Students have a lucky lion sighting

Part 2 of Lion sightings on the up . . .

Egrets on the bank of Hapoor Dam ignore their reflections in front of them as well as the zebras in the background. Photo: Steven Lang

In this edition of the Real Safari Newsletter we pick up the story of the Rhodes University Journalism students who had an awe-inspiring lion sighting in the Addo Elephant Park (AEP) well before lunch at Jack’s Place.

Before we left the delightful picnic spot, I advised the group to go to the bathroom as there would be no other facilities for the next three hours or so.

I took my seat in one of the two Rhodes minibus vehicles as we headed south from Jack’s. As most of the students had never been to a game reserve before, it was an eye-opening experience for them and a joy for me to be able to share knowledge with them.

We drove on and saw a few elephants, a lone jackal and a single jackal-buzzard. One of the students commented that he and his friends were not impressed with the jackal because in his village, jackals are considered vermin. They are a danger to his community’s livestock. I could understand his perspective and he could also appreciate why I might be mildly elated with a jackal sighting. We could understand each other’s points of view.

Villagers and farmers hate jackals, but they have an important role to play in a wildlife environment. Photo: Steven Lang

We stopped as the crossroads where the Main Road linking the north and south of the park intersects with the Addo Heights Road (see map below). I have never like Addo Heights because it is a harsh bumpy gravel road that frequently carries heavy-duty trucks and other commercial vehicles that have no interest in the animals as they speed through the AEP.

The Addo Heights Road is a provincial road that people use to cross the Addo Elephant Park. It bisects the Park into a northern and southern section. Main Road joins the sections from Main Camp in the North to the Matyholweni Gate in the South.

Social media posts had indicated that the three girls (three lionesses, Josie, Dawn and Duffy) were fast asleep near the Arizona solar panels. I was inclined to ignore the posts because our urban minibuses were not suited to such rough roads and I knew that we would probably only be able to see an obscure tawny patch in the grass at some distance. In mind my it was not really worth it, especially since we had already seen two lions earlier in the morning.

Nevertheless, I decided to go democratic so I explained the circumstances and the limited chances of us seeing any big cats to the students. They exercised their votes to go along the Addo Heights road in search of the lionesses.

We proceeded down the road and had fairly good sightings of a few elephants and then drove past the dried out Arizona dam.

Students conveyed a message to me from the back of the bus. Someone needed to relieve herself. This was barely half-an-hour after I had warned them to go the bathroom at Jack’s Place. I was slightly annoyed.

She then asked if it was possible to stop the vehicle so that she could ‘go into the bushes’. Somehow I kept calm. She wanted to go into the bushes specifically at a place where we were looking for three lionesses. I could not believe it. I told her there were definitely dangerous animals in the area and besides, it was against the regulations. I had stressed this point several times. You are not allowed to get out of your car except in especially designated areas.

There were three options: return to Jack’s place, an extra 30 minutes at least; drive forward to the Schotia Gate and hope that the guard would let us use his facility; or ride on to the Matyholweni Gate, about 90 minutes away. She begged us to go ahead to speak to the guard.

The road was rough so we drove on slowly past the solar panels where the lionesses were last seen. Less than a kilometre later we saw a large bull elephant in the road. He was not looking for food as elephants seem to do most of the time. He appeared to be distressed and agitated. At that point of our day-trip, I had already indoctrinated the drivers not to challenge elephants in the road. They pulled off to the side and switched off engines without any prompting. The elephant was still a good sixty metres ahead of us, tossing his head and looking around.

This bull elephant came striding past our vehicle to chase the lionesses away. Photo: Steven Lang

We waited for a few minutes staring at the elephant, wondering whether he was going to let us through.

Suddenly, I saw a brief movement out of the corner of my eye. There was something in the tall grass to the left of our vehicle.

Josie, the 17-year-old lioness, peers through the grass to see who was disturbing her. I hadn’t seen her for about a year and was pleased to note that although her eye still looked terrible, she was in good physical condition. Photo: Steven Lang

There was no mistaking it – one of the lionesses was dozing in the grass not five metres from our minibus. None of us had noticed her and we would have been totally oblivious to her presence had the elephant not forced us to stop. We would have driven right past the three big cats.

Then we saw the other two. All three lionesses, Josie and her twin daughters were right next to us. They had been trying to catnap but were restless. They got up, looked at us, and changed position several times. It was easy to identify Josie because she is the only lion in the AEP without a radio collar. When she tried to look at you, her gammy eye was very evident and somewhat creepy. It’s hard to say how much she can see. Perhaps not very much, but she is not totally blind as she could definitely choose her path.

Three lionesses moved behind our minibus to give the elephant some space. Josie's blind eye is evident in this picture. Photo: Steven Lang.

Initially, it was not possible to say whether the elephant was aware of the presence of the lionesses, but it didn’t take him long to find out. He approached walking purposefully just off the road towards the three big cats. They jumped up and scattered behind our vehicles just as the elephant stomped by a few metres us. He was visibly annoyed and was in musth as the glands on the side of his head were streaming with dark liquid.

One of Josie’s daughters ( I cannot tell Dawn and Duffy apart) relaxed in the road. Photo: Steven Lang

We had a great sighting of the three lionesses. Our long search had proved fruitful. After the elephant disappeared into the thick bush, the daughters lay on the road less than a metre from our side for a few moments. It was very exciting, but it was difficult to take pictures because the three were moving behind us and we had to take other vehicles into consideration. It is also difficult to get into the right position to take photos when there are so many people inside our vehicle.

One of Josie’s daughters - either Dawn or Duffy - was so close to our minibus that it was difficult to take a good picture of her. Her proximity was also a little scary. Photo: Steven Lang.

After about ten minutes, the student mentioned above reminded us that her bladder was not going to last very long. Sadly we had to leave the lionesses and move on to the exit at the end of the road. The students and their teacher had a rapid conversation in isiXhosa and several students jumped out of the minibus to make use of the tiny bathroom at the guard’s gate.

On the way back to the crossroads we had more brief sightings of the lionesses and then we headed off to Matyholweni and eventually home in Makhanda.

We were all very content with our sightings of the day. It was gratifying for me how the students enjoyed their outing.

Thank-you for reading this edition of Real Safari Newsletter.