Big Cats

Zebra Plain, where I've been watching my tommies, has been the place to be the last couple of days. Yesterday afternoon when I arrived after lunch I noticed that the ungulates were more clumped to one side of the plain than usual and were a bit jumpy. Things were also unusually quiet: usually the buffalos are grunting and the zebras are making a commotion as they chase each other around. It didn't take much effort to figure out what was up.

Many ungulates exhibit "fascination behavior" when they detect a predator which involves not running away but rather staring at and even approaching or following it so as to keep and eye on it. Gazelle are faster than all their predators except for cheetahs, so as long as they know where the threat is and are not surprised, they can generally escape with ease. Even cheetahs typically must get within a certain distance of their prey undetected to be successful at killing it, so by keeping tabs on the predator, the prey avoids a surprise attack and is relatively safe.

Thus by following the gaze of a group of fixated hartebeest I was able to find the cause of the ungulates' strange behavior: two cheetahs, a mother and a nearly full-grown cub, were crouched in the grass, with just their heads peeking out. I watched for awhile, but they were a fair ways off and all I could see where the tops of their heads. I snapped some pictures and headed to the end of the plain where all my study animals were grouped.

As evening approached, I finished up for the day and started heading back. I checked for the cheetahs on my way, figuring that they had probably moved on since it had been several hours and all the prey on the plain knew to avoid them. Not so! I spotted the cub near a small bush about twenty meters off the road. Soon mother's head popped up in the grass nearby. It was clear that she held out some hope of snagging and unsuspecting meal, since she was well-hidden in the grass, surveying the distant herds. However, junior was bored and not cooperating. While his mother tried to keep a low profile, he stalked and pounced at birds, gnawed on the branch of the bush, and generally made his presence known. He ran up and pounced on his mom, who gave him a bite on the head to get him to pipe down. He caught on to his mother's plan at this point, but proceeded to botch things up anyway: a group of zebra with a young foal crossed the plain a couple hundred meters away from the cheetahs. They were way too far away for the cub to hope to catch the foal, but he tried anyway with only a half-hearted attempt at stealth. As he sprinted towards them and they ran easily away, his mother sat up in the grass, giving up. The cub got another bite on the head when he returned and mom flopped down out of view in the vegetation. I had gotten many excellent shots, but junior decided to help me out some more. He approached my car until he had about halved the distance between us and sat there modeling for me for about ten minutes, until the light was too low for photos and I just sat and watched.

This morning I set out bright and early and as soon as I arrived on Zebra Plain I spotted two lions. I had seen lionesses before, and gotten some good pictures, but had never gotten a good look or photo of a male lion. Here was my chance: it was a female and a male with a big dark mane. They were in a hurry to be somewhere, so I only got a handful of photos, but as far as I was concerned that was a great start to the morning. Things got even better when, continuing on, I found another lioness and two tiny cubs on a small unidentifiable carcass. These were less obliging than the cheetahs and stayed mostly hidden in the grass, but I got some good photos and got to watch them for awhile before the lioness got antsy and moved the cubs a bit further off the road.
Remarkably, none of the tourists who are constantly passing by during my focals and even interrupting to ask if I've seen lions or rhinos or cheetahs were around for these sightings, save for a carful that stopped by the cheetahs as the light was fading. It was nice to be able to enjoy these amazing moments quietly by myself.