it sends out even
Visia yeah
that is pretty much what we got
unfortunately so if any of you can ID
from that shot be quite impressed but
basically what had happened is I was on
the tracks following and I was going
through a big dump and as I came up I
just saw that he is pointing and then
she obviously saw me and then she went
trotting off and past sins and sins I
managed to see her coming past and so
since I was quick and sharp enough to be
able to actually record who it was I
suspect its Columba but it could be
Tandy too so maybe some of you can go
back and try and get a screenshot and
just work out exactly who it is but I
mean we tried really hard to kind of
find her with the vehicle I mean you can
see what it looks like on the right hand
side yeah it is really not something you
want to spend a lot of time in and so I
think unfortunately we’re not gonna have
much luck so Sammy Jane it was elusive
but it’s it’s one of our normal females
it’s just unfortunately she saw me on
foot before I did and so she’s and she
didn’t like it’s not like she was
running for her life out of there just
doing what lipids do when they get seen
as they kind of trouble to thickets and
then they sit there and they kind of
hide away so no dots I’ve just driven
around – it’s so dense in there that
there’s so many little hidey holes there
potentially this leopard could be at
that you know it’s possible that she’s
right there and I’ve just driven past
her again so anyway it is what it is I
mean you know it’s getting dark now so I
can’t really go back on foot and try and
kind of find her again from your tracks
plus that leopard now is gonna be so
alert to any presence that if I walk
there she’s just gonna keep running for
me and it’s not really gonna work no I
don’t think so I think I just got closer
than that lipid thought I would be H
because what happened was was we
followed the tracks and there was some
Jana that were very relaxed and I kind
of lost the track there and we came back
and then I figured out the tracks again
and got down into this dub
and the tracks were really really really
fresh and they went up onto this rise
and I wasn’t expecting this little mud
wallow further on from that pathway so I
was expecting maybe that that lipid
would be there and so as I came up she
was close I mean she was maybe I don’t
know but even five maybe even four five
it meets his sort of ten meters away
from where I was and obviously just gave
her a little bit of a fright she didn’t
expect me to pop up right there and so
that’s what’s happened unfortunately it
does happen from time to time with
tracking that’s one of the the hard
parts of being on foots is that
sometimes if there’s not a kill or
something like that the lipid can get a
little shy and just kind of sneak off
but I feel like it’s it’s a frustration
because it was a job well done we
tracked a long long way together and
then unfortunately just didn’t find out
at the car
to show all of you as yet but like I
said maybe seven Steve can help us with
the drone if they get it up here fairly
anyway I’m gonna keep trying I’m not
gonna give up just yet I’m gonna do some
loops around here listen for some alarm
calls maybe I’ll get lucky and I’ll find
her again in the meantime though it’s
send you back across to Trish Allah and
her lions who are not being so lazy this
afternoon well I really hope you do get
lucky the meantime because my lions have
been a good to us in their lot less shy
you would say considering that they’re
having a bit of a mating storm at the
moment all out in the open for all of us
to see now isn’t that a handsome
handsome man look at him actually lion
not a man tend to call them all men and
women I don’t know why I just feel like
I know them better when I do but of
course it is a handsome lion if you look
at that mane look how well it actually
camouflages in the brown of the grass so
when the grass is nice and brown like
this he fits in so well and even though
he is the dark main male his mane is not
as dark as it could be or that I’ve seen
other lions have in fact one of the
theories is that males or the reason one
of the reasons why females do a lot of
the hunting and males even though it’s a
bit of a it’s a myth actually not a bit
of a method is a myth that males or that
females exclusively hunt they don’t
males will also hunt when they need to I
mean what are they gonna do when it’s
three of them in a coalition and the
pride is nowhere to be seen it’s just
more convenient if the females hunt and
they get to get to take some of it but
one of the theories is then the main
actually makes the animal look more
conspicuous when it’s out in them in the
bush and so it’s easily identifiable to
any sort of prey item in that the
females have a better success because
they don’t have this Mane to sort of lug
around with them that makes it obvious
or makes them obvious amongst the
nothing again I don’t know if I if I
really believe that I mean it has a lot
to do with this may seem strange but but
they I mean people are always after bad
boys in a way simply uh you say that
gorgeous simply gorgeous he is
absolutely gorgeous so what I say that
females in general like bad boys
it applies quite biologically it’s not
simply something that your mother tells
you trying to tell you actually the
riskier a male is the more attractive he
looks or peers because it means that
despite his risk like birds that will
sing out in a really open place it’s
very risky something might just come in
but take it or a lion with a very dark
mane big dark mane is very conspicuous
he’ll be seen but despite that they are
alive so that’s the one I want to mate
with because he’s got the strongest
genes that can really he can be risky
and nothing is going to happen to him so
that attraction to bad boys is not not
just a bad habit by females of the human
race ah yes I am – Emma says that she’s
imagining him in a leather jacket I can
see it – I can see him get on his bike
not say a word to my parents as I jump
on and my parents looked shocked at me
as we drive away me and the Evoque Emile
yes him in his leather jacket in mine in
I think he prefers lions it’s after that
story he put his head down he looked
now the females are not too far away at
all they’re just behind us and they’re
never more than a few metres apart when
they’re mating and no matter what he’s
gotten I a smell of their location at
all times
in fact just before he ended up here he
was a but I out of eyesight range for
these females but then he went to a bush
and he smelt them or smelt where they
had sent marked and he gave us some
lovely fleming grimaces he looked
straight at us and gave that snarl
associated with the Flemming grimace and
that of course is all part of the
intricate dance that is the mating
look at those eyes so intense the face
is so intense and I love it anyway I’m
going to sit with them I might go and
see the females they’re right behind us
and we can kind of swap between them in
the meantime let me send you over to
Tristan oh did you hear Tristan’s name
and you picked your head up since you
over did Tristan on the search for his
leopard well we’re still looking I’m
trying very hard funny enough I chicks
just because I was thinking maybe just
maybe that this could be Tandy and the
fact that the tracks are going up and
down up and down here
when did she was like I was saying she’s
not looking for a den sites potentially
and I went and checked the den where we
first ever saw Trey lumber yeah I’m just
in case before we walked on foot to find
way she was and there’s no sign of her
going in and out sigh Winston checks in
the drainage line and doesn’t look like
she’s been going there but it was just
an off chance and James Richard Urich
and that it could very well be handy
that we bumped into just now on foot
which would explain why she’s run
Columbo
while she might move come on rusty while
she might move isn’t as shy as her mom
funnily enough on foot so well got it
least in the last few times that I found
her on foot so that explains a lot so it
also explains why I can’t find her again
because she’s too clever for me now that
I’ve found her once she’s almost as if
to say you won’t find me again
interestingly enough there was tracks
when we lost her I had a quick look
around just trying to see which
direction she went and these tracks all
around me going up and down so I don’t
know maybe they could I suppose be a
carcass there they could be any sort of
reason for her to spend a lot of time in
that area and so I’m just slowly now
driving in areas that I think she might
pop art given her normal movement and I
want to do a little track that goes back
to where I saw her that runs along the
drainage line she often uses this and
her and Claire lumber used to use this
regularly they used to kind of cut in
and out of this area and so I’m hoping
that if I can find her then you know
we’re gonna be good and like I say seven
Steve are gonna come to our aid with the
drone fairly shortly which is really
gonna fall
we help a lot if she’s moving if she’s
not moving and we have a tricky but if
she’s moving we should be good and we
hopefully will be able to have some luck
to be able to find this lipid for you
guys before the end of show which I know
is not very long except that you’ll be
with us for the TV show – sir that’s
what important that we try to find it
and I must say intrigued to see what’s
going on with sandy so let’s see how we
go in the meantime though that sends you
up to David and Amara see how he’s
getting on and whether he’s moving
hoping for the mud on that side of the
very good luck
Tristana stallion hopefully you’re going
to see the queen of Jummah are at one
point and my search continues for the
surgery trip right
and I just thought I’ll just stop for
once and pause and listen and enjoy that
rainbow there which is looking very
colorful I do not remember the last time
I saw a rainbow this lit when I sell it
I’m talking about 6:30 East African time
and to see rainbows is late this I mean
in this darkness is quite a special
still amount of light out there and that
is very colorful
I’m definitely guranteed I’m not going
to see the Sun Saturday but how cool to
see the rainbow after quite a long time
and don’t even lost him I saw a rainbow
here in the morrow track well we really
should see them once in a while what a
thing could be of a month and yes and
yeah I’m in the final control saying it
is stunning and you can see the usual
iconic chef at the trees of the amount
of triangle making everything looking
beautiful and to left of the screen that
is the oh la la la escapement sometimes
when you see rainbows we shall say that
we a little pose for the rains and then
after the rainbow disappears
rains will come again so hopefully this
will give us good break for the rest of
the drive to search for my Lions but you
really need the rains to come because
they want a lot of water in the Mara
River
the levels have gone low but the good
news are there was a slowly rising now
at last we chose fear and you’re saying
I’m in the Jeremiah yeah good to hear
you sing the fire rain the rainbow very
good job mayor great coming down I hope
Jeremiah you see same rainy Bush where
you come from but all it’s good to see
rainbow mana when is the last time you
saw a rainbow yeah Jeremiah a man who is
the camera operator to me today and he’s
telling me he’s four months ago since he
saw a rainbow because in general we see
rain was just on the rain and four
months ago takes us back to December
when we had the short rains makes a lot
of sense and I think possibly it could
be the same time I also saw the last
rainbow that to the left of the rainbow
if you look carefully you can see a bit
of rain not sure the other one should be
a second rainbow reflection on the first
one it looks like a leaf flexion the
first one because once the one he was in
two rainbows but what I meant what I
meant to say is we look on the order is
coming carefully you can see a bit of
rain not as much but what you see there
looking like mist that shows more rain
for in that particular area still quite
stunning great view to watch here should
be reflection of the other rainbow if
James Richard how are you and you want
to know about the Mara River and the
migration and all that well it’s been
affects the migration but what I’m
trying to say here James Richard the
wildebeest will still come away they
still come but the migration will still
be done well the crossing of the river
is like it would be more of an empty
Levi only just gonna see I’m just
walking through without the water so
it’s may not affect the migration
because mainly they will be still come
here for the food not for the Mara River
crossing and of course we all know we’ll
always cross the river to get food on
the other side so James Richard good
question and of course always a pleasure
to hear your name James
so James which I’m sure you can remember
I know you follow us very closely this
is exactly where King tell drops have
three Cubs and that’s why I came here
because I’ve been looking around I
haven’t seen them and that was in the
month of February so I’m trying to
imagine if there could be struggling to
come back home they could be here and
telling me this is not where we are they
have since been moving around moving a
lot so because of course of the
Buffaloes what they’ve been looking for
and that makes them look or move for so
many kilometres
well good view of the rain where they
are let’s go back to Trish and find out
oh good luck David I am so sure you will
find those sausages and I don’t know
them to ever shy away from you knows
this guy is definitely not shy I’ve got
another vehicle joining us and they’ve
all got their cameras out and he’s
looking straight at them as if he’s at a
photo shoot and what I particularly
liked is he walked up from where we were
just earlier and walked straight to the
middle of the main road and sat down and
decided let everybody know exactly why
he is in charge here at Juma so at the
moment no vehicles can pass in the main
road because he is smack bang in the
middle why because he can because he is
a bad boy yes he is
it’s also because he’s a lion and he
Oh Barbara you’d like to know what
happened to the male with the wound on
his face that I found I remember that it
was but a month or two back now I think
Barbara
well I think I’d be really interested to
find to find him but this is not him it
was the blonde Avoca that had the the
bite in his head that round using wound
that we saw quite a few times remember
he was also looking quite skinny then
but he is the blond one the one that is
not sure at the moment but the blonde
one has been seen so nothing’s happened
to him he’s still fine is alive he’s
kicking and he seems to be healthy as
far as we know but I would love to see
him see how that’s closed up because
that seemed like quite a wound
considering I mean it was basically a
puncture on his on his forehead that we
had seen and it was really I mean it was
it was small but the problem is it
looked really deep and it was right on
the skull so we don’t know what other
sort of damage it had done but he seemed
to function to function fine but he was
looking really really skinny around that
so they’re the females up now there’s
one here and this one on the other side
of the male mgn you’d like to know if
lions shed their hair they certainly do
in the same way as most mammals do here
for hairs
drop and grow all the time and you know
that it’s the same for you as well
and that’s just a natural process and
you’ll find it in fact when you’re
looking close into the lion actually
licking itself you’ll see bits of hair
actually pull out I have once even seen
sort of a bit of a Mane or part of the
main that sort of looked looked like
like a dreadlock a little bit that had
been pulled off the lion and it was
found right on the floor so they can
definitely do his hair and it’s even
worse if they’re having a fight and then
you’ll see lots of bits of hair on the
ground and the time that I’m telling you
about when I saw that bit of Mane on the
ground that was from a meeting incidence
after he after he dismounted and she
decided off the course she’s got to give
him the ceremonial smack otherwise it’s
but you’ll find that even that’s smack
sometimes it will happen sometimes it
won’t usually if they just recently
mating as and they’ve only gotten
together in a day or two then you’ll
find that she can still be quite
skittish and she will actually swipe at
him quite a bit but when they’ve been
meeting for a while then that tends to
happen less since she just sort of moves
off to the sides just will give a ground
and bit of a stall but that’s about it
so that’s actually a good indication
once we actually see them mating to be
able to tell how long they’ve been
mating together well my lions are going
nowhere I know they’re right shell on
oh that was that was amazing wasn’t that
lovely now do excuse the vehicles that
are there because everyone would see
wants to be in this amazing sighting you
can see they’ve also got that lights out
oh and everyone’s on the move which
now I’d like to wait for the mail to
move because when he’s gonna move there
we go that’s my cue he seems to have a
bit of a limp going on there you know
all the other vehicles gearing up to
now I’m actually going to have to move
around because there are a number of
vehicles in the sighting or right now so
let me see exactly how I’m going to do
this luckily for us they seem to be 10
it seemed to have turned East into Juma
alright I am on the search again but I
know that they’re not far away at all
unfortunately even is not as lucky but
like I said he definitely will find
those sausages let’s go to him just
don’t let those slaves out of your eyes
because next amara where we have this
Ivana the landscape is very different
with all flux as much as we have
and as much as you have the long grass
well perseverance has paid off so just
as Steve and Saeb arrived with the drone
we managed to bump into with the car
exactly where I found on foot so we
decided to come all the way back just in
case and there is the Queen sitting
right there so that was quite an
off-roading mission I think I’ve
probably put many a Dame’s inside
Rusty’s body work during the course of
this afternoon but success and at least
we’ve managed to find her like I said
was a long track to get to I mean she’s
walked all the way from Rebecca’s – yeah
which probably is meaningless to most of
you but it’s about in terms of walking
time would be probably about a two hour
walk if you had to track but she looks
like she’s kind of watching down below
there I wonder if she maybe doesn’t have
a kill here somewhere um well she’s
looking down is exactly where I was
coming up when she spotted me earlier
and where she kind of moved off from now
but let’s see you maybe she’s got some
sort of food item you can see how
difficult the terrain is here though I
mean it’s really almost impossible to
get any sort of view of her so I’m gonna
try just also not kill us because
there’s a very big bank here since can
you still see her yes she’s there okay
so I’m trying to see it’s getting so
dark now what’s I can’t see with my eye
but she’s somewhere they wear the
spotlights is now I believe in lots of
you saying good job well I think it’s
mostly sensor is kind of kenai that made
sure that he saw where she went and that
gave us an idea of where to work around
and eventually we kind of got it what
have you got there my girl have you got
a kill yes you’ve got a kill what a
clever girl so we would have found it
eventually she’s gotta kill how cool is
that awesome and there’s a really tree
right yeah so hopefully she’s gonna drag
it to this Marilla tree they are hyenas
around so I’m gonna keep my spotlights
and all my car lights off so that we
don’t attract any attention obviously
with lights on hyenas will come and
check what’s going on and we actually
did passing Timur way up when you saw me
turning off the road just after I sent
you off earlier and I never had a brief
video of her walking past me so I don’t
want to kind of
in any way whatsoever by having the
lights on and try and keep his kind of
sort of still as possible and lights off
for as long as possible to make sure
that we don’t attract any attention
towards her spotlights often hyenas will
follow a spotlight in a block because
they know that they could potentially be
a food item but this is super exciting
that we’ve managed to locator on a kill
it’s definitely hopefully gonna be a
decent-sized kill that maybe we’ve got
her for the next couple days and that’ll
give us a really good chance to kind of
see what’s actually going on with Tandy
is she possibly pregnant what’s going on
in terms of her sort of stomach and
hopefully that’s gonna kind of be a good
indicator as to what we can expect going
forward I suspect maybe she might be
pregnant
she’s been awfully round every time
we’ve been seeing her and so that really
kind of means that you know it could be
something inside giraffe girl you say
it’s an Easter feast where we’ve been
spotted this afternoon having to be I
mean to have two sets of lions and Jimmy
which is unheard of really even though I
know the in coomer’s are kind of one
grouping but to have two different
sightings is unheard of and then on top
of that yes you can go into our sends
you more than welcome to because getting
very dark she’s going down towards the
drainage into a horrible tree of course
she is which is came to make my life
almost impossible I’m just watching her
dragging it down below there since I
think let’s try and kind of figure out a
way to get to where she is I’m gonna
have to try and cross back over we I
don’t know how I’m gonna do this I guess
let’s try and figure out how we gonna
get there because where she’s gone now
is very unfriendly but it is kind of
where it’s going to be safer for her can
you see her no we can’t go that way and
unfortunately since is saying we could
try going the other side but I don’t
think we’re gonna be able to get down
there so I’m gonna try go this way
unfortunately can’t drive in the
drainage line we have to go over the
drainage line and then drive on the
other side for a little bit and then
hopefully she’s gonna be very kind to us
and she’s not going to take it the wrong
way and come back onto this side cos
down there
to be able to negotiate since we did we
come through we came through this rain
right so now I’m gonna try and figure
out how to get back to where Tandy’s
gone in the meantime though that sends
you back across to David and see how
he’s getting on how exciting is that’s
the tandy of the queen of jummah has
been sported hopefully she’ll be sports
it again and maybe come back to hug kill
you know if she got a kill hoisted in a
tree well I was talking earlier fish ala
with her lions which were on the move
and I was saying it’s a lot easier for
us here to follow lions wanna start
moving because we have the flatness of
it you know of the landscape and of
course Albert’s having it long grass we
can still maybe follow the Alliance but
in Juma the vegetation there is totally
different
well two things have happened here since
number one it just I’ll just tweet again
and you can see I got to my winch in the
back I’m here to start using my wafer
and of course it has gotten a bit dark
and of course that means all that
translates for us having gone to
infrared well I haven’t given up in the
bush you never say never until the very
last minute when you’re out of here
that’s when you’re like okay these cuts
not showing up in general the sausages
every other time was the nine out of ten
times when they come looking for them
I’ll always get them but that one time
or the 10 times it’s always a challenge
so what will happen is we start catching
my spotlight and use it the only thing
is if it is preaching like this chances
are we’ll be somewhere either under a
tree or in some kind of cave or some
rocks or in very good thickets
protecting the babies from the rain I
will need 10 Cubs and kinky having the
youngest 3 caps they don’t want to get
chances with drain because you have
known you know Lions will get flu will
get cold you know the Cubs are very
susceptible to pneumonia so the mothers
know so well not to expose their cubbies
to the rain
and I’m very happy that you all wish me
good luck but these cuts will show and
why not they have knowledge not to show
up and what alert is now a part on the
spot right just to switch off the car
and just listen for any calls from the
liars
[Music]
guys that was amazing
so what you heard there was a
combination of the Ross when The Barking
Wow that’s sour of that war and that’s
not even a full war that’s basically
them trying to contact the other lions
that are around well where you going to
those answer look we’ve already seen you
let’s move a little bit forward it’s as
exciting as enough oh you’ve done a bit
of scent-marking in front of us but why
this is awesome is that now is when
and animals that mean lions our meeting
will often share killed together even
though it’s just three of them they
might decide to take some take down
something together he’s standing
and as he’s going he’s sent barking
Fleming grimacing smelling where the
females had sent barking so it’s all
very exciting this is really cool I’ve
wanted to be with the Lions for such a
long time and finally they are yeah well
anyway it seems that Tristan has finally
caught up with tandy and tiny is in a
fabulous position so let’s go over her
to him and her well as you can see
unfortunately by the time we caught up
with her she had already got up into the
tree with her little Nala lamb that
she’s unfortunately managed to kill now
I say unfortunately because it’s always
sad when a little animal is killed but
she’s safely got it up in the tree
because lion has arrived as she got up
in there we started to see hyenas coming
in and so I haven’t ID’d which Chinese
are around they’ve kind of gone the
other side of the tree and you can see
it’s a bit dense and a bit thick so
we’re gonna have to try and work out
where we gonna kind of situate ourselves
but hipa kippa kippa cat we managed to
find the Queen I don’t think this is
gonna last long she should still be here
tomorrow morning but at least we managed
to catch up with this evening and we can
really get kind of a good look and
what’s going on with tündi she does look
quite round and she hasn’t actually
started to feed on this lamb at all yet
unfortunately it is that timer way I
need to say goodbye to all of you and so
it’s been an absolute pleasure this
afternoon hopefully you’ve enjoyed the
myriad of animals that we’ve had and
hopefully we will see you joining us in
half an hour for the sabc TV show but
from all of us has been an absolute
pleasure
we’ll see you just now oh I’ll see you
tomorrow morning for the sunrise Safari [Music]
an African safari and may include animal
kills and caucuses viewer discretion is
advised
good afternoon everybody welcome once
again to the Sun set Safari yeah down in
Juma in the South Africa where we sit
with a few lions lying down here just on
the side of the road my name is Steven
I’m joined by Sebastian ROM be on camera
and we are very excited to be out on
this very cool and blustery afternoon
it’s about 22 degrees Celsius about 63
degrees Fahrenheit him well we found
them this morning and we have managed to
find them again so that guy there is the
Avoca male known as snarly or mohawk
neither one he’s got a very distinctive
sort of mohawk to him he’s got a very
beaten up face since last us so I’m will
hopefully get another look at him and he
is with also amber eyes I think I’m not
sure at the moment which one is our
buyers and which one is the purple eye
but amber eyes is one of those two and
purple eye is the other one they’re both
pretty old lionesses DUP and apparently
though we didn’t see it this morning but
apparently there was at least one mating
session with the server camille and
amber eyes which is quite exciting
Tristan and I were just chatting at
about it before and wouldn’t it be
wonderful if the uncle homers gave birth
to a number of cabs just like the baby
boom of the Mara that is taking place
right now to go in conjunction with our
hyena den the Juma clan baby boom as
well vodkas are well-established now
they’ve been here since about February
March last year coming in and out and
since about May or so they haven’t
really been challenged by anyone that we
know about down here in Juma what goes
on up in the northern areas of before
suck up into Mannie later to the north
of us very hard to say but now that they
are looking off these females maybe it
will be time for some Cubs to follow
anyway I’m not the only one out the
South that entry Charlotte has
a little bit further west for me she’s
going to see if she can find the other
group of from this morning well I’m so
glad you’ve come over to me to see what
I’m doing because I have just arrived at
a wonderful sighting let’s see
surprise more lions how exciting is that
sorry guys I didn’t even get to
introduce myself I got excited here at
the lion sighting but I’m sure she’ll
and I’ve got Craig on camera and we’re
really excited to be here with these
lions now if she look closely you’ll see
the male is an extreme right you can see
sort of the main stunning so apparently
they’ve made it really really soon a
couple minutes ago so it might be a few
more minutes till they made again and
until then they will probably be sitting
around like this and sitting around in
sort of the shade it’s a bit cooler now
and then I’ll get up do a bit of
I’d love to get a really good look at
mrs. Avenue is that it you are you are
saying that are they all you’re asking
are these more think of miss I was just
about to tell you guys these this these
both of these females are in fact in
kokoomus and the one male there is the
Avoca male now you know these are our
resident pride or our resident pride in
humans and the Avoca males is the male
coalition that’s formed with the
increments so they will often be mating
together they sort of only Houmas in a
way if that makes sense but this group
of this pride of females belongs to the
Avoca males now I’d like to know which
one it is if he lifts his lovely head up
we’ll be able to see but from what I
understand these two lionesses on the
ground share is originals and one of the
both very tired I suppose exhausted from
the day’s mating but they found
themselves a nice patch but of @m Bertie
well these lines will be here for a
while which means so will I because it’s
only a matter of time until they get up
and start to mate which would be really
awesome I love to see that I’ve always
really liked when I see mating animals
it’s just such a special thing anyway
David up in the Maasai Mara seems to be
battling a bit of a storm and he’s
driving around so let’s go to him to say
[Music]
jumbo everyone and welcome to their very
ready mara triangle I’m sure nothing
looks familiar here but this tells you
those are the wrong ones the long rains
have started but we are going to survive
my name is David and uncover with me is
a Manu yesterday we were in the mid of a
very big storm
now the signs are still there that the
rains will continue but nothing worried
we are or Collison Manu have a very
special window who he wants just maybe
slightly give you a snippet of what is
outside there this is the inside we just
have an idea of how things look out
there and I’m sure you can hear it
can you hear the rain ladies and
gentlemen can you see that I’m sure you
can see a huge wall of rain yes and I’m
sure em in the final control is directly
show and and I’m sure you’d like to know
what transpired yesterday and we are all
very good we survived so what we did
very quickly we had to power down and
brought all the flaps down hoping things
will get better and we waited for about
45 minutes one hour and the rain got
bigger and bigger and we made a quick
decision back in the camp have a cup of
tea have a cup of coffee and look what
they will bring but I’m very hopeful
things will not be bad and it’s steep
having started Lions trishal of lions
that’s a good sign lots of lions in
Douma hopefully we are going to get our
STPs
which are going to look for and
definitely Steve and Trish Allah have
already requested you for comments and
questions as usual
hashtag Safari live on Twitter well as
much as it’s raining it’s a bit warm
here is 25 degrees Celsius and 77
degrees Fahrenheit which me works very
well so third man who yesterday we were
not really caught off guard but today we
are more prepared than yesterday or what
you see there is nothing but rain now
the long range will always touch the
month of March going all the way to June
but this time they have started in the
month of April as you shortly didn’t
gentlemen I’m sure you always do my plan
I’ll get into the sausage Republic and
ice I do that within your back to Vova
thanks Gigi
try and stay dry this evening and don’t
get washed off the road like you did
yesterday here we go that’s am bars on
the left everybody that’s purple I in
the middle and that is snidely the
Mohawk two vocal male on the right they
are thoroughly enjoying lying our chair
honor the soft grass they haven’t done
much apart from a rollover slightly so
maybe we’ll get to see a mating session
between them but one mating session for
the whole day because we had Ollie who
came out just to just to keep an eye on
the Lions today just to make sure that
they didn’t leave and well you only saw
them mate once so it’s very interesting
because normally when their mating pair
are busy you can almost time it in the
beginning it’s seven eight minutes and
then slows down to every 15 minutes and
then towards the end of it it starts
becoming over twenty five thirty minutes
and once in a day
well I remember excuse me being with em
bars and one of the Birmingham boys up
at before sook damn probably about this
time actually last year I can’t remember
exactly maybe but earlier and the entire
time we spent with her they’re only
mates at once she was a very grumpy lady
almost as if she is in East respeto her
mood is not quite there which is always
but right now it seems like lions are
hello soul yes most certainly Lions will
essentially lose their pride during is
sort of the mating sort of story during
the situation and the female or the male
will follow the female invariably the
pride moves away or they could stay in a
similar sort of area depending on food
if they’ve gone hunting or whatever it
might be and after two three days four
days maybe the female and the male both
of them will come to sort of a a hunger
sort of stalemate and they’ll split
apart to go and eat and then you’ll
often find that female rejoining the
pride and trying her level best to lose
sort of the attention of the male who
has been trying to follow her the entire
time so that is the ideal situation but
we saw up in the Maasai Mara their kinky
tail seemed to be in sort of a mating
relationship before almost three weeks
and that was very interesting to see
I’ve never seen anything quite like that
before but then everybody lions don’t
read the books so but they don’t need to
return to the pride they can be quite
successful hunting on their own but they
are much more successful with their
sisters and family in tow we’ve seen
amber eyes last year as well when she
had Cubs over in the West she would
stash the Cubs not that we ever saw them
with that information from the guides in
the West and then she’d come charging
all the way to the other side of June I
could actually track her from the West
come in to find the pride so as to get
some food and then she’d spend a few
days before going back unfortunately
each time that happened she had some
failures with regards to maybe that den
site she chose not really sure I heard
some stories that hyenas had gotten to
one of the litters but anyway but it is
a very sad state of affairs but amber
eyes as yet as far as we are aware she
successfully Rhea
Christus okay well everybody has you
know it and there’s also another person
up this afternoon or maybe we didn’t
know that but Tristan has found some
tracks of Columba and he would really
like to find us let’s go and see how
he’s getting on indeed Alice Fleur I
don’t have any tawny colored cats
I’m the unlucky one Hart this afternoon
but that’s fine because that allows me
to go looking for the spotted ones which
we all know I prefer anyway as Steve
mentioned my name is Tristan on camera
have got scenes over this afternoon and
we are going to be looking for spotty
cats I’m gonna try and see if we can
find if there’s tracks for lions here
which I suspect must be the same ones
that Stephen Trishula
have seen I don’t know I want to ask
them just not just one of the tracks now
but I’m pretty sure these lines come up
and I think they must meet up with those
ones that Steve and Shoshanna have but
he also found tracks for a lipid looks
like four claw Lamba coming from a
little block that she was last seen mr.
Sharla which tends to suggest that maybe
she had a kill in there the last couple
days and she’s now come out and so she
looks as though she’s hitting kind of
southwards so I want to just check
treehouse Dam and twin dams in case
she’s gone for water I drove past some
impalas just before I spotted the tracks
and they looked seriously jumpy they
were not in any way relaxed they were
kind of steering in different directions
and sort of as the car came past they
were kind of bolt upright so I don’t
know if they maybe saw her during the
course of the day except that the
problem is is that the tracks have been
driven over by a vehicle this morning
there’s definitely Lion tracks yeah so I
don’t know if anyone didn’t drive yo
what the story is but they come up from
here the sticks pride is also around so
it could very well be some of them they
were seen yesterday on Torchwood moving
about so they back from their little
joints into the West so you know kind of
pay attention for them too they also
could just appear out of nowhere given
how mobile they’ve been
of late so lots of things to kind of
follow up on down in the south here
while Trish and Steve up in the north
hopefully we’ll have some sort of luck
with some of these animals and we’ll be
able to find what we’re looking for it’s
not great we’re there for kind of
waterhole Patrol it’s kind of overcast
there’s a bit of a wind that’s blowing
fairly chilly it’s not really the best
kind of weather to Drive cats to go and
drink but you never know maybe we get
lucky and we’ll find something Linda I
suspect that you might be right there’s
a lot of potential this evening for a
very nice TV show and we’ve obviously
got the two sets of lions hopefully we
can add roaring from them there’s the
hyena den that might be active a little
bit later which if the other two are
busy with I’ll head to there and then
there’s always a potential as we know of
a spotty cat in this area as well as a
multitude of other animals so you know
there’s lots going on and hopefully
we’ll be able to get lucky with
something from outsiders where’s Steven
trishula are most definitely already
lucky at this stage okay so nothing at
tryouts damn which is not really that
surprising as I was saying I’m just
checking the water points in case clap
McKay more for kills she might have gone
for water you can just be lounging about
so it’s worth just checking around good
as we gonna head off we’re gonna go and
check Curtin um so we’re gonna go
scratch around and see what we can find
in the meantime send you back across the
Steve who’s sitting with his lions and
hopefully you know and they’ll be busy
well my liens have moved just slightly
and I can see that one of the females
has rolled over and the other one has
her head caught underneath the one
females foot very sweet and you find
that bonding social bonding and touching
and beams actual physical contact with
each other it’s such an important thing
for lions and you’ll find them often
doing it in fact apparently it’s it’s
the same for all mammals and there
there’s something called a bliss
molecule or serotonin that sort of gets
released and that those pleasure centers
in our brain they they get activated oh
they’re happy when when we’re in contact
with people so I said that’s the same
for lots of mammals it applies the same
sort of to us as well in general people
feel some sort of happiness or something
gets rewarded in the head when they bond
with others and it’s the same here and
when you an inner pride together and
you’re constantly with this group that
you’re going to hunt together live
together help each other survive you can
twitch twitch I wonder what they’re
I Luna a really interesting question
you’d like to know how I can tell we can
tell when a sub-adult lioness actually
becomes an adult
well lions are fully grown at about 3 to
4 years old and usually in terms of
aging to be or being able to just by
sight look at her apart from actually
knowing their date of birth or something
like that you would notice that as the
years go on the nose of the lioness
which is probably very pink when they’re
sub-adult so it is quite pink when
they’re sub-adults gets darker that’s
one of the things that is quite obvious
you also notice even stature size that
sort of thing but I find it most the
most obvious thing to me is that a lot
of the time before they are fully grown
adults or they sort of reach their peak
which is about 7 years old
you’ll find that their face still looks
quite young if that makes sense if these
two just look at us then I could show
you what I mean but you’ll find that
they they do look still look a bit cub
like that usually goes away by the time
they’re about 2 or 3 I find but then
after that it’s there you’re pretty much
looking at at an adult once it’s capable
but like I said they’re fully grown and
they reach a maximum size at around 7
years old so in these two look at us
especially looking at their faces I
always find looking at their face is
Phee tonight it always amuses me how
they sit and relax and how it seems that
no matter how much I speak around them
or the vehicle coming in they might just
lift up their head once look at me and
that’s about it
it seems like everyone’s lions are not
bothered well they will be bother
bothered very soon when it becomes a
little bit darker and they become active
and we’ll we’ll be right here when that
does happen so Steve’s
lions are also very very lazy so let’s
go to him and see if they’ll decide to
move for you well stand by everybody you
might get to see an ear flick that’s all
that’s happening at the moment this male
did sit up for a moment and that’s the
mohawk that gives him away because his
face is covered in new and fresh scars
that I haven’t seen last time I saw him
he didn’t have as many so we don’t
really know what goes on under the cover
of darkness
I remember developing an ID kids for a
pride of lions and the Kruger years ago
there were 9 sub adult males and as
Trish says it’s just the facial features
change so regularly specially males and
I had put together Nardi kits and there
are some very very sort of prevalent
scars that made it quite easy to
identify a few and then a week later
another one looked the same and it’s
just the scars on the face make it very
very tricky especially with there’s 9 9
young males all looking similar each
week you’d have to change the
photographs females they do change but
not as much as the males they’re not as
hello foul enough amber eyes as Cubs
would have amber eyes well essentially
eye color and many other traits that
someone will some organism wolf sort of
carry on as normally derived from the
parent but it all depends on how it
really transfers you know depends of
suppose also on what dad and his eyes
look like I mean if dad’s got some
light-colored eyes
maybe his genes are but stronger than
hers in in from the chromosome level
really hard to say one thing that I’ve
definitely noticed with lions is how
they do definitely inherit their fathers
mane I’ve seen that before where I was
talking about those eight young males
that was clearly by the identification
features at least a two of the dominant
males in the area with the father’s you
can actually sort of link the main
development and to how they were looking
okay I think that’s purple I said amber
eyes if you got his purple like there we
go look at those teeth
it’s given us a yawn everybody you know
what this normally means don’t you and
we’re gonna count down from ten nine
seven six five four that looks like
they’re gonna do some grooming but the
afternoon is quite cool they’re not in
any shade whatsoever so the Sun has
clearly done an issue for them this is a
very good chance we might see these
animals up earlier than normal and with
them if you look at the male on the
right there his belly is emptying
certain whether he’s interested in food
or more like amber eyes it’s hard to say
but definitely the purple eye darkness
was hunting this morning in a spend time
with her early and she definitely was
excited to try to catch something hello
Rob well I didn’t see him but apparently
there were tracks of a male line heading
from north where we are now all the way
to the east and on our eastern boundary
with tortured a road called cheetah cut
line apparently the male lion was found
on that cut line this morning by one of
the cheetah Plains vehicles it’s he her
left canine is wearing down a little bit
she was born in 2012 and she injured her
eye in about April 2017 probably from
either from a claw while feeding maybe
she got one of those bad abscesses in
the eye or maybe she got kicked by
something that she was trying to eat I
suppose you can’t blame an animal’s like
kicking a lion in the face can you it’s
about to get mauled to the ground and
ripped apart okay so what are you gonna
do now
it’s incredible the male line is mating
with two different lions I found that
incredible I’ve never heard of that
before when they align a little menage
on twat if you’ve heard of that before
sip will you you speak French of course
you’ve heard the term before but have
you ever heard of a male line being with
with two females that is a first for me
but then amber eyes mating with two
brothers and tag-teaming I found
incredible she made it for three weeks
and Bazar no cos I was there and she
changed up honestly it took me a bit of
effort to understand who she was mating
with but Nikki Austin our producer knows
lions are very very well and that was
definitely him mating with purple eye
and he mated with amber eyes earlier
today so everybody I really don’t know
what to say it’s something very new for
me seeing a male line mating with one
and then if you’re gonna mate with the
second one then we’re definitely gonna
see it ourselves Louie
purring I suppose you could say it is
purring I mean they are just very big
cats and essentially that noise
that you hear is one of the
communication signals that Lions use
there’s a warning involved there’s all
sorts of of sort of behavior being sort
of shown when they call like it if
you’re walking on foot and you don’t see
a lion that little is pretty much what
you hear long before you see them if
you’re listening and when they mate
that’s what you see when they’re feed
you also have that so it’s basically a
communication with close quarters
communication between lions that
probably indicates all sorts of things
excitement over feeding there’s
definitely excitement
there’s also dominance between it
because a big animal it’s gonna
make more noise more resonance so for
example a cab if it he has a male lion
make that noise will invariably go okay
I’ve overstepped some form of boundary
leopards do a similar sort of sound it’s
just not as loud but indeed it’s
definitely got something to do with
excitement and well I suppose Alliance
mating is rather exciting for them quite
exciting to watch as well and I’m going
to set my clock now and see what’s going
on because now 16:25 that that happened
so let’s see if he gets up again but you
saw how she initiated it she was on
initiated that not him so he’s keen but
anyway we’re going to stay with his lies
we’re not gonna go anyway let the action
unfold and let’s go see if the rain has
very good super well done and very
interesting to see one male I admit in
with two lionesses it’s nothing out of
the ordinary that happens every in that
one then we see that happening and not
much we have achieved where we are but
the good news are the rains have
subsided or raba the rains have stopped
out all that truly very good news and if
you look carefully now my vehicle is not
like how it was before you see mine is
showing you those flaps are up on one
side and also those flaps are also up on
the other side but I’ve just left
windshield you know right there and the
flops in front just in case that makes
it easier for me now to turn left and
turn right to hopefully get my subsidies
I have already gotten into the public
regardless of the rain and for those of
you would wonder what the public means
is one area we see a particular pride
that I call the sauce the true pride
that pride has made this place its poem
it doesn’t move and even if it moves we
don’t see anybody else who will come and
occupy this particular area and the
females do not only fight other lions
but they also fight other predators for
example hyenas leopards they do not
entertain any other predator in this
area so we keep looking like this is
because I had told me he thought he saw
a lion as a game ranger he thought she
saw a lioness with two cups around where
we are
nothing as yet but I do not want to miss
anything so I have to get my eyes out
and hopefully I gonna see her well after
having ranged so much chances are they
might have gone under some trees and
Rosaleen how are you you would like to
know how much it rains in the Mara what
annually in tomorrow we get about a
thousand millimeters of rainfall 1 zero
zero zero annually and that is every
last year Rosaleen chances are I think
we might have gotten more than a
thousand we do not know what amount
you’ll get this year but in average we
get about a thousand millimeters of
rainfall in a row Green I will give you
a question to today give you an idea how
much rain you get where you come from
I’d be happy to know and I’m sure you
know how to give me that answer as I
keep looking for that one particular
lioness my friend to me about unless she
has moved it was this particular area we
are now so today I have double
challenges the grass as I’m sure you can
see how jollity and also see how solid
grasses and also the rain I’ll have to
stick you know in the middle of the road
as far as it will take and not take
chances with the black cotton soil which
could be quite quite a challenge to try
with secrets of good daylight so I’m not
worried of darkness alone as the latest
their chances are I’ll be able to catch
up with this particular pride
okay devour the chemistry here we have a
lot of black cotton soil and it’s not as
tough soil as the black cotton soil
especially when it rains it gets very
very sticky you have to be very careful
every time you do a move because you
don’t want to get stuck and when you get
stuck in a four-wheel drive like this
one and you try to come out you try to
spin the tires every time you try
spinning you keep adding yourself so the
best thing we do when you get stuck is
to come out assess you know how stuck
you are and we try and get some branches
and you put under the tires and then you
get some good traction and then you come
out of where you’ve been stuck
otherwise you once you get stuck you
don’t panic and you keep pushing the car
and you know putting more gas in it
digging yourself very good I’m not
getting stuck but I’m sure Trish is
yes I’m marshmallows with the Lions at
the moment
thank goodness not actually marshmallows
that I’m so happy that the desert hasn’t
happened to me yet but
touchwood that there’s no wood around
there we go my bottle cap touch wit that
that doesn’t happen because last time I
said something doesn’t happen like I
said oh I’ve never broken a foot before
I’ve never broken a bone and then what
happened
I broke one I’m not gonna say that I’ll
never get stuck but I’m glad that I
haven’t yet and I really hope that David
doesn’t get stuck too especially with
that rain at least it’s cleared up a bit
I hope that it doesn’t rain here it’s
looking a bit cloudy and a little
overcast but there is no rain predicted
I think not until the late evening so we
should be good
there’s our male on his back relaxing
Oh boohoo you’d like to know why Lions
lift their legs when they’re sleeping
well there’s a few theories as to why it
lifts its legs sometimes it’s just about
comfort ability maybe they’re an awkward
position but one of the more prevalent
theories is that because they’re on
their back and they’re exposing sort of
the thin thinnest skin on the underneath
and you’ll see that their legs sort of
flop apart so that thin skin is on this
is being exposed that they’ll actually
be able to cool themselves down easier
with their legs that way now you’ll see
that or will will see when they start to
mate that the female doesn’t as well but
she’ll do it in a different way or for a
different reason when you see lions just
like this and they’re just chilling on
their backs it’s probably that they’re
trying to cool themselves with that thin
skin but when you see females after
mating rolling on their back it’s more
likely that they’re trying
it’s sort of an instinctual thing
they’re rolling on their back after they
mate because apparently it may help in
getting the sperm all the way up into
the lioness so that maybe we’ll can get
some lion cubs or that the chance of it
may be higher but it seems to be an
instinctual thing they just kind of roll
onto their backs afterwards but that is
the theory it’s not actually very hot in
fact I’ve just put my my jacket on
because I’m feeling a bit chilly but
obviously this Avoca male is still
feeling a bit warm well if you’re going
that’s probably it’s probably worth your
wrist Sarah did you say maybe because
it’s comfortable yes absolutely I think
that – it might just be a comfortable
position it’s not always there’s not
always a biological reason for it that
we know of yet it might just be a
comfort well maybe he’s just decided
it’s a bit itchy on that side I’m gonna
roll over it definitely could just be
that
Oh some movement we’ve got us a canine
sticking out there from one of the
females but that is the extent of the
movement at the moment her lip flopped
down to reveal that kala was a massive
it was so much excitement it is it’s
endless Emma says it’s endless I agree
they’ll spend most of the day like that
in fact I’m going to take a bet at what
time I think they’ll start to move I
think in about quarter to 6:00 that’s my
guess it’s like I said it’s when I was
speaking about the Avoca mail and
talking about him feeling hot or perhaps
feeling warm and that’s why he’s doing
that is that they’re going to make at
least or estimated Mountain amount of
about three thousand times before an
actual cub will be assigned or at least
the the male’s would and that’s I think
that’s quite incredible it also gives
you an idea of how much effort it takes
to produce one litter of Cubs and then
obviously has to do with the fact that
most of the mating is in order to induce
ovulation in the females and that once
ovulation is actually induced it’s about
a 95 percent chance of that egg actually
being fertilized so most of this mating
has a lot more to do with trying to get
that female to ovulate and then one that
once that’s done we can look forward to
Cubs butts like I said that might take
that’s very true we do have double the
chance with these lions and the ones
with Steve so let’s go to him and see if
his have done any exciting things like
mmm juice I’m sitting right here waiting
for some more action to unfold but you
are very right I’ve got a very strong
suspicion that I don’t know exactly when
but at some stage this afternoon no
doubt the two groups are going to join I
have a feeling that will happen and it
might not happen you never know but
there probably are wherever the risk
that when Google map riders they
probably offer summer as well Tristan
was telling me earlier that there were
some tracks down towards a SUP of
another single Lion so not sure exactly
there seems to be lions all over the
place and the wind is coming from our
left-hand side which is a good thing
because well I don’t know if it’s a good
thing it’s a good thing for us because
it means that these Lions if they do get
up he’ll probably start walking in that
general direction I know some of you out
there don’t agree with me but it’s
something I see time in and time out so
also there’s generally a nice herd of
all the Bears to these days that have
moved back onto the quarantine open area
which is off towards our left-hand side
and always many many impala hello Joyce
you want to know how males find females
and east rest’s well they have they have
a Twitter account and they started
joking
they don’t have social media but they do
have their own form of social media
females will urinate and scent mark as
well as they go and males are constantly
patrolling their areas and ever do pick
up on any smells of lions anyway they
post they tend to post or profile left
on the corner of somewhere then they
will very quickly try and find where
that lioness is they’ve got very good
sense of smell and I’ve followed a young
mare line following its pride that was
probably about five or six kilometres
away it’s about three four miles away
and it found it by just smelling the
ground I wish I could track like that
just sniffing out the Lions but they’ve
got a very keen sense of smell and
that’s just for the footprints
so once there’s been a discharge sore
urination whatever it might be
the male line will pick that up and
inside his brain suddenly a driver queue
goes and says your everybody there are
there is an e stris female nearby and
the males will push each other out of
the way to get there first and generally
in a coalition you might see a bit of
animosity towards each other but it’s
not extremely aggressive when it comes
to Lions Lions can be very very very
tough on each other but coalition
members although they will growl and
stall and fight each other but they’re
generally the first male to find the
females Cheerilee the one who is left
with her although there might be a
little bit of our ji bhaji it’s
generally not too serious if it was URI
the lion did that too we’d probably be
in quite a lot of pain but these animals
are designed for hitting and punching
and fighting and clawing and biting each
other that’s part and parcel of being a
lion and well if they’re not tough
enough to do it
they definitely signed up to be the
wrong species and as it starts off from
an early age
competing for mums milk and every time
they feed on a carcass they have to
compete and by the time they are fully
fledged dominant males have been through
their fair share of confrontations right
now there’s not much confrontation
happening and this is um the lioness
with the injured eye again and a few
people on Twitter are suggesting we
should rename her I don’t have the power
to rename our Lions or leopards I’m
afraid everybody it is a tricky topic
and for now I’m just going to leave it
as it is they wait for James to get back
and maybe he can address that the new
mate Tristan is just on the other side
of the reserve looking for any tracks of
Columba let’s go and see what he’s come
well it’s good and bad I mean we haven’t
found what we’re looking for yet but the
tracks are getting fresher and fresher
for Little Miss column all I think it’s
her and that we’re following at the
moment we found that she went to chill a
pan and she’s now come down across the
Malati and is kind of moving eastwards
in general but her tracks are getting
better and better they’re on top of
everything they nice and crisp and clear
and because we’ve had wind today you’d
expect some disturbance on them but
these tracks are kind of shining a
little bit and so I’m hoping that we’re
gonna bump into somewhere around this
area just taking it very very slow
because the tracks are almost impossible
to see in places the roads haven’t quite
softened up just yet what’s what have we
got your sins so there we go it looks
like she walked yep there we go so she’s
walked on this left side I’ll try pull
over so sins can show you but there’s a
track that’s just there that’s going up
this pathway and she’s walking kind of
on the road there you can kind of see
that’s the tracks that we’re looking for
and they’re starting to look really nice
and crisp and clear which is really good
news so hopefully we’re gonna track her
down
it could be Tandy it’s possible but I
suspect that this is Columba that we’re
following just given where it’s come
from I mean it’s we’ve been tracking for
a long time now we’ve gone a long way so
let’s see if we can find it there’s a
little pan up ahead here it’s got no
warts in it so it’s very possible that
she kind of came here to look for sir
but because there’s no water she might
have moved off naturally it’s incredibly
difficult to track the lumber because
she doesn’t walk on roads as much scent
marking she’s kind of just goes wherever
her heart feels she just kind of bounces
around and crosses roads all over the
place and she’s incredibly active she
doesn’t sit still for long periods of
time at all which makes finding her and
night me you’ve got to just kind of be
in the right place at the right time a
lot of it because she just doesn’t
really stop and when she does stop she
tends to stop in thicker areas at the
moments
exactly she is a strong independent
lipid that doesn’t need anything really
she makes life a little bit tricky in
that regard but it’s it’s nice because
she is active which means that a lot of
time when lipids are active particularly
young inexperienced lipids they bring
about alarm calls on themselves which
means that if she is moving and she’s
close by here somewhere she’s going to
spark an alarm call and that’s going to
help us and we’re gonna be able to then
find her because of that now there’s a
part that comes past this sort of dry
pad and that I was talking about and I
just want to double check if she didn’t
cross over somewhere here it kind of
goes off in towards this drainage where
she spent a lot of time as a small cub
it doesn’t look like she’s come over
here we’ll just check a little bit
further because sometimes they go over a
little bit further on is I can little
kind of to track that goes off to my
right now you see she’s been up and down
here I just heard of Franklin I think
she’s very close I don’t think we’re far
behind her at all at the moment the
tracks are just starting to look better
and better looks like they came out yeah
I also part of me is wondering if maybe
just maybe it’s not
tungee because this is exactly where we
first had our first visual of Columba in
the den site is where we are right now
so it’s very possible that she’s maybe
scouting if she is pregnant for possible
but these tracks are all over the place
yeah they look like she’s been kind of
doing circles which on really is not
definitive in terms of who it actually
is I just want to go down because I
heard a Franco an alarm call here
quickly sighs when a chick right now we
have our work cut out for us especially
where we are now Trish and Steve don’t
and so Trish is taking it very easy with
her lines that are lounging away the
afternoon I worked hard to get your
Tristan I promise I drove all the way
from camp it’s actually not that far and
we were lucky enough that they were here
in the morning as well as it was not too
much work but I wish Tristan the best of
luck with finding that little one that
would just be awesome it’d be such a
catty
Katty Sunday I’ll cheer for us yeah we
have another view of the Avoca mail now
we think that this is the dark maned
mail often sometimes referred to as the
Crump email Puma you’d like to know how
far away I am from the other Lions
probably not that far prepared two K’s
not even they’re fairly close I’ve been
the austell and in juma but this is sort
of in the North West whereas the other
lions are bit more centrally located but
almost on the same Road but just at
different points in the road so they are
quite close it it almost reminds me of a
bit of a double date you know boys
arrived together the girls arrive
together and then they decide to go to
they probably met up on tinder like
it does seem like an awesome day to have
a nap it’s just the perfect temperature
just a little little chilly you know
when it’s just it’s not cold it’s just
mgn you say what about the rest of the
pride well I don’t actually know what
the rest of the pride is up to for well
as many as we know as we’re accounting
for the for females yeah and I think the
one other Avoca male so we’ve got the
mohawk one would Steve and I think I’ve
got the dark mane one here and then
there’s the blonde male the blonde male
I think was last seen much more North in
there so I say much more but past the
boundary north of this so they are round
and I’m sure that the rest of the Inca
Houmas are around as well but you’ll
often find that when they’re mating
they’ll break away into these pairs or
very cool so we’ve got this guy then
we’ve got the two females that you’re
looking at there and we said that one is
the youngest lioness of the program is a
youngest lioness when I say hence you
say it makes you want to take a nap but
definitely makes you want to take a nap
it makes me want to take a nap just
looks so so comfortable now we are
talking about these two so we’ve got the
youngest lioness as in the youngest
adult lioness and that is tatty yes or
we call it a tear but she’s also called
youngest lioness how apt and she was
born in about 2013 and then the other
one that we have is of course the
originals female that I have seen mating
with the Evoque as before luckily I was
very excited to see that in fact a few
times I think I’ve seen the originals
female mating with the Evoque I think
once the one time I did see it was with
the dark band male as well but she was
born in 2012 so there’s only about a
year between them so be nice to have a
look at their faces and you have a nice
comparison of if that year even makes
that much of a difference in terms of
the way that they look now their vocal
males they were all born in the in 2013
so ridge nose is a bit older than him
but tat ears our youngest female she’s
she’s more age-appropriate but of course
none of that matters in Lion Society in
fact a female will mate with any adult
male that comes along when she’s in East
hrus she’ll just have to make sure that
the male that she brings into the
territory doesn’t attract attention of
this one or any of the coalition members
because then there will be trouble
amongst the coalition members they will
fight for mating rights within their
coalition and within that pride but
they’re hardly ever fights that result
in any kind of serious and injury but if
an
a male that’s from outside this
territory not part of this coalition
comes in it can be fighting to the death
and you’ll actually see the difference
in the way that they fight you can see
one sort of gesture but a bit not
playful but you could see it more
forewarning or this is my lair lioness
stay away whereas when you see them
fighting because they’re actually from
two different territories are two
we’re all looking for lines today it
seems and for once I think we’ve got the
Lions before David has but I have no
doubt that he will also find some lions
because he’s special like that so let’s
go up to the masai mara well Trish My
Luck has not come yet I’m still working
very hard hopefully to see the
associative ride but yes as you say it’s
quite brutal to see a lot of fights but
that’s what it’s meant to be the males
will always go for each other especially
during takeovers the lords and that’s
mine spring
of a particular male that used to rain
in this territory of the sausages was
called a pulley which I think optional
his one male
I respect because in one day I saw
people fighting two males in one day one
in the morning and one in the afternoon
the good news is he won’t both battles
as much as he incurred a very big scar I
think on his right side on his radar
I got a huge I fingered a claw mark but
he warned you don’t want to see lions
fighting but of course if they fight for
good reason why not now initially my
flaps on the left to the Rays subsided
and the ones on the right and now the
front it’s all clear so the only job me
and man who have now is get lions we
have no excuse not to get them we have
no reason not to see the Lions but the
second if you look on the right there
you can see the kind of clouds we got
money’s gonna show the viewers how the
clouds looked like there and you can see
and I hope you can hear the rains or
rather thunderstorms going there anyhow
this is such the Republic not a single
drop now or the only seeing is a bit of
lightning needle in the sky shook shoot
going and coming and then of course
should be after that we get
thunderstorms which is very normal
that’s how the sequence goes first
listening followed by thunderstorms and
we are here to try and smoke these
Leone’s out my friend who taught me had
seen a lioness around this area he’s a
gambler and I’m really counting on him
so much not that I doubted him but most
likely that one female he saw would have
risen up and maybe walked away so I’m
deciding to look at a dict area because
so money sent we did something with my
audio let me just check what could be
happening
I think either my comms are not getting
tomorrow very well everything seems to
be in place moment just making it a
little tighter bitter Mouse is happy
alright
why you never know what happens in
okay left right see you can either smell
these files I’m sure definitely not
after the race let me first send you
David I don’t worry about lions
these lions are fast asleep I’m hoping
at some stage they’re going to get up
and do something but the longer they
hold off doing anything well the longer
we can probably stay with them because
you know how quickly these lions can
move and cover quite a lot of distance
if they do start moving and if they are
hungry well they can move and move and
move and talk they secure some food but
it’s an interesting situation Arian now
because essentially there is one male
mating the two females so are they even
hungry at all the purple eyed lioness
was definitely hungry this morning due
to the fact that she was hunting but
maybe it was also because she didn’t
have a consort with him at the time and
well now she’s yawning again maybe we’re
gonna see it getting up again everybody
this is what heralded the lost mating
session and it has been exactly 30
minutes so definitely not an intense
sort of situation going on here Oh gotta
scratch yourself that looks very nice
you scratch my back aah I know I’ll just
scratch my own back you see a couple of
the wounds on the back there’s some old
wounds a lot of those up I received from
fighting around kills sorry em how I
heard Joe asked the question about the
sub-adults I didn’t quite quite get all
of that question there but one thing I
can tell you for sure is the young males
of the warmer would not want to be
anywhere near yes of course so Joe thus
about us not necessarily but the males
the young males definitely would be at
very very high risk and the ink warm up
ryder’s just sort of accepted that
mundane email now and so I don’t think
they were anyone to just throw him to
the wolves as it were so probably there
would have been some form of calling
some form of connection with the Avoca
males and the rest the pride probably
just disappeared elsewhere it’s possible
they’ve gone south I’m Tristan says he’s
got tracks all the way around treehouse
dam area so we didn’t actually spend any
time tracking this morning myself and
said we came out to we went and while we
did a little bit of tracking but we
would directly eat the west from where
we are got the drone up in the air no
tracks where we had been and then we
found these lines using the thermal
drone so if there is the pride had come
in before we hadn’t seen any sign of
that so I don’t know where they are but
it could be south of us they could still
be north it’s very hard to say but one
thing’s for certain the young males
wouldn’t want any part of these Avoca
boys that is for sure because
unfortunately the reality is and we
don’t even know it happened maybe the
vocal males got into it with those two
young males and maybe they’ve been
chased maybe there’s been a fight we
don’t know so it’s crazy to see it
because you never actually know it goes
on while you’re not watching if indeed
there’s been some interaction between
the big males and the young males you
probably wouldn’t see too much of the in
the way of injury when the two Avoca
males and from what I saw this morning I
didn’t see any
fresh sort of science or they a number
of sort of nourish scars but nothing
from the last day or so
so if indeed those two youngsters young
males of the pride that includes the
monk any male if they even saw these
Avoca mouths they would just take off
there’s no point standing their ground
they’ll just get a hiding but then up in
the mara last year we saw a pulley move
into the sausage tree pride and accept
those two young sausage tree pride males
so things do happen you never know what
could happen but what I’ve experienced
in the past is when a big male lion
comes across a young males they’re
generally head for the hills and quite
often you can even see the prides
behavior we saw them goomers last year
when the Birmingham’s had moved south
their voters were establishing a sort of
the the rain in the north and you’d hear
them calling and the Houmas would all
stand up and walk in the opposite
direction I’ve seen that many times
before with prides that have got sub
adults especially young males they’re
just moving another way that I want to
lose their genetics but then eventually
and the desire to mate kicks in the
driver the East recycle and essentially
the females then will seek out the
dominant males don’t want to mate with
the subordinate males with males that
haven’t established themselves haven’t
proven their worth that’s one of the
reasons what conception in lions is very
very low James I haven’t heard anything
about the Birmingham boys as far as I’m
aware now they’re still doing very well
down in the south I haven’t paid any too
much attention to their Facebook
profiles those of you didn’t know most
of our animals have got some form of
Facebook profile and this one is trying
to do a very interesting licking
back how many of you can do that yoga
teachers out there can you lick your
back that very long tongue so I’m sure
the Birmingham’s are down south I’ll
have a little look-see now and see
there’s anything going on but the heaven
come north that’s for sure haven’t heard
of any any movements of them up towards
us sort of the areas of Chitra and the
areas sort of just south of us they seem
to be quite happy in their pride lands
now in the sort of south central parts
of the sabi sands where they are very
very good game numbers permanent water
and in the form of the sabi and the sand
or evap I think they’re quite happy down
so no one has yet admitted to being as
flexible as this line and being able to
buy to their own lick their own back
she’s being irritated to buy some flyers
now must be a constant source of
irritation as a lion having flies
constantly just buzzing around your face
albeit with the rains having seemingly
passed most of the flies have kind of
head for the hills
I was looking a little bit closer at the
male lions bottom earlier and it looked
quite inflamed with a number of the
Flyers on it so don’t know exactly
what’s happened there but let’s jump
over to Trish who’s about a kilometer to
my right inside and see if her lions are
giving us any more action than these
three well the flies haven’t managed to
get here yet and they haven’t done
anything to make my Lions move but I’m
slightly thankful because at least I’d
like the Flyers are not gonna bother me
because they can be quite irritating
when you’re sitting in the lion sighting
especially when you have a whole lot of
biting flies trying to eat at you so
good luck Steve to deal with that cuz
that’s coming once they start irritating
the Lions you see the occasional flick
of the yeah oh there we have one little
fly landed there we go Lions host so
many pests it seems like they’re
constantly riddled with something or the
other if it’s not flies
sometimes there’s mange in fact speaking
of mange and Steve was telling you about
how sub-adults would like to be far away
I’m sure those man Guinea or that one
monkey an email will want to be very far
away away from this big male this of
Elka male who might decide to chase him
away and I think for an animal like that
that is so oh not as vulnerable but
definitely still recovering he is
looking great compared to what he was
looking like I was utterly surprised
when I saw him and and how much better
he’s looking but even for him I suppose
he’s not totally 100%
but he’s hair and tail tuft and mane is
starting to grow back just a little so I
think he might be feeling a bit
vulnerable and the last thing he needs
is a big main dominant lion coming after
you wouldn’t say these floppy lazy cats
are actually quite efficient killing
I couldn’t quite get the name then I
must apologize because I am sounding a
bit muffled today or rather FC is
sounding a bit muffled to me today but I
did get the question the question was if
there was a higher mortality in Cubs if
because of mange I suppose I mean that
could be but mostly the problem with
Cubs in the fact that they have such a
high mortality rate in lots of big cats
is the fact that no male that comes into
a situation wants to be taking care of
Cubs that are not his own so the biggest
threat to them are other males that are
going to come in and very likely kill
them to bring their mothers into Easter
so that she can actually have his own
Cubs in terms of mange mange being a
problem now mange is a mite that buries
itself into the skin and I suppose Cubs
could get mange but mange is not really
going to not going to kill you what’s
going to kill you is the deterioration
of the body once mange has infected you
so it’s a mange does get a cub or two I
don’t think it will really shift shift
the stats to say that maybe mange is
causing a high mortality it’s mostly
because of other males that may come in
or infanticide as you might have heard
before and of course availability of
food because a lot of the time you’ll
find that especially with lions Cubs eat
last and they often don’t eat at all
because there might not be anything left
oh there was a bit of a yawn there from
one male starting to move but of a
yes but mortality is is really really
high in lots of these cats and after
about a year all that starts to drop
and cats actually tend to be weaned
quite earlier and earlier than say a
hyena heinous hyenas feeds their young
milk up into about a year and a half in
some in some cases whereas lion cubs
you’re more looking at about 7 to 9
months old that they’re going to be
weaned by by vehicle that’s the sound
that you’re hearing of a vehicle startup
Oh a big you on there so already between
at about seven to nine months when they
are weaned oh it seems that Steve’s
lioness is up so let’s go to him and
we’ll carry on our cub and weaning
forty-two minutes since the last time
that was the purple eyed Linus again he
was having a little bit of an
interesting time with her tail before
she stood up and she was flicking a tail
and trying to bite it and then she
prostrated herself in front of him and
now they are flat again rolling over to
potentially try and assist in the
possible fertilization that’s something
you often see in big cats after mating
their roll over
but such strange sounds aren’t there
from that male that sort of higher
squeaking sound I don’t really know what
it’s about but there’s a very
interesting nonetheless
and you can test just in time there cuz
not much it happened before she was busy
nambas hasn’t even raised her head as
you can see how well camouflage they are
they can’t you and Tony cats in the Tony
hello magic dragon wizard the most
amount of Cubs that I’ve seen was five
they were initially six but it didn’t
survive early stages so five and there
were two lionesses that had five at a
very similar stage amazing how quickly
you can grow the prides numbers when you
have uh such numbers but that was in a
very high resource rich area whereby
there is enormous numbers of buffalo
zebra and for the best so I have no
doubt that food resource it’s also an
important driving force behind the
number of lion cubs that are born but
then I might be completely wrong there I
mean you can see how the sausage tree
pride is producing sorry said my break
is on up to apologize sausage tree pride
is producing but the most that they get
in there is three so six have been
recorded with lions it’s not very often
that you see it and whether they do
survive that early stages is also quite
tricky because we know how difficult it
is for lion cubs in those very early
stages but not like wild dogs that can
have many many many pups they grow their
population very quickly they reckon it
takes a very long time to successfully
reintroduce individual Lions into the
population and obviously good parenting
and bias hasn’t done them very well and
purple are lioness I do believe has been
and I’m thinking she wants to be
successful again so she has had three
cups that we know about in the first
that set was introduced to the pride and
was first seen in 6th of July in 2016
and that is a long time again so one of
them is a male and two females she is
and hopefully she will be able to
provide us with symbol cuteness okay
well it sounds as if Trish Allah’s Lions
have not beaten us to the punch because
we had some action they are so just
having a little bit of a snooze
afterwards there’s a bin mobile let’s go
and see which direction they’re gonna
hit oh it seems it is contagious and you
Steve may say that as a joke but he
knows exactly what he’s saying if the
behavior is if often termed contagious
because it happens so much when the
animal when one animal gets up starts to
scratch lick start to defecate and
urinate and that’s usually a sign that
things are going to be there’s gonna be
some action happening soon Oh mr. mail
here has just just realized that these
females have woken up here bit late
buddy she’s moved just a little bit’s
look at that stretch I’m sure that
reminds you a lot of your house cat just
Raymond you’d like this oh you think
that this mail looks a bit scrawny
there’s something wrong with him
he doesn’t look too bad he is he is a
bit thin but he might not have been
eating very well during this time of
mating but his condition looks quite
good oh now we’re talking about aging as
well when you saw there and he opened
his mouth you would have seen his teeth
a slightly yellow or they starting to
yellow a little bit and that’s also
indication of age how older a lion gets
the yellower their teeth will get cute
I love a male lion it’s just one of the
most beautiful oh and look at that one
of the most beautiful animals really
magnificent oh oh you had better selfies
main caught in his teeth there give it a
nice scratch now we will continue our
cubs and weeding and a like discussion
soon I just want to see he’s actually
going to get up to follow these females
who are now behind the car and I can’t
actually see them very clearly but they
did move behind I don’t know if they’ve
moved further but he will not let them
out of his sight so as long as I stick
with him we should be fine he was just
the last one to wake up as well the
other two got up and he didn’t seem to
hello you handsome thing oh they started
now you’ll often see that the male’s
will actually follow females so intently
that they kind of step on each other’s
feet it’s just quite hilarious to watch
actually it’s amazing to watch it this
sort of beast kind of be doting on these
giving himself a bit of a groom I
suppose with all the pests around it’s
not an that’s probably a good thing for
him
Gina you say he’s a player oh look at
Gina he’s giving you a full look at
exactly his stature so he’s I think he
agrees with you I’m a player yo I feel
that definitely walking my vehicle so
they have moved behind me at the moment
so I’m going to have to do the same just
excuse our aerial there you can see
Craig’s had to fold him all the and you
stop to look so I’m gonna move around a
little bit but they’re very unlikely to
go far at all they’re probably just just
move position slightly I’ve noticed that
a lot when they mate they will sort of
move a few meters than a few meters just
also want to be careful as as I reverse
because there was a small pile of lion
who and that’s last thing you want in
your tights anyway let me get into a
better position oh no no don’t do it
don’t do it they’re about to mate
they’re about to mate Oh No
false alarm false alarm everybody so let
me send you up to David in the Masai
very good Trish if I can tell you here
we are just swimming in the mud in the
black cotton soil because it has gotten
stickier where we are and especially
when you’re going uphill it becomes
tough I think I’m better off dealing
with my Trish that you’re dealing with a
lane pool because mud is what sometimes
I call clean – you know in general most
old proof of my cuts or chicos cuts you
know I the cheetah who live for the lion
of a very strong smell very strong you
know
and for me I’m better off dealing with
you know elephant dung already John or
zebra tongue but anything dropped by
fats is always very powerful in terms of
smell just because of what they eat the
important it has generally I do not
think they digest it very well and I’m
not thinking because of the amino acids
in the meat that they eat
of Scilly the Republic not going
anywhere and I have a lot of time to do
what they want but sketching sometimes a
bit Murray I have to put my four-wheel
drive especially in this particular area
I’m coming too so what I have to do
sometimes just to prepare well just put
in momentum so before I get to the very
sticky part in a momentum to keep going
they said alia the top of the long glass
the rains of course the mud have
compounded my situation but what you do
and get split up it’s just to stop
somewhere and just listen for any calls
from their lairs because once it’s rains
most of the scent marking including even
full outputs it’s always washed away by
the rain and most cats will always have
to resent again just to make sure that
the males have MS you know this area is
occupied of course if the Lions and the
same case would happen to leopards let’s
find out if this violence in Juma on the
yes everybody sorry I was keeping quiet
there just you came just in time for the
action once again and that is the purple
a lioness am buyers has just moved off
so that was 15 minutes very interesting
that’s normal sort of time about 15
and buyers stood up and walked away
but this young lady is a little bit more
or than she is I’m sorry I’m sorry Sonny
getting very busy here this afternoon we
are just next to our main road or very
till access and so a few vehicles coming
to have a look of course so we managed
to get a third mating session
very good maybe she’s building up to it
everybody
but amber Aizen has disappeared too
behind us and maybe she’s decided she
wants to go and get herself a summit an
app just like Trish’s lionesses it
almost seems like they’re on the same
sort of alarm clock temperatures are
hello Safari love that well lines can
walk and five they want to while their
mate they can also stay in the same area
it really depends on on the needs you
know their puppies will drink during
their mating so if there’s water nearby
there’s no need for them to walk but
essentially what we normally see here is
when you do have a mating pair they
often sort of hang out in the same sort
of area they don’t walk too far and if
they’re due it’s probably got to do with
the fact that maybe there’s a little bit
of hunger developing or they’re
following someone or it’s towards the
beginning or the end of the actual
intense mating session when I was with a
kinky tail up in the Mara she didn’t
leave sort of the one area for they did
entire time she was there but there was
plenty of water nearby so that’s the one
thing that would probably make them move
while they’re in that sort of that
mating cycle eventually it’s the desire
to eat that leads them to completely
leave the mating circle all together
amber eyes is having none of it
can you still see ridore sip it’s gone
home we thought it would just stay with
he’s behind the bush of course we will
reposition short key we’ve just got
ourselves into a little bit of a
that is the weight and it works
okay well why are we trying to probably
get you a bit of you gonna send you over
the Tristan who I believe had a little
bit more information about a leopard
he’s on the trail off well unfortunately
I wish I had better news for you because
we just found a leopard on foots but it
ran away and I cannot for the life of me
find it with the vehicle and we’ve
searched high and low and unfortunately
I was tracking it through this horrible
block that we’re in and she was ahead of
me and then kind of walked past and
luckily sins are actually got a view of
her as well so it’s kind of roughly
either direction at we hating at the
moment but I don’t know if we’re going
to be able to find her in fact I think
maybe we’ll ask save and Steve to help
us with the drone just now and see if we
can get some sort of kind of action
there but I’ll play your little replay
if you want to sins will you play them a
replay so just be killed on there’s
going to be a little bit of a filmstrip
kind of thing that you’re gonna see and
maybe you guys can tell me which lipid
this actually is since I was going to
show you quickly from his recording that
he made very heavily in two seconds of
us kind of well lovely sort of walking
and sins actually sort of paying
attention so sins is gonna play it down
so I’m ready I think it sends out even
Visia yeah
that is pretty much what we got
unfortunately so if any of you can ID
from that shot be quite impressed but
basically what had happened is I was on
the tracks following and I was going
through a big dump and as I came up I
just saw that he is pointing and then
she obviously saw me and then she went
trotting off and past sins and sins I
managed to see her coming past and so
since I was quick and sharp enough to be
able to actually record who it was I
suspect its Columba but it could be
Tandy too so maybe some of you can go
back and try and get a screenshot and
just work out exactly who it is but I
mean we tried really hard to kind of
find her with the vehicle I mean you can
see what it looks like on the right hand
side yeah it is really not something you
want to spend a lot of time in and so I
think unfortunately we’re not gonna have
much luck so Sammy Jane it was elusive
but it’s it’s one of our normal females
it’s just unfortunately she saw me on
foot before I did and so she’s and she
didn’t like it’s not like she was
running for her life out of there just
doing what lipids do when they get seen
as they kind of trouble to thickets and
then they sit there and they kind of
hide away so no dots I’ve just driven
around – it’s so dense in there that
there’s so many little hidey holes there
potentially this leopard could be at
that you know it’s possible that she’s
right there and I’ve just driven past
her again so anyway it is what it is I
mean you know it’s getting dark now so I
can’t really go back on foot and try and
kind of find her again from your tracks
plus that leopard now is gonna be so
alert to any presence that if I walk
there she’s just gonna keep running for
me and it’s not really gonna work no I
don’t think so I think I just got closer
than that lipid thought I would be H
because what happened was was we
followed the tracks and there was some
Jana that were very relaxed and I kind
of lost the track there and we came back
and then I figured out the tracks again
and got down into this dub
and the tracks were really really really
fresh and they went up onto this rise
and I wasn’t expecting this little mud
wallow further on from that pathway so I
was expecting maybe that that lipid
would be there and so as I came up she
was close I mean she was maybe I don’t
know but even five maybe even four five
it meets his sort of ten meters away
from where I was and obviously just gave
her a little bit of a fright she didn’t
expect me to pop up right there and so
that’s what’s happened unfortunately it
does happen from time to time with
tracking that’s one of the the hard
parts of being on foots is that
sometimes if there’s not a kill or
something like that the lipid can get a
little shy and just kind of sneak off
but I feel like it’s it’s a frustration
because it was a job well done we
tracked a long long way together and
then unfortunately just didn’t find out
at the car
to show all of you as yet but like I
said maybe seven Steve can help us with
the drone if they get it up here fairly
anyway I’m gonna keep trying I’m not
gonna give up just yet I’m gonna do some
loops around here listen for some alarm
calls maybe I’ll get lucky and I’ll find
her again in the meantime though it’s
send you back across to Trish Allah and
her lions who are not being so lazy this
afternoon well I really hope you do get
lucky the meantime because my lions have
been a good to us in their lot less shy
you would say considering that they’re
having a bit of a mating storm at the
moment all out in the open for all of us
to see now isn’t that a handsome
handsome man look at him actually lion
not a man tend to call them all men and
women I don’t know why I just feel like
I know them better when I do but of
course it is a handsome lion if you look
at that mane look how well it actually
camouflages in the brown of the grass so
when the grass is nice and brown like
this he fits in so well and even though
he is the dark main male his mane is not
as dark as it could be or that I’ve seen
other lions have in fact one of the
theories is that males or the reason one
of the reasons why females do a lot of
the hunting and males even though it’s a
bit of a it’s a myth actually not a bit
of a method is a myth that males or that
females exclusively hunt they don’t
males will also hunt when they need to I
mean what are they gonna do when it’s
three of them in a coalition and the
pride is nowhere to be seen it’s just
more convenient if the females hunt and
they get to get to take some of it but
one of the theories is then the main
actually makes the animal look more
conspicuous when it’s out in them in the
bush and so it’s easily identifiable to
any sort of prey item in that the
females have a better success because
they don’t have this Mane to sort of lug
around with them that makes it obvious
or makes them obvious amongst the
nothing again I don’t know if I if I
really believe that I mean it has a lot
to do with this may seem strange but but
they I mean people are always after bad
boys in a way simply uh you say that
gorgeous simply gorgeous he is
absolutely gorgeous so what I say that
females in general like bad boys
it applies quite biologically it’s not
simply something that your mother tells
you trying to tell you actually the
riskier a male is the more attractive he
looks or peers because it means that
despite his risk like birds that will
sing out in a really open place it’s
very risky something might just come in
but take it or a lion with a very dark
mane big dark mane is very conspicuous
he’ll be seen but despite that they are
alive so that’s the one I want to mate
with because he’s got the strongest
genes that can really he can be risky
and nothing is going to happen to him so
that attraction to bad boys is not not
just a bad habit by females of the human
race ah yes I am – Emma says that she’s
imagining him in a leather jacket I can
see it – I can see him get on his bike
not say a word to my parents as I jump
on and my parents looked shocked at me
as we drive away me and the Evoque Emile
yes him in his leather jacket in mine in
I think he prefers lions it’s after that
story he put his head down he looked
now the females are not too far away at
all they’re just behind us and they’re
never more than a few metres apart when
they’re mating and no matter what he’s
gotten I a smell of their location at
all times
in fact just before he ended up here he
was a but I out of eyesight range for
these females but then he went to a bush
and he smelt them or smelt where they
had sent marked and he gave us some
lovely fleming grimaces he looked
straight at us and gave that snarl
associated with the Flemming grimace and
that of course is all part of the
intricate dance that is the mating
look at those eyes so intense the face
is so intense and I love it anyway I’m
going to sit with them I might go and
see the females they’re right behind us
and we can kind of swap between them in
the meantime let me send you over to
Tristan oh did you hear Tristan’s name
and you picked your head up since you
over did Tristan on the search for his
leopard well we’re still looking I’m
trying very hard funny enough I chicks
just because I was thinking maybe just
maybe that this could be Tandy and the
fact that the tracks are going up and
down up and down here
when did she was like I was saying she’s
not looking for a den sites potentially
and I went and checked the den where we
first ever saw Trey lumber yeah I’m just
in case before we walked on foot to find
way she was and there’s no sign of her
going in and out sigh Winston checks in
the drainage line and doesn’t look like
she’s been going there but it was just
an off chance and James Richard Urich
and that it could very well be handy
that we bumped into just now on foot
which would explain why she’s run
Columbo
while she might move come on rusty while
she might move isn’t as shy as her mom
funnily enough on foot so well got it
least in the last few times that I found
her on foot so that explains a lot so it
also explains why I can’t find her again
because she’s too clever for me now that
I’ve found her once she’s almost as if
to say you won’t find me again
interestingly enough there was tracks
when we lost her I had a quick look
around just trying to see which
direction she went and these tracks all
around me going up and down so I don’t
know maybe they could I suppose be a
carcass there they could be any sort of
reason for her to spend a lot of time in
that area and so I’m just slowly now
driving in areas that I think she might
pop art given her normal movement and I
want to do a little track that goes back
to where I saw her that runs along the
drainage line she often uses this and
her and Claire lumber used to use this
regularly they used to kind of cut in
and out of this area and so I’m hoping
that if I can find her then you know
we’re gonna be good and like I say seven
Steve are gonna come to our aid with the
drone fairly shortly which is really
gonna fall
we help a lot if she’s moving if she’s
not moving and we have a tricky but if
she’s moving we should be good and we
hopefully will be able to have some luck
to be able to find this lipid for you
guys before the end of show which I know
is not very long except that you’ll be
with us for the TV show – sir that’s
what important that we try to find it
and I must say intrigued to see what’s
going on with sandy so let’s see how we
go in the meantime though that sends you
up to David and Amara see how he’s
getting on and whether he’s moving
hoping for the mud on that side of the
very good luck
Tristana stallion hopefully you’re going
to see the queen of Jummah are at one
point and my search continues for the
surgery trip right
and I just thought I’ll just stop for
once and pause and listen and enjoy that
rainbow there which is looking very
colorful I do not remember the last time
I saw a rainbow this lit when I sell it
I’m talking about 6:30 East African time
and to see rainbows is late this I mean
in this darkness is quite a special
still amount of light out there and that
is very colorful
I’m definitely guranteed I’m not going
to see the Sun Saturday but how cool to
see the rainbow after quite a long time
and don’t even lost him I saw a rainbow
here in the morrow track well we really
should see them once in a while what a
thing could be of a month and yes and
yeah I’m in the final control saying it
is stunning and you can see the usual
iconic chef at the trees of the amount
of triangle making everything looking
beautiful and to left of the screen that
is the oh la la la escapement sometimes
when you see rainbows we shall say that
we a little pose for the rains and then
after the rainbow disappears
rains will come again so hopefully this
will give us good break for the rest of
the drive to search for my Lions but you
really need the rains to come because
they want a lot of water in the Mara
River
the levels have gone low but the good
news are there was a slowly rising now
at last we chose fear and you’re saying
I’m in the Jeremiah yeah good to hear
you sing the fire rain the rainbow very
good job mayor great coming down I hope
Jeremiah you see same rainy Bush where
you come from but all it’s good to see
rainbow mana when is the last time you
saw a rainbow yeah Jeremiah a man who is
the camera operator to me today and he’s
telling me he’s four months ago since he
saw a rainbow because in general we see
rain was just on the rain and four
months ago takes us back to December
when we had the short rains makes a lot
of sense and I think possibly it could
be the same time I also saw the last
rainbow that to the left of the rainbow
if you look carefully you can see a bit
of rain not sure the other one should be
a second rainbow reflection on the first
one it looks like a leaf flexion the
first one because once the one he was in
two rainbows but what I meant what I
meant to say is we look on the order is
coming carefully you can see a bit of
rain not as much but what you see there
looking like mist that shows more rain
for in that particular area still quite
stunning great view to watch here should
be reflection of the other rainbow if
James Richard how are you and you want
to know about the Mara River and the
migration and all that well it’s been
affects the migration but what I’m
trying to say here James Richard the
wildebeest will still come away they
still come but the migration will still
be done well the crossing of the river
is like it would be more of an empty
Levi only just gonna see I’m just
walking through without the water so
it’s may not affect the migration
because mainly they will be still come
here for the food not for the Mara River
crossing and of course we all know we’ll
always cross the river to get food on
the other side so James Richard good
question and of course always a pleasure
to hear your name James
so James which I’m sure you can remember
I know you follow us very closely this
is exactly where King tell drops have
three Cubs and that’s why I came here
because I’ve been looking around I
haven’t seen them and that was in the
month of February so I’m trying to
imagine if there could be struggling to
come back home they could be here and
telling me this is not where we are they
have since been moving around moving a
lot so because of course of the
Buffaloes what they’ve been looking for
and that makes them look or move for so
many kilometres
well good view of the rain where they
are let’s go back to Trish and find out
oh good luck David I am so sure you will
find those sausages and I don’t know
them to ever shy away from you knows
this guy is definitely not shy I’ve got
another vehicle joining us and they’ve
all got their cameras out and he’s
looking straight at them as if he’s at a
photo shoot and what I particularly
liked is he walked up from where we were
just earlier and walked straight to the
middle of the main road and sat down and
decided let everybody know exactly why
he is in charge here at Juma so at the
moment no vehicles can pass in the main
road because he is smack bang in the
middle why because he can because he is
a bad boy yes he is
it’s also because he’s a lion and he
Oh Barbara you’d like to know what
happened to the male with the wound on
his face that I found I remember that it
was but a month or two back now I think
Barbara
well I think I’d be really interested to
find to find him but this is not him it
was the blonde Avoca that had the the
bite in his head that round using wound
that we saw quite a few times remember
he was also looking quite skinny then
but he is the blond one the one that is
not sure at the moment but the blonde
one has been seen so nothing’s happened
to him he’s still fine is alive he’s
kicking and he seems to be healthy as
far as we know but I would love to see
him see how that’s closed up because
that seemed like quite a wound
considering I mean it was basically a
puncture on his on his forehead that we
had seen and it was really I mean it was
it was small but the problem is it
looked really deep and it was right on
the skull so we don’t know what other
sort of damage it had done but he seemed
to function to function fine but he was
looking really really skinny around that
so they’re the females up now there’s
one here and this one on the other side
of the male mgn you’d like to know if
lions shed their hair they certainly do
in the same way as most mammals do here
for hairs
drop and grow all the time and you know
that it’s the same for you as well
and that’s just a natural process and
you’ll find it in fact when you’re
looking close into the lion actually
licking itself you’ll see bits of hair
actually pull out I have once even seen
sort of a bit of a Mane or part of the
main that sort of looked looked like
like a dreadlock a little bit that had
been pulled off the lion and it was
found right on the floor so they can
definitely do his hair and it’s even
worse if they’re having a fight and then
you’ll see lots of bits of hair on the
ground and the time that I’m telling you
about when I saw that bit of Mane on the
ground that was from a meeting incidence
after he after he dismounted and she
decided off the course she’s got to give
him the ceremonial smack otherwise it’s
but you’ll find that even that’s smack
sometimes it will happen sometimes it
won’t usually if they just recently
mating as and they’ve only gotten
together in a day or two then you’ll
find that she can still be quite
skittish and she will actually swipe at
him quite a bit but when they’ve been
meeting for a while then that tends to
happen less since she just sort of moves
off to the sides just will give a ground
and bit of a stall but that’s about it
so that’s actually a good indication
once we actually see them mating to be
able to tell how long they’ve been
mating together well my lions are going
nowhere I know they’re right shell on
oh that was that was amazing wasn’t that
lovely now do excuse the vehicles that
are there because everyone would see
wants to be in this amazing sighting you
can see they’ve also got that lights out
oh and everyone’s on the move which
now I’d like to wait for the mail to
move because when he’s gonna move there
we go that’s my cue he seems to have a
bit of a limp going on there you know
all the other vehicles gearing up to
now I’m actually going to have to move
around because there are a number of
vehicles in the sighting or right now so
let me see exactly how I’m going to do
this luckily for us they seem to be 10
it seemed to have turned East into Juma
alright I am on the search again but I
know that they’re not far away at all
unfortunately even is not as lucky but
like I said he definitely will find
those sausages let’s go to him just
don’t let those slaves out of your eyes
because next amara where we have this
Ivana the landscape is very different
with all flux as much as we have
and as much as you have the long grass
well perseverance has paid off so just
as Steve and Saeb arrived with the drone
we managed to bump into with the car
exactly where I found on foot so we
decided to come all the way back just in
case and there is the Queen sitting
right there so that was quite an
off-roading mission I think I’ve
probably put many a Dame’s inside
Rusty’s body work during the course of
this afternoon but success and at least
we’ve managed to find her like I said
was a long track to get to I mean she’s
walked all the way from Rebecca’s – yeah
which probably is meaningless to most of
you but it’s about in terms of walking
time would be probably about a two hour
walk if you had to track but she looks
like she’s kind of watching down below
there I wonder if she maybe doesn’t have
a kill here somewhere um well she’s
looking down is exactly where I was
coming up when she spotted me earlier
and where she kind of moved off from now
but let’s see you maybe she’s got some
sort of food item you can see how
difficult the terrain is here though I
mean it’s really almost impossible to
get any sort of view of her so I’m gonna
try just also not kill us because
there’s a very big bank here since can
you still see her yes she’s there okay
so I’m trying to see it’s getting so
dark now what’s I can’t see with my eye
but she’s somewhere they wear the
spotlights is now I believe in lots of
you saying good job well I think it’s
mostly sensor is kind of kenai that made
sure that he saw where she went and that
gave us an idea of where to work around
and eventually we kind of got it what
have you got there my girl have you got
a kill yes you’ve got a kill what a
clever girl so we would have found it
eventually she’s gotta kill how cool is
that awesome and there’s a really tree
right yeah so hopefully she’s gonna drag
it to this Marilla tree they are hyenas
around so I’m gonna keep my spotlights
and all my car lights off so that we
don’t attract any attention obviously
with lights on hyenas will come and
check what’s going on and we actually
did passing Timur way up when you saw me
turning off the road just after I sent
you off earlier and I never had a brief
video of her walking past me so I don’t
want to kind of
in any way whatsoever by having the
lights on and try and keep his kind of
sort of still as possible and lights off
for as long as possible to make sure
that we don’t attract any attention
towards her spotlights often hyenas will
follow a spotlight in a block because
they know that they could potentially be
a food item but this is super exciting
that we’ve managed to locator on a kill
it’s definitely hopefully gonna be a
decent-sized kill that maybe we’ve got
her for the next couple days and that’ll
give us a really good chance to kind of
see what’s actually going on with Tandy
is she possibly pregnant what’s going on
in terms of her sort of stomach and
hopefully that’s gonna kind of be a good
indicator as to what we can expect going
forward I suspect maybe she might be
pregnant
she’s been awfully round every time
we’ve been seeing her and so that really
kind of means that you know it could be
something inside giraffe girl you say
it’s an Easter feast where we’ve been
spotted this afternoon having to be I
mean to have two sets of lions and Jimmy
which is unheard of really even though I
know the in coomer’s are kind of one
grouping but to have two different
sightings is unheard of and then on top
of that yes you can go into our sends
you more than welcome to because getting
very dark she’s going down towards the
drainage into a horrible tree of course
she is which is came to make my life
almost impossible I’m just watching her
dragging it down below there since I
think let’s try and kind of figure out a
way to get to where she is I’m gonna
have to try and cross back over we I
don’t know how I’m gonna do this I guess
let’s try and figure out how we gonna
get there because where she’s gone now
is very unfriendly but it is kind of
where it’s going to be safer for her can
you see her no we can’t go that way and
unfortunately since is saying we could
try going the other side but I don’t
think we’re gonna be able to get down
there so I’m gonna try go this way
unfortunately can’t drive in the
drainage line we have to go over the
drainage line and then drive on the
other side for a little bit and then
hopefully she’s gonna be very kind to us
and she’s not going to take it the wrong
way and come back onto this side cos
down there
to be able to negotiate since we did we
come through we came through this rain
right so now I’m gonna try and figure
out how to get back to where Tandy’s
gone in the meantime though that sends
you back across to David and see how
he’s getting on how exciting is that’s
the tandy of the queen of jummah has
been sported hopefully she’ll be sports
it again and maybe come back to hug kill
you know if she got a kill hoisted in a
tree well I was talking earlier fish ala
with her lions which were on the move
and I was saying it’s a lot easier for
us here to follow lions wanna start
moving because we have the flatness of
it you know of the landscape and of
course Albert’s having it long grass we
can still maybe follow the Alliance but
in Juma the vegetation there is totally
different
well two things have happened here since
number one it just I’ll just tweet again
and you can see I got to my winch in the
back I’m here to start using my wafer
and of course it has gotten a bit dark
and of course that means all that
translates for us having gone to
infrared well I haven’t given up in the
bush you never say never until the very
last minute when you’re out of here
that’s when you’re like okay these cuts
not showing up in general the sausages
every other time was the nine out of ten
times when they come looking for them
I’ll always get them but that one time
or the 10 times it’s always a challenge
so what will happen is we start catching
my spotlight and use it the only thing
is if it is preaching like this chances
are we’ll be somewhere either under a
tree or in some kind of cave or some
rocks or in very good thickets
protecting the babies from the rain I
will need 10 Cubs and kinky having the
youngest 3 caps they don’t want to get
chances with drain because you have
known you know Lions will get flu will
get cold you know the Cubs are very
susceptible to pneumonia so the mothers
know so well not to expose their cubbies
to the rain
and I’m very happy that you all wish me
good luck but these cuts will show and
why not they have knowledge not to show
up and what alert is now a part on the
spot right just to switch off the car
and just listen for any calls from the
liars
[Music]
guys that was amazing
so what you heard there was a
combination of the Ross when The Barking
Wow that’s sour of that war and that’s
not even a full war that’s basically
them trying to contact the other lions
that are around well where you going to
those answer look we’ve already seen you
let’s move a little bit forward it’s as
exciting as enough oh you’ve done a bit
of scent-marking in front of us but why
this is awesome is that now is when
and animals that mean lions our meeting
will often share killed together even
though it’s just three of them they
might decide to take some take down
something together he’s standing
and as he’s going he’s sent barking
Fleming grimacing smelling where the
females had sent barking so it’s all
very exciting this is really cool I’ve
wanted to be with the Lions for such a
long time and finally they are yeah well
anyway it seems that Tristan has finally
caught up with tandy and tiny is in a
fabulous position so let’s go over her
to him and her well as you can see
unfortunately by the time we caught up
with her she had already got up into the
tree with her little Nala lamb that
she’s unfortunately managed to kill now
I say unfortunately because it’s always
sad when a little animal is killed but
she’s safely got it up in the tree
because lion has arrived as she got up
in there we started to see hyenas coming
in and so I haven’t ID’d which Chinese
are around they’ve kind of gone the
other side of the tree and you can see
it’s a bit dense and a bit thick so
we’re gonna have to try and work out
where we gonna kind of situate ourselves
but hipa kippa kippa cat we managed to
find the Queen I don’t think this is
gonna last long she should still be here
tomorrow morning but at least we managed
to catch up with this evening and we can
really get kind of a good look and
what’s going on with tündi she does look
quite round and she hasn’t actually
started to feed on this lamb at all yet
unfortunately it is that timer way I
need to say goodbye to all of you and so
it’s been an absolute pleasure this
afternoon hopefully you’ve enjoyed the
myriad of animals that we’ve had and
hopefully we will see you joining us in
half an hour for the sabc TV show but
from all of us has been an absolute
pleasure
we’ll see you just now oh I’ll see you
tomorrow morning for the sunrise Safari [Music]
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