Magic lion cubs

The lions have been keeping a bit of a low profile of late, and although most nights we have been hearing lions by the time game drive times arrive they have long since moved off and left our guests wanting. This morning the pressure was on for Rex (one of our guides) it was the guests last drive before leaving and all they wanted and needed to see was lion. Rex stayed cool, calm and collected and managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat and track down 2 of the Olifants west pride lionesses and the 7 cubs on a giraffe kill. On hearing this from some very excited guests I decided to take a vehicle out and have a look as I have been stuck in camp for a while and haven't seen a cat in ages, and knew there would be some good photo opportunities to be had.

 

An Olifants west lioness keeping an eye on me

Now a lion sighting in itself is pretty special, lions on a kill even more special but throw 7 young cubs into the mix and its absolutely MAGIC. The cubs are now at around 6 months of age and are extremely playful and curious of just about anything that they see, be it the tail of the giraffe they were eating or the game drive vehicles that are viewing them. There is no need to interpret anything that is being seen its just a case of sit back and be entertained by these balls of fur as they go about being lion cubs.

2 curious cubs

The cubs always seem so busy, if they not fighting over food they stalking and wrestling each other learning all they need for the day they have to hunt and compete at meal times but for now its cute, funny and awesome all at the same time and you cant help but sit with a huge smile on your face for the duration of the time spent with them.

Such a playful look on this cubs face

Stalking the game drive vehicle

A mouth full of giraffe tail hair

Smack!

I'm really amazed at how good these lionesses are at being mums. 3 of them had cubs around the same time, each one having 3 cubs, 9 cubs are a lot to deal with and these first time mothers have been very successful although they have lost 2 cubs that is pretty good going in the lion world. All the remaining cubs are looking fit and healthy and we look forward to following their journeys to adulthood and many more sightings in the future.