Encountering Lions in Addo Elephant National Park

Written by Rudolph de Girardier

The #TrekSouthAfrica team continues its journey into Addo Elephant National Park, to observe and capture the wildlife of this wild territory. Photographer Rudolph de Girardier describes his experience of a morning game drive and a close encounter with lions stalking a harem of zebras.

The sound of an alarm perforates the blanket of a dreamy landscape. The clouds of sleep reluctantly vanish and my eyes open. The day starts, in the middle of Addo Elephant Park.

‘G’morning, beautiful world’, I thought.

As I walked down the road towards the main camp’s reception and game drive departure, the skies awakened and the first rays of the sun tinted it with blood and gold.

‘Thank you’, I whispered as I left this scene, worthy of world-class coffee.

At 5:30am, the 22-seater bush truck’s engine was roaring and we drove out of the fenced camp into the animal kingdom.

A few minutes into the drive, we caught sight of two lion brothers. A privilege to see these animals in a park that only bears eight of them. They were resting, tranquil, observing without enthusiasm, red hartebeest in the distance.

A small harem of zebras arrived eagerly, and got the lions on their feet.

Lions are opportunistic hunters, that is, they would not waste their energy chasing animals aware of their presence, as these prey would likely run away or put up a fight. As the zebra approached, without seeing the predators, the latter took the situation as a providential feast, and hid behind thickets.

Zebras have a sixth sense: they feel the presence of predators.

Before approaching, the harem paused and cautiously sent one of their members in the lead to explore the territory.

This interesting situation followed: the Con and King, attempting to get an angle of attack on the harem, altogether missed the zebra walking besides him. The zebra, nervous, could not see the lion hiding behind the bush. Both were looking for each other, but could not see one another.

As one of the glorified horses, shortly thereafter, caught sight of the clumsy stalker, the harem hurriedly evacuated the dangerous scene.

The lion reluctantly forfeit his meal, and sat back down among the thicket, to start the first of twenty hours of sleep he would typically have that day.

An interesting animal interaction in Addo Elephant Park, observed with passion by the #TrekSouthAfrica team and the amazed tourists.