By Will Knocker:
2 lionesses patrolling the swamp below Hyena Dam….they have not eaten…
A magnificent female lion, big & strong, but thin….
Here she comes….
Panting: it is hot; 11 am & she has just missed a warthog kill attempt….
View through the windscreen: why do lions generally completely ignore vehicles?
The second lioness, smaller & just healing from a shoulder wound, probably the result of an attack by a male
Poor old girl: she will not survive long: no teeth……..
Off they go (to cubs in the case of the big lioness?), tired & hungry……a lion’s life is not an easy one…..
10 Comments
your are so right. why does this younger and smaller lioness have no teeth? both are in really bad shape and looked like they haven’ gotten a bite for days! a big fat meal is needed urgently. too bad i have no fat cow to give. why and how did this poor old girl loose all her canines? bad dental work or not brushing after each meal? just kidding. but poor things. life is hard especially on lions that have no teeth, and lions that can’t hunt successfully.
by the way, the kenyan wildlife and we know that the lions there are in extreme danger of extinction since there are just a little over 1900. and at least 20 killed by either poisoned or speared. so one would wonder why these skinny and needy lions are not given a helping hand like dropping off some road kill for now. afterall they are the real endangered species instead of the tens of thousands of elephants in kenya and hundreds of thousands all over africa. i know life is hard for ellies due to their need of lots of food and water; and the matter of their tusks. but …. number is the key to keeping any species alive to the future.
I’ve been away traveling and haven’t been able to check the blog for most of May.
Will, thank you for your excellent and very interesting blog entries.Weren’t you supposed to go to Ethiopia?
I feel for the lions and since I started traveling in Africa couple of years ago, lions have become my favourite species. Their plight is largely going unnoticed and I try to do what I can to spread the message about the bleak future of lions. Got one article published here in Finland about it.
Will,I was supposed to say northern Kenya, not Ethiopia ..
Hi Pirjo & Sauwah: thanks for comments.
Not in N Kenya yet, so still able to stalk the park! The zebra are migrating back into the park as it is a dry year: I saw 1000 + this morning in Athi River Basin & so things should improve for the lions: here in NNP the hungry season is the WET season when the parks herd of 4000 plains zebra goes out of the park.
Thanks for your comments…..
Pirjo, long time no see! i’ve been checking out most blogs on facebook instead. but still how the hell this lioness lose her canine? from a nasty kick of a zebra? buffalo? i was wrong about the lion number. it’s 190 instead of 1900. three lions ( 2 adult lionesses & a young male ) poisoned weeks ago, right? not enough lions to keep the gene pool healthy. read somewhere lions or tigers need minimum couple thousands. and i didn’t know there are only about 50,000 leopards roaming freely in africa? big cats are in trouble.
Sauwah, Kenya still has approx. 1900 lions, but to keep the gene pool healthy it’s vital to protect the lion populations, which live outside the national parks. During 2009-2010 I have visited all those areas in Kenya, which still have a good population of lions (Masai Mara,Laikipia and Tsavo).In Tsavo you still got the feeling that lions have enough space to roam around and they looked absolutely beautiful.
Kenya’s government really need to start taking seriously the threats facing the country’s wildlife populations. I think many places in Africa are close to the tipping point after which it’s difficult to restore the ecosystems.
Will,when you do go to the north it would be great to hear how things are going there.Sounds like an interesting project.
thanks for your inf Pirjo about the lions. 1900 sounds lot better than just 190 . but loosing wildlife is just a warning sign to the people of Kenya. animals will always loose when their needs are in competition with ours. even when all the wild things are gone and there are only pets dogs running the world, problem of over human population will make life very hard on naturally the poor and the powerless. in my opinion fewer humans is the key and answer. but no one dares to talk about it now unlike decades ago. fewer kids might not solve it because people now have more and demand more and more.
The two lionesses are known to me , the older lioness (with worn teeth) is i believe the mother of the ex-wounded lioness (who rescued her sisters 3 cubs from the male lion trio , when they attacked near kingfisher a few months ago , she was very brave in facing them , while her sister escaped with the cubs , she was badly wounded in the brief fight , but also escaped . But she has healed well now and i have seen her on a few occasions with her “sister and cubs” ! The older mother tends to stay close to some of her “children’ so she can eat when they kill .