Less than a week ago our rangers enthralled guests with a rare sighting of the powerful and elusive Hercules pride of lions. The term “Hercules” is derived from Greek mythology. Hercules was the son of Zeus and was believed to have an almost supernatural strength. Thus, it’s fair to say that this burgeoning pride is aptly named.
The lionesses and sub-adults within the pride are quite solid, healthy and strong looking beasts. They stop at nothing to achieve their goals and history tells a story of them having killed cubs from another pride. This is a rather intimidating and domineering pride dwelling on our traverse.
You can only imagine the elation felt by rangers when these brooding cats are spotted. Over the past week the Hercules Pride have subtly being announcing their presence within the vicinity of Africa on Foot. To date, there are still 6 members within the pride – 3 sub-adult males, 2 adult females and 1 sub-adult female. They can be quite elusive, so seeing them is always a momentous occasion.
A few nights ago the pride were soft contact calling close to the treehouse. After hearing the contact calls the night before, Greg and Mike knew that it was their duty to seek out the whereabouts of the cats. This is when Greg and Mike’s pilgrimage towards the lions began. Mike found the tracks and Greg found the lions. Mike often says that Greg is a born tracker! They watched the pride scuffling around in what seemed like a bit of a chase for prey. Greg and Mike managed to show guests the Hercules Pride from a distance, but visual became poor when the tawny beasts disappeared into the vegetation, which is thick and lush at the moment.
Hyper-vigilant and super-alert, the humanoid species returned to camp and went to bed that night not knowing what would unfold when the stars came out…
Just 50 metres from outside the ranger’s block, the entire pride took down a buffalo. The unmistakeable wailing of a buffalo could be heard and the sounds were intermingled with the guttural roars of success from our lions.
Camp manager Jen, managed to film a bit of feeding frenzy but it’s not one for sensitive viewers, so we’ve just furnished you with a few images to corroborate Mike and Greg’s animated report. The wild is the wild – there’s no sugar coating a kill. A take down of prey is viscous, turbulent and violent – all in the name of survival of these cats. The cats spent most of the night feasting and feeding on the remnants of their buffalo carcass and our rangers dutifully retired to their beds.
The following morning, there was the usual mayhem and the likely suspects rocked up for a free meal. Mike says, “The hyena clans and lions got into a huge scrap over the kill and there were plenty of tempers flaring!”.
As per usual, in typical Hercules horror, nothing is ever easy. Kings of jungle? They have nothing on this powerful pride. A true example of the strong surviving and striving for dominance.
Leave a Comment