Lions and lions and lions and lions and lions again

Five lions sightings today, 4 in the morning and one in the afternoon.
We started with more then 10 lions in the sand of the mwagusi river. We first saw cubs and females but then a blonde male jumped out of the bushwillows on the shore chased by a young bull elephant.
The second sighting was by far the most exciting, we were in an open patch on the hills, surrounded by combretum and baobabs, we were busy looking at a herd of zebras, I was actually pointing to my guest a zebra that was standing and looking around from a termite mound, I was actually explaining that zebras often look for high ground to scan the surrounding for predators.
I did not even finish the sentence that from 50 mtrs farther another zebra dashed out of the thick bushland followed at close quarters by a lioness.
The cat managed to stay close to the zebra for at least 100 mtr but then lost the sprint and gave up the chase. For strange it may seem the other zebras together with the one on the termite mound, realized what was happening only after the chase was over and then all of them started running in the opposite direction in a concert of alarm calls. All except one who decided to run the other way just to be chased by another lioness that was following the first.
Both lionesses were not lucky but we were thrilled by this amazing show of skill, speed and power.

An hour later we got a big male together with three females, one of the females was definitely restless, kept standing and walking back and forth. After a while we understood why, she wanted to be mated by the male, she made it evident moving around him in a crouching position and brushing her body and particularly her hind quarters against the male head. She was funny because the male was not cooperative at all, he actually mated her only after half an hour and after she performed for him at least 3 times.
Close to camp we got the 4th sighting, another mating pair but this time not very active, all they did was sleeping.
In the afternoon we went along the river again and we got another sighting, probably the same pride of the morning but in a different position, after a while the weather turned cloudy and windy so they moved for hunting, we managed to follow for a while but then they headed towards an area with no roads so we left them on their own.
Definitely a lion’s day with the cherry on the cake of another spotted eagle owl on the road to camp

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