King of Beasts

The African lion, King of Beasts and one of the Big 5, is under threat. In 1975, over 200,000 lions roamed the African continent. By 2002, this had declined sharply to around 23,000 to 39,000 – an 80-90% decline in the last 30 years, leading to it being placed on the IUCN list of vulnerable species.

African Lion and Environmental Research Trust (ALERT) was founded in 2005 at Antelope Park, ‘Zimbabwe’s Premier Private Wildlife Park’ set in over 3,000 acres of open savannah grassland,  in order to facilitate and promote sound conservation and management plans for the African lion in consultation with governments, wildlife authorities and communities. They release wild-born offspring from rehabilitation captive-bred lions.

Antelope Park should really be called Lion Park (except that another ‘Lion Park’ already exists) as the main attraction here is the lions. From the campsite, you can even hear the lions growling in their enclosure at night and in the early morning.

In just over two days, I went to the night lion stalk, lion research ‘Stage 2’ (living in the wild), lion feeding, lion walk, cub feeding, lion breeding, and game park.

Night lion stalking

At 6pm, we piled into two 4WDs, packed like sardines, four to a row. Amy and I were in the back row with a tracker either side of us. They jumped off only briefly at the musky lion enclosures, amidst a series of growls and ‘humpfing’ noises, to release the four lions that would be coming on the night stalk. After the trackers jumped back in and we were all tucked up under the provided blankets, we headed off in the park with the lions, using a red light to find prey. Most animals cannot detect the red light and hence the element of surprise is not lost.

The trackers were whistling and calling out ‘Kom on, kom!’ to the lions, but they really seemed to be on their own schedule, wandering where and when they pleased and lying down every so often. The first animal we came across was a hare and one of the lions attempted to chase it but it bounded off too quickly. We came across several impala but they also ran away very quickly. All of us were hoping the lions would catch something but the closest they got to catching was a civet. The civet was obliviously digging around the edges of a burrow whilst being stalked for the night’s meal (or more likely a snack), but as soon as it realised two lions had gone in for the kill, it disappeared into the safety of the burrow. Although we didn’t see a kill, it was still exciting watching the lions hunt at night.

Even when the lion stalk was over, the lions were still on their own schedule. None of them wanted to return to their enclosure and it took the trackers an extra half hour or so to round them up and lock the gate firmly behind them.

Lion research Stage 2

Antelope Park follows four stages of lion conservation from Stage 1 when they take them in and interact with them to Stage 4 when they release them into the wild.

Stage 2 is lions living in 500 acre enclosure with zebra and impala, the cubs of which grow up in an essentially wild environment with no human contact.

Most of our group was interested in the Stage 2 research but the vehicle could only fit four so they ran morning and afternoon trips for us over the two days we were here. A videographer creating a doco for ‘Animal Planet’ came out with three of us at a time.

Dom, Chris and I were the first group, and we piled in to the back of a bakkie. It was covered with a metal cage that had just enough room at the top for all four of us to poke the top half of our bodies through, though any bumpy driving would send us (and our cameras) lurching into each other.

We came across the zebra first though there were only four left. The lions have developed a preference for zebra, leaving the impala alone for the most part. We joked that the impala would have a great life in this enclosure and pronk around freely.

When we found the pride, they were half-heartedly chasing a confusion of guineafowl, which flew off up into a tree. The cubs, full of energy in the morning, were playing around with each other.

The pride had eaten several days ago and we were hoping they might be ready to make a kill. At one point, a couple of them attempted to catch one of the four remaining zebra but both the zebras and impalas detected their presence, barked in alarm and ran away. The lions then succumbed to the warming sun and lazed around, taking consolation in gnawing on the hoof of an old zebra kill.

They finally made a kill on the last night we were there, though sadly none of our group saw it. And then there were three…

Lion feeding

The lion feeding was intense.

We were dropped off outside one of the lion enclosures into which a huge, stinking pile of offal, hooves and tails had just been dumped. The hungry lions were in an adjoining cage, pacing up and down, waiting to be released.

Once we took up our positions, lying on our stomachs right next to the fence, the gate was opened and seven male lions came racing towards us in bounds, diving onto the pile and landing about 20 centimetres away from our faces.

Photo courtesy of Raf

Flecks of dirt and offal sprayed onto us and I cowardly jumped up and back from the thin wire fence separating us from the crazed lions. They were in a battle for dominance as well as a feeding frenzy, and were snarling viciously at each other, defending their part of the pile. The researchers find it vital to observe the lions’ dominance behaviour and then use the most dominant to breed. Three male lions had settled on top of the pile, leaving the less dominant ones to sneak off with a piece of intestine into a quiet corner or to go hungry for now and wait for the spoils.

The three lions were munching noisily on the flesh, crunching the bones between their teeth. I mustered up the courage to lie back down again, just 20cm from the dominant male’s powerful jaws and could even smell his foul breath. Shaun did the same and it locked eyes with him for about 20 seconds, nearly making him soil his pants!

Lion walk

At 6.15am, a group of us went on a walk through the bush with Laili and Laiwa, two 17 month old lions. As it was morning, they were frisky and were more interested in playing around with each other than posing with us for photos.

When they walked alongside us, we were told to be confident and to give them a firm pat. We were also not allowed to run, crouch down or stray from the group, otherwise they might see us as prey. We were allowed, however, to pick up and hold their tail whilst walking beside them! I was joking around trying to steer one of them by the tail, but it ended up taking me off into the bush on its own agenda! We all had to carry sticks which we were only allowed to use as a warning tap if they turned on us but luckily none of us needed to use them.

The guides led the lions onto a termite mound and we all took turns of kneeling down on one knee behind them – they told us it was the most stable pose and would enable us to get back quickly on our feet should we need to.

Lee ran down the termite mound and for a second the lions reacted as though she were prey. Fortunately the guides managed to distract them with the tip of their sticks. At the end, one climbed up a tree and we posed for shots underneath it. This time I posed hesitantly, not being entirely comfortable turning my back on a lion that was in a tree above my head.

Cub feeding

We walked over to the cub’s cage where the volunteers had hidden chunks of meat on the ground and in trees in an attempt to initiate their instinctive scavenging behaviour. Penya was born in Zim on 24/02/11 and Paza was born in South Africa on 01/03/11, making them both 15 months old. This feeding was different to the last one as we actually went into the cage with them this time. Penya and Paza found the hunks of meat on the ground first and then spent a while trying to detect the pieces in the trees and work out how to get to them. They were hanging off the trees by their claws at one stage which was quite a funny sight. At one point, one of them came towards me and I hid behind the guide! I was also keen to get the hell out of the cage once they’d found and eaten all their chunks of meat as they again came wandering towards us.

Lion breeding

We drove back to the enclosure where the lion feeding was and saw only a tail, a hind leg, and a few intestines left. There was also a mass of black and white feathers which we found out was the carcass of a crow that had been stupid enough to pick at the spoils but then became another meal.

At the surrounding lion enclosures, Colin, our guide, told us all about the 98 lions here and the breeding program at Antelope Park. He also told us that lions mate for half a minute every 10-15 minutes for three days. The male’s penis has barbs on it so it’s very painful for the female and it’s not surprising then that she chases him off after every half a minute, tries to bite him and then lies on her back with a leg in the air to aid fertilisation.

They also have a separate cage far away from the others with Big Boy, Amy and Mel who sadly have FIV – feline AIDS, spread by saliva and potentially even sneezing. They are currently using them to take regular blood and stool samples from in an attempt to further their knowledge on the disease and hopefully develop a cure for it.

Game drive

This is definitely the funniest game drive I have ever been on. The guide was not only incredibly informative but also incredibly funny. And the highlight was when Shaun was allowed to get out of the vehicle and chase the giraffe on foot to see how they run.