Kapama River Lodge

Enjoying their dinner
By Liezel Holmes, Head Ranger, Kapama River Lodge, on May 13th, 2010
We were on our way to go and look for the elephants. My tracker had picked up fresh tracks and we were hot on the trail of the elephants when all of a sudden 2 rhino’s popped out of the bush. While watching the rhinos, the breeding herd of elephants emerged from the bush as well. As if that was not enough, our 4 young female lions decided to join the picture too. None were interacting, but it was awesome to see these animals together. After viewing them for a while, all the parties went their own way, elephants feeding, rhinos heading towards water, we decided to stick with the lions as they were busy hunting. We followed them for a while, watching them stalking and chasing waterbuck all over – unfortunately for their sake unsuccessful. After stopping for a quick drinks break, I decided to take a slow drive back to the lodge. On the way, another ranger called in that he had found the lioness with the 2 ten month old cubs and new 3 month old youngster that recently joined up with them. I decided to respond as it was on the same route I was taking. We got there 3 minutes after the mother had caught a warthog, and we enjoyed another awesome sighting of cubs enjoying their dinner. What an eventful evening, unknowingly not the end…

I dropped my guests off at the lodge and quickly went to offload my cooler box before I joined them for dinner. On my way back, one of the other rangers, John, was waiting next to the road and informed me that he just saw the 2 big lionesses stalking wildebeest. Not even three minutes later we witnessed another kill, another meal…

Story by: Maggie Oosthuizen-Kapama River Lodge Ranger