Ol Pejeta Conservancy is full of surprises. Early one morning, we hopped into the car and drove west towards Kicheche, a quieter side of the conservancy.
On the road, we came across 3 juvenile lions – 2 lionesses and a young male – relaxing by the road. In the distance, we saw 8 hyenas all staring in the opposite direction to the young lions. A few minutes later we understood why – a beautiful huge male lion in his prime was coming towards us. He stopped a few hundred meters short and sat down.
Not too long after the three juveniles got up and started walking away. Up ahead, there were a couple of zebras with a young baby. Out of nowhere, the young lions started running towards the zebra. There was no calculated move, no stalk, no plan, nothing! With sheer luck, they suddenly took the foal. We were dumbfounded by what happened, and quickly rushed to the scene and we saw the three youngsters tearing away quickly at the foal.
In the background, the big male’s interest had been piqued and he rapidly made his way down to the scene. It was inevitable that he would snatch this prize from the youngsters, who tore away what morsels they could and scattered.
Within minutes, a second large male came running into the picture, and then a third. We hadn’t seen these lions earlier, but both were huge-maned lions in their prime as well. To see three big male lions all in their prime fighting over a kill was a vision that has been etched into my memory. The third male wasn’t too bothered with the kill, he seemed to be more interested in ensuring the juveniles were kept at bay. It was a battle between two each took their share and then settled down for the rest of the morning.
This was a truly amazing sighting, something we’ve never seen before and gave us fresh insight into the dynamics of a lion pride.
