Vegans Love Carnivores

This past week has been a concentrated mass of carnage to the highest degree.   We released 17 zebra, 10 wildebeest and 50 impala into the Ngamo site last week and since then the lions have been on an extensive killing spree.   They have already massacred 2 zebras, 2 wildebeest and 4 impalas within the space of 7 days!   This is bearing in mind that they usually make one large kill every 4 days.   These lions have gone from being pretty skinny to FAT in less than a week and it is amazing to see how different they look now – and in fact how much more energetic they are.   I watched Nala and Narnia (aka the queens of brutality) spend all day yesterday trying to hunt down anything that moved within 200m of them.   In fact, between the first and second session, they had managed to take down a pregnant impala that they were busy munching on next to a waterhole by the time we found them.   We only knew it was pregnant because half way through devouring it, N...

It is getting HOT in Zim now.   At 8.30am today the temperature was already 30C!   We’ve not had proper rains for a few weeks now but they should arrive within the next week or so, which will hopefully clear the air and refresh the atmosphere. I went on my first “Night Encounter” at the weekend, which is basically taking the older lions out for a walk at night time to allow them to hunt some of the game in the park.   However, as they are too big for us to walk on foot, they are trained to follow vehicles, which they seem to do surprisingly well.   We drove around the park for over 2 hours but the only animals they tried to hunt were one steenbok and a zebra.   The steenbok chase was actually pretty good because the lions ran FULL PELT towards this steenbok (I have never seen them run so fast in my life!) and they very nearly caught the steenbok.   It even screamed out in distress (poor thing – I would do too if 4 subadult lions were running for their live...

I have been travelling for nearly a month now and it feels like centuries ago that I was back in the UK living in the little village of Shepherdswell and looking after the cats.  It’s funny how when you travel time seems to fly, but when you’re back home it goes really slowly.  I guess it’s partly that I’ve been so busy here that I’ve not had a moment to rest and think.  I apologise to my friends everywhere about being crap at keeping in touch with you, but when you only have a few moments to use the internet each day, and most of that time is taken up by sending work emails, it becomes hard to find a spare minute to message people.  Please do email me though to let me know how you’re all getting on and I will try to find some time to reply!! After watching the Ngamo pride for nearly 4 weeks now I am starting to learn all of the different personalities of the lions and their various quirks.  It’s amusing and fascinating watching AT1, the cub, develop in front ...

Good day everyone! On 31 August I leave my native lands of the UK to embark upon an African adventure in the wilds of Namibia and Zimbabwe.  I will spend the first few days meeting the staff at Cheetah Conservation Fund , and then head to Zimbabwe to start a 6-month placement near Gweru working as a lion researcher. I will be updating this blog during my placement at the African Lion & Environmental Research Trust ( ALERT ) in Antelope Park .  Whilst here, I will be studying the behavioural ecology of a pride of captive-born lions, called the Ngamo Pride .  These are a very special group of lions that are part of an on-going rehabilitation and release programme run by ALERT to enable replenishment of wild lion populations throughout Africa. African lions have exhibited shocking rates of habitat and population decline within the last 100 years, predominantly caused by habitat loss and overkill of lions and their prey.  ALERT aims to increase the viability...