“Hunting” For Lions In The Botswana Bush

On safari in the Botswana bush in search of the elusive lion.

By Danielle Max

Present day hunters may perhaps shoot with cameras and not guns, but the adrenalin rush when the “prey” comes into see remains, as I identified when I went in search of the elusive lion in Botswana. Although elephants thrive in good numbers, I realized that spotting the significant cats requires perseverance, endurance and, much more than anything else, a complete good deal of luck.

Following almost an hour of driving along rutted paths and seeing tiny extra than a handful of birds and some wandering antelope — all of which I had nonetheless diligently ticked off in my safari guidebook: “Northern Botswana, Eastern Caprivi and Zambezi River” — Michael, my manual, eventually saw what we’d been searching for. “Look, fresh lion tracks,” he mentioned, leaning out of the side of our truck and pointing to the sandy road under. “Looks like they passed by right here really just lately.”

This was the ultimate drive of my trip and it was exactly what I had come to Botswana to see. I rushed to the opposite side of the vehicle to review the footprints in the sand. Even though I, a mere novice, could barely make out the faded prints, an professional like Michael could read them as plainly as if following signs on a highway. Following considerably patient gesticulating and pointing, we began to drive slowly forward and I followed the tracks as they made their way down the road.

Abruptly, Michael brought the vehicle to a sharp halt, the wheels sending up plumes of sand particles. “Can you see?” he asked excitedly, pointing to what appeared to me as a patch of earth indistinguishable from the other miles of earth surrounding it. “This is exactly where the lion lay down.” To the untrained eye, there was a slight smudging in the tracks, but listening to Michael’s explanation manufactured it easy to imagine wherever the lion, tired from its hunting, had spied a slight groove in the road and lay down, giving its weary feet some rest.

I looked about, naively hoping the lion would be visible from the truck. Michael turned to me, shook his head and explained with evident disappointment that the lion had skulked off into the bush and away from prying eyes — and in Africa, there is a great deal of bush to select from for a lion.

Found in the northeastern corner of the southern African country of Botswana, Chobe Nationwide Game Park is the 2nd biggest game park or reserve in the country. The most prevalent way to cover the 600 miles from the capital Gaborone — identified as Gabs City to the locals — is by air, in and out of Kasane Airport, positioned directly upcoming to the reserve. Botswana has been experiencing an upsurge in guests in latest many years, some of which as a outcome of the results of Alexander McCall Smith’s best-offering series of books set in Gaborone about the Amount One Women’ Detective Company (quickly to be a series on HBO and BBC).

When the lion may well be the king of the jungle everywhere else, in Chobe the elephants get in touch with the shots. In contrast to lions, whose numbers are lamentably minimal — partly due to the fact of their culling by farmers eager to secure their livestock — elephants abound in great herds. With an estimated 120,000 of these gigantic quadrupeds stamping all-around the park, they’re tough to miss.

When they are not feeding — which, as I realized, they do for up to 16 hours a day — elephants love to bathe. Throughout the day, they run down to the Chobe River in droves to drink the water and to amazing off when the African sun begins to throb in earnest. When they’ve splashed all around and drunk their fill, the elephants take a mud bath, which acts as each a sunblock as properly as an insect repellent.

Other species also roam in terrific numbers, one particular of which is the comical nevertheless superbly colored guinea fowl that devote just about all of their lives on the ground, awkwardly taking flight only when in imminent danger. Impala also wander in huge packs. These antelope display no worry of oncoming vehicles and they have a tendency to run across the roads with abandon, which possibly explains why so several game lodges record impala on their menus.

Still looking for big cats, Michael and I continued to traverse the park as I crossed off giraffes and zebras in my discipline manual. Just when I began to give up hope of seeing any substantial cats, an fired up phone came above the radio. A great deal to my consternation, it was not a lion spotting but a sighting of the reserve’s only pack of wild dogs.

Whilst wild dogs might not have the prestige of the major 5, I discovered that they are incredibly unusual Michael had not noticed this particular pack of dogs for more than 4 months. Just as farmers have reduced the numbers of lions, they have also thinned out the wild dog population. They know all too effectively that unchecked, the canines will make their way beyond the borders of the national park in the hopes of an quick, and tasty, meal of their beneficial cattle.

When we 1st saw the canines, they had been small additional than specks on the horizon. Whereas before we’d been alone — developing the illusion we had the bush to ourselves — our truck was now joined by half a dozen other packed vehicles that had gathered to watch this unusual sight.

The canines came near adequate for us to be ready to count them, then they headed down to the distant river — although, curiously, not to get a drink. The pack was intently wanting out above the water. Michael scoped the landscape and soon caught web-site of what was holding the dogs’ interest: a dead buffalo lay on the other side, its pungent scent drifting more than the water, exciting the dogs.

Once they realized the meat was inaccessible, the dominant male led the group up from the bluffs. The canines, which looked really very similar to German Shepherds, bounded up near to idling cars. Having to pay small awareness to their audience, they crossed the street and went off in search of nearer and fresher prey than the prolonged-dead buffalo.

As the canines moved off into the distance, Michael revved up the engine and we moved on once again, nevertheless in search of lions. We headed down to the riverbed exactly where we noticed hundreds of zebra, but they have been a ways off, pretty much on the far side of the river.

Their distance from the road spoke to Michael’s monitoring experience and he promptly began reading through the ground. After once more, he pointed to some lion tracks and explained that the predator was nevertheless somewhere in the vicinity. This, he mentioned, explained why the zebra have been so far away and why the impala, which have been closer to us than the zebra, had been standing stock-nevertheless even though straining to assess the probable danger. Only a lone warthog carried on nonchalantly consuming away, seemingly oblivious to the truth that he could be dinner for a hungry cat.

Following the fresh footprints, my more and more fired up game driver flagged down a automobile coming from the other route and asked its occupants if they had noticed anything intriguing. “Only a herd of buffalo,” stated the driver, main to yet yet another wave of disappointment.

Undeterred, Michael pursued the trail a couple of hundred feet up the street. Out of the blue, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted one thing. He promptly threw the motor vehicle into reverse and there it was: a significant male lion sitting beneath a bush right by the side of the street. I held my breath, afraid of doing anything at all to trigger him to run away. I instinctively reached for my camera. Following a prolonged morning of seeking in vain, our mission was accomplished just as we were acquiring shut to turning all around. The lion poked his head up and took a prolonged, really hard seem at us. Just as Michael began to creep the truck forward and into a improved position, the lion decided it was not a day for pictures and he gracefully leapt to his feet, shook the grime from his coat, and retreated into the dense scrub and out of our sight, all prior to I could get a single shot off.

Our morning-long hunt was more than in little additional than a few moments. Soon after browsing for the lion for so a lot of hours, finding so near however barely seeing him for extra than a number of seconds appeared a little frustrating at the time. Nevertheless, I reasoned with myself, as Michael shifted the truck back into gear, at least I had been lucky adequate to get a brief, privileged see of the king of cats on his natural throne. More than that, I had managed to cross off a certain, elusive box in my faithful field guidebook that morning, as very well as to capture a couple of photos in my thoughts that I’m specific to by no means fail to remember for the rest of my existence.