The curious case of the dead giraffe. 

During one of Toby's trips to Botswana guiding some of our wonderful guests, they were lucky enough to witness lions on a giraffe kill. Over the course of their stay they returned time and again to see what unfolded. Below he recounts the story.  

On our first night at Barclay Stenner's mobile safari in the Moremi Game Reserve, part of the Okavango Delta, we were serenaded by a seemingly endless chorus of male lions roaring through the night, which if you've ever been lucky enough to hear, you'll know is one of the most incredible sounds. Earlier that afternoon we followed a vast herd of buffalo, at an estimate somewhere between 1-2000; knowing that there were two enormous lion prides in the area, one of 17 and the other of 20 individuals, I couldn't help but wonder if one of the prides had brought down a buffalo, or had maybe tried but got split up and separated in the chaos. Either way, I was desperate to get out there early the next morning to see what had happened. 

Still dark, at around 5am, I was up and ready to go, waiting for our guests, with a coffee in hand. The lions helpfully let out a couple more roars helping us narrow down where to start looking, they were close. 

A couple of kilometres from camp and we found fresh tracks of a couple male lions, very fresh indeed. Vundi, the Barclay Stenner guide, and I decided we should have a closer inspection of the tracks, when our guest, who was trying out a thermal image camera, pointed at a bush and said 'what's that, it's very hot'. Vundi and I, scoffing inside at the thought we'd have missed a lion a mere 5 meters in front of the car picked up our binos. Lo and behold an enormous, gnarly-looking male lion was staring right at us....(thanks Gregor). 

As we circled round we found the two males feeding on a giant bull giraffe. We could clearly see the scuffs in the ground where the giraffe had struggled and then fallen. Exactly how the two males brought down such a big giraffe we'll never know. 

After watching the lions feed for a little while, hoping to see the rest of the pride soon roll in, we decided to leave them be and return later that morning. 

When we returned we set up a camera trap, a device that records short bursts of video whenever there is movement. We hoped we'd capture either the rest of the lions arriving or perhaps an almighty battle of lions and hyena, something we were confident would happen after seeing plenty of hyena heading towards the area.

Lots more roaring that night, and what I thought was the start of a hyena battle. Alas no. We returned the following morning and nothing had happened. The two males were still there, hardly making a dent in the giraffe. About eight jackals, who I have now decided are the bravest animals in the bush, were happily feasting mere metres away from the lions, but nothing else, no sign of hyena, no vultures, no more lions. 

Why? My immediate thought was that the rest of the pride had indeed managed to bring down a buffalo and were happily feeding away on that, but we found the rest of the pride, the other dominant male, alone and hungry looking, and the other 14 members of the pride in another area, not far away, also looking hungry.

Sadly we had to leave the area, without any resolution to the conundrum of the dead giraffe. None the wiser as to why no hyenas had attacked or why the rest of the pride hadn't joined.

Even though we didn't work out exactly what was happening, the mystery was fascinating enough, and is what I love so much about the bush. I've been lucky enough to see lions feeding on giraffes before (I'm of course sad for the giraffe, but circle of life and all that), but no two sightings in the bush are ever the same. We were able to talk through all the possibilities of what might have been going on; teaching our guests about the behaviour of lions, hyenas, jackals, buffalo, vultures and everything else that is all intertwined in the wonderful goings on of the wild world.

P.S.

We did interestingly see a young male leopard have a stand off with a civet who was digging a catfish out of the mud, and then a mother leopard with two sub-adult cubs being chased by a hyena (looked like one of the cubs was nipped on the tail) in the same area. Goes to show, if you slow down and take time to slowly explore, all sorts of fascinating sightings will come your way.