African Wildlife & Environment Issue 84 2023

WILDLIFE CHRONICALS

Lisa lying up on the rocks near her new den after she had moved the cubs.

each visit. While the pride structure is usually very stable, members are not always together. They split up temporarily and rejoin again later. In the process, I also got to know the lions as individuals. Lions are not all the same. Like people, dogs, and I suppose most animals, they all have different characters. This shows in their faces when they look at you. Some of them seem surly and withdrawn, while at the other end of the scale, others may even appear to be more benign, rather friendly even! As I got to know them, they also got to know me. I often had the habit of talking to them, much as someone might talk to their dogs. Stuff like, “How are you guys doing?”, “Did you get something to eat last night?”, “I see your tummies are full! Where did you leave the kill?”. So they got to know my voice, my scent, and perhaps also to recognise me. If they had killed a wildebeest, I would collect the skull so as to

get the age and sex of the animal, and also one of the leg bones (usually the femur) which could later be laboratory-tested for fat content of the marrow as an indication of the animal’s condition. If they were at a safe distance, I would carefully get out of my truck and they would often watch me curiously. It became necessary at a stage for me to attend University in Pietermaritzburg to write qualification exams for my MSc degree, which meant I had to be away from my study area for three months. Upon my return, I was needed to assist with aerial census work, which kept me away for another few weeks, so when I finally could return to my study area, I had been away for almost four months. On the first day after my return, I went out to look for the pride whose territory encompassed my camp site.As they were always the closest pride, I got to track them more often than the others. When I

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