A Lion Tale of two brothers and the King of the Territory.
One of the highlights of our time at Taasa Lodge is having
open jeep game drives and off road game drives. Taasa Lodge includes ----- acres of conservation area owned by
Taasa right outside the Serengeti. This land is open, as is the Serengeti, so
the animals can wander wherever they want.
And by offroad game drives, I mean getting within 5 feet or closer of
all of these animals…driving over trees, bush, tall grass…it’s amazing! In the
national parks, you stay on the roads (dirt roads, very bumpy), in the Taasa
conservation area, you can go wherever you want.
We learned about a pride of lions that live in the Taasa
area and a lot about their story and history.
Cast of characters:
1 Lion – Big daddy of the pride – this is his territory
3 Lionesses – all belong to big daddy – live in this territory
About 15 cubs – belong to the 3 lionesses, all have the same
daddy
The intruders! – 2 brother male lions, full grown..trying to
kill the big daddy to take over the territory. They have been around for about
3 months stalking the big daddy to try and kill him.
The story that we have witnessed begins…
We went out for an evening game drive. You never know what
you are going to see on these game drives. The drivers share info over radios
in the jeeps and that helps each jeep
find “the good stuff.”
So, our driver heard about the lionesses and cubs. We went and
visited them for a bit. The cubs were absolutely adorable. There were two mamas
and about 15 cubs. They all belonged to the mamas and the big daddy. There was
no concern about who belonged to which mama, because they are a big community
and everyone takes care of everyone…as long as they all belong to the same
lion!
Ole, our driver then heard about the third lioness having a “honeymoon” with a lion.
There is so much happening here and it is fascinating, When lions have a “proper honeymoon,” it lasts for about 5-6 days. The lioness then is pregnant and in 3-4 months, delivers her cubs and the pride continues to grow.
If an intruder Lion comes into the territory, they are
trying to take over the territory and claim it as theirs. Their main goal is to
kill the big daddy, then kill all the cubs and start over with the lionesses.
The lionesses let it happen. They will try to protect the
cubs, but not fight to protect the leader of the pride. If the leader of the
pride is killed by the intruder Lions, the lionesses know that their new role is
to create a new pride with the new leaders.
So…we found the honeymooning couple and sat and watched them
(I felt like they needed their privacy!) for about 30 minutes.
They engage in the act about every 10-15 minutes for the
first three days, and then slow down a little for the last couple of days. They
don’t eat during their honeymoon. After the honeymoon is over, the lioness goes
hunting and finds something nice for the lion, brings it back, and they eat it
together.
We were there for 30 minutes, so you do the math…our driver
said it must be like day 2 or 3 for them.
Fast forward to the next morning…..
We head out for our morning game drive and find the big
daddy, the leader of the pride and this territory. We followed him for a long
time. You could tell he was so nervous, and skittish. He was by himself.
Our driver explained, he knows the brothers are here (the intruders) and they want to kill him and take over his territory. He would sit for a while and then move to a new location, always checking around him. We never saw him really rest.
We then found a lioness with lots of cubs.
Plot twist!
Turns out this lioness was the one on the “honeymoon” last
night, and she was honeymooning with one of the brothers (the intruders)! Ole
told us that she left the honeymoon because it wasn’t a “proper honeymoon.” She
was not in heat and her only goal in honeymooning with the intruder brother was
to preoccupy him so he wouldn’t try to get to the cubs.
Intruder lions try to kill the leader of the pride, and they
also kill all of the cubs to start a new pride.
The other two lionesses were protecting the cubs, and she was
distracting one of the brothers. We saw the other brother nearby keeping an eye
on the honeymooning couple.
Ole explained that a lion can tell if a lioness is in heat
by tasting her urine. Understanding that now, when we were watching the
honeymoon couple, the lion keep trying to lick her and she would swat him away.
She knew she was not in heat, and she didn’t want him to find out. Her goal was
to convince him that she wanted cubs with him and that she didn’t have any
other cubs around.
This whole pride of lions and lion territories and lioness
protecting their cubs from intruders sounded familiar…
LION KING!! Believe it or not, that movie makes some
connections to reality.
The saga continues and we head back out tonight to see what
is happening now!
The cubs were tearing apart a fresh wildebeest. One of the lionesses went hunting and brought back dinner for the cubs. The kill was relatively fresh, Ole told us maybe one hour.
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