No matter what the vultures and black-backed jackal did, the lions weren’t going to give their kill up!
In the distance:
We saw some vultures cycling high in the sky. “Aaah, there must be a kill ahead. Let’s get there and see what’s happening!”
And when we got there…
The drama of the first part of the kill was finished! “Gosh, we had missed a kill in action!”
After the kill:
Now it was the part where other animals had a hopeful intention of getting their share of the feast.
And for a moment we couldn’t see any lions or the body of the killed animal.
But not to worry,
…the after-drama turned out interesting and unexpected in the way everything panned out.
At first, we tried to work out what may have happened and perhaps what still may happen.
From what we saw there was a…
Black-backed jackal:
It was circling a bush and what looked like a couple lions behind it. You couldn’t see the lions properly or how many there were, because of the long dry grass surrounding the area.
At first the jackal was cycling some distance from the lions. It would stop every now again to watch the lions intently. You could almost hear his mind shrewdly assessing how he could steal that meat from the lions.
Please note: The photos are in order of taking them, as things were occurring. So you will get the gist of the drama as it unfolded.
At one point the jackal went back to its cubs:
The family gathered happily together around their parent in anticipation of a possible meal. I was wondering what the jackal was saying to them.
“Look, I’m sorry it’s taking so long to bring back something to eat. But those lions won’t give me a break. Don’t worry. Just be patient and wait here. I’m on the job, and I will get something to eat, you’ll see!”
And then the parent jackal went back to cycling the lions, moving even closer and closer to where the lions were hidden behind a small bush.
The jackal looked somewhat frustrated, walking back and forth. Cycling and checking the possibilities of dashing in and getting what it so desired.
The lions didn’t look like adult male lions:
They could have been young males or even two females. It was hard to tell from a distance and the length of the grass and sparse bush.
Sharing the kill:
Meanwhile the lions were passing the meat back and forth between themselves. Most of the time they were behind the bush… so maddening because you couldn’t see what was really happening.
The meat was disappearing though, bit by bit between them. And as you see can in one of my photos, their kill must have been a zebra.
Who was having `the lion’s share’?
The way things were going on, it looked like one of the lions was the dominate one. It stood over the other one and pulled the meat from underneath the lower lion, and proudly and carefully walked away with what was left of the meat.
It sat down a little way away and chewed on the meat contently for some time… leaving the other lion panting and patiently awaiting its turn perhaps?!
Nothing left:
When all was eaten, the lions just lay down quietly in the grass and panted, as they recovered from the whole exciting exertion they had gone through.
And the jackal…well, it stood still unbelieving that it hadn’t got anything. Not even a scrap to take back to its hungry family!
And to tell how we felt about what we witnessed?
Such mixed feeling:
- We asked ourselves, all the time we were watching the jackal patient cycling, `Hope the jackal doesn’t pinch the lions kill’.
- And at the end we, `Felt sad the jackal’s hungry family didn’t get the meal they so desired’.
No travel blog next week:
Being Christmastime and New Year coming up, we will be away until January 2019. So during that period I will not post any blogs.
But not to worry, I will be back to share with you the next Kruger National Park experience, in January. Also I want to wish you a great time over Christmas and the very best for the New Year.