Safari Tale #5 Take Down – Mark and Susan normally rode with JoJo, Ann, Lee, and Aileen in the safari vehicle. Mark kept saying that he wanted to see a “Take Down” (e.g. a lioness kill a Wildebeest or an Impala). Mark knew it is pretty rare to see a kill, but he was still hoping for one. Our guide, Willie, said people hope for a kill, but often when they do see a kill they start crying. The joke for several days whenever we saw a lioness was, “I want to see a take down”.
On Day 5 in the Central Serengeti, low and behold, we saw one lioness stalking a herd of wildebeest. Then two more lionesses got involved in the hunt. Suddenly, the first lioness takes off and everyone thinks she started too early, but the other two lionesses cut off the wildebeests’ escape route and the hunt was on. We saw two kills in the same hunt. Willie, the head guide, said one kill was rare; you almost never see two kills in the same hunt. No one cried when the kills happened, but JoJo and Ann were hoping the wildebeests would all escape the lions. “Take Down” was our motto after the kill.
This was definitely the highlight of the entire safari!
Lioness #1 was carefully and slowly stalking the wildebeest.
The lioness was poised to start the attack.
This lioness is chasing one of the wildebeests. You can see the herd in the background.
This wildebeest was getting out of the way.
This is the lioness who missed the wildebeest she chased.
This lioness was successful on her take down. She’s standing next to the dead wildebeest in the grass.
After the kills, the lionesses headed back to their cubs to bring them to the kill. We followed around to watch. The lionesses and cubs didn’t appear at all phased by the vehicles watching them.
This is out of focus but you can see how close the lionesses were to the vehicles.
Mom found all the cubs and they started down the road. These cubs belonged to all three of the lionesses but only one lioness went to retrieve them.
They all calmly walked down the road with Mom taking a swat every once in a while to keep the cubs in line.
Lions on parade.
Lion cubs are just too cute!
They all hung out under a tree or in a field for a bit before the lionesses sent the cubs off to the kill.
This little guy needed to scratch the tree.
The cubs were clearly not hungry since they played with the dead wildebeest, rolling over it and climbing on it.
Mom finally tried to show them what to do with the kill.