Male on patrol

Driving down to w7 we got 5 lions coming up the road, 3 females and three cubs and I do not have a clue of who they are. We left them soon because they walked into thick combretum woodland.
Our aim was the zebra kill of yesterday to check what was going on there after the night. The zebra was gone, just dry blood where it was killed but the females and the 4 cubs were still there, almost on the road. The three weeks one was super active, playing all around his older brothers.
Suddenly from west appeared a stunning male lion, beautiful and strong. The light was shining on him as the spotlight on a stage. He is a huge male in his prime, a wonder of nature, fierce and confident. We feared for the cubs but he either did not see them or did not bother, even the lionesses did not flinch at the sight of the male and that means that they knew him. Cubs out of danger we relaxed and followed the male from the road, the grass was shining gold and so was the lion... he went from bush to bush, marking the territory both rubbing the face on twigs and spraying the branches with his urine, all with a background of low roars. He went all around the area, bordering the river bed and then went up again. His patrol finished he did not need to stay any longer and so disappeared in the hills.
We went back and also the females and the cubs were gone. This group of lions as the great capacity of disappearing under your nose like ghosts.
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We saw other two prides of lions in the morning, one in hunting mood walked in front of a terrified impala and on the way back we found the ghost pride again and there they were also the afternoon... the three week old male is a star...

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