Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Lion Kill

It was in the morning of July 31, 2013 at 10:51am.  At 41 second all seems still peaceful, 7 seconds later all hell loose.

It was the second day after we arrived at Masai Mara and our fourth day in Kenya.  Our driver had been a bit slow, we were somewhat concerned of were we seeing as much as we should.  We had been on the game drive for almost 5 hours that morning and was in the midst of a herd of several thousands of wildebeests.  There was a bit commotion around and some wildebeests were streaming past us.  Our driver was on alert.  Then suddenly, he put the 4x4 in gear and we were flying in the herd, which was then in stamped.  I had my camera aiming towards the dust clouds in the distance, in 15 seconds we were on the scene and all was over. 


The lioness killed the wildebeest by bear-hug the animal and bit into the soft tissue of the nose and mouth.  The victim was killed by suffocation.  The whole process took just several minutes


The kill was actually carried out by three lions, the lioness and her two cubs.  Our team members in another 4x4 saw them earlier stalking the wildebeest herd.  The mother sent the two cubs around to generate confusion in the herd when the mother was ready for the kill.


After the kill, they came back to the scene to join their mother.  One of them eventually pull the carcass into the bush, a painful view.






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