7th June 2012 – Stay at Orpen Camp

7th June 2012 – Stay at Orpen Camp

This was our last full day in KNP. At 6am we headed out and towards Timbavati. Along the way we saw some male lions, at least 4 and we think this must be a group of 7 male lions that were reported earlier this week near Timbavati! We took some photos before heading on.

The road was very quiet and we just saw some giraffe, impala, zebra, kudu and one lone vervet monkey. We then drove back down towards Satara. We saw a large herd of zebra and wildebeest as well as around 8 vultures sitting in the tree but we could not see a kill anywhere so we carried on. Further down the road someone stopped as they had spotted a cheetah but we couldn’t see it and they didn’t stay so we assumed it moved away pretty quickly.

We then went to drive down the S100 and about 100m in there was a major traffic jam of 20+ cars. We were told that there was a buffalo kill with 4 lions. We managed to stop and look through another cars window to be able to see it. It was actually pretty funny because one of the cars had a flat battery and so was waiting for the officials to arrive to jump start it as nobody dared to get out of the car with the lions only 15m away. When they arrived the lions ran away immediately, clearly fearing humans whilst they jump started the car.

About 1 hour after this had happened there were still a lot of cars but it was not nearly such mayhem and we managed to get a good spot to sit and watch the carcass. Unfortunately the lions didn’t return immediately, clearly concerned that humans were still nearby. In the meantime, 2 jackals had a great time feasting on the buffalo. They ate very quickly and cautiously as they were clearly aware that the lions were still about. I don’t think that they could believe their luck! After watching the carcass for around 3 hours one juvenile male lion came to the kill. He started eating but was clearly very hot as it was around midday and the kill was not in the shade. He tried to drag it into the shade but it was too heavy for him to do on his own.

He sat and ate for a while getting his entire head inside the buffalo until he was probably too hot to keep feeding and went to sit in the shade. The jackal then returned to eat some more and one of the vultures who had been sitting in a nearby tree took this opportunity to come and feed too. The lion has not happy with this and ran towards the vulture and jackal and chased them off. This was about as exciting as it got until we left at around 3.30pm.

Although we had seen a lion feeding on a kill we felt a bit disappointed that there wasn’t more interaction between the vultures, jackals and lions.

We couldn’t believe what happened next; Wayne said it was a reward for sitting at the buffalo all day with little happening! About 6km from camp we witnessed 4 lions on the kill – a warthog. They had obviously just made the catch seconds before we arrived as they were snarling and growling all trying to get a share of the meat before each ripping off a bit and running off to eat it in peace on their own.

It wasn’t long before the jackals and hyenas arrived on the scene looking to have some too but the lions had devoured it pretty quickly. We had to leave to make sure we got back to camp before the gate closed but we were so pleased to get to see this and the interaction between the lions was just what we had been after all day!