The big boy immediately made us aware of way he was hanging out with the girls, within 2 minutes after we spotted them he mated loudly with the female and then they both disappeared in the shade of the bank...what we had then was a usual placid lion's sighting.. but it changed in a second.. one female spotted a giraffe coming to drink.. it is around 200 meters far but the lioness started stalking... giraffe's head down, lioness walks fast and stealthy, giraffe's head up, lioness freeze. Another lioness spots the giraffes and goes off in the opposite direction around a grassy island in the river bed... she walks fast, almost runs, but she does it low, her belly almost touching the ground... the pincers technique, one cats aims to the prey the other walks around to close the escape route and close the pincer at the right time... The action is perfect... the giraffe unaware... the lions skilled... but then the female in heat walks out of cover... she is also stealthy, she is also after the giraffe.. she is but the male is not, he follows her, erected dominant posture, visible for kilometers... he is after the female and eventually force her to mate... again he is loud.. the giraffe obviously spots them. I cleared my mind now... after yesterday and today I definitely think this male is dumb.
Anyway the male went resting with his female in a ditch but now the giraffe is stuck in the middle of the river bed, afraid to turn her back to lions.
Nothing moves for almost half an hour.. then one lioness, the farther one, takes again her fast and low pace to surround the giraffe... All the concentration of the giraffe is on the first lioness...
Eventually the giraffe moves towards the bank and far from the first lioness, she want to go and drink, she needs to drink... doing so she get closer to the second lioness and as soon as the giraffe puts her neck down the cat sprints... the giraffe starts running but sh is slow... the cats is gaining ground... 20 meters far, then 10, then 5, then 3... then the lioness hits a path of deep sand... the long stride of the giraffe an advantage now... the lioness looses speed and eventually left the chase...
It was good, man, and if it was not for that dumb male...
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The lions walked under shade and we drove off towards the buffs at w7.
The buffaloes are there and very close to them are 22 lions of kipunji pride... they are slightly off their territory but the buffs are a big lure.
The buffs started walking down the hill towards water, and the lions started walking towards the buffs. We run to the other side of the river to have better visual..
THe buffs are coming but we cannot see the lions... we wait.. buffs are filling the river like a stream of black mud... they spread on the thin line of water.
One lioness breaks her cover and launches herself into a chase in the river bed.. the buffs run but she is to close to the bank, too dangerous so she jumps up and all the herds big soldiers are after her in a second... she disappears in the thick.
The buffaloes keep coming to drink, the soldiers alert. The herd is nervous so after short time they started going up again. The lioness reappears on the bank... few buffs are still down, she waits all the herd to go east and the she charges the two buffs remaining on the west edge... she tries but the buffs turn and she backs off, runs again when the buffs run again and back of again as soon as the buffs turn.
Buffs are definitely the winners so far... the went to rest no more then 100 meters up the hill. Not bothered by the close presence of the pride.
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