This morning we found Naramat at first light. She was all by herself and walking with a purpose. Her front paws were bloodied. We realised that she must have hunted and was now looking for the cubs who had been left behind. Lionesses usually leave behind young cubs when they go out to hunt. After a successful hunt, they return to take the cubs to eat.
All the six cubs who had been in hiding beneath a bush, came out to join Naramat and to follow her as she led them to breakfast. Nempiris was waiting at a distance, we saw later. The two lionesses had hunted on the other side of the Olare Lemuny stream (after which the Lemuny pride is named) and were now walking to the carcass with the cubs. Two of the cubs stuck close to them and crossed the ravine with the lionesses. The other four were busy playing as they walked, got a little distracted, and found themselves a few metres away from the crossing point. Meanwhile the adults had crossed, and so the cubs couldn’t identify where to jump. Naramat, Nempiris and the two attentive cubs were now on the other side and instead of waiting for the rest, hurried to where they had left the carcass before the scavengers got to it. The four laggards milled around in a bit of confusion and then one of the cubs decided to jump into the ravine. We heard a thud and a squeal as it fell about 4m but then like any cat, it found its feet and leapt up the other side. This was repeated twice as two other cubs followed suit. We fully expected the fourth cub to jump, as well, but he never did. He kept going to the edge, looking down, and deciding against taking that leap of faith. Meanwhile the other cubs, eager to eat, followed the scent of Naramat and Nempiris and soon vanished into the distance, leaving us with a very confused cub.
He walked by the ravine hoping to find a good crossing point but wasn’t successful. Many minutes passed and now he started getting confused and began running helter-skelter, calling out for the others, with a series of sharp meows. All to no avail of course. The rest of his pride had vanished. The minutes turned into about an hour when the cub seemingly lost hope and left the bank of the ravine. We stuck with him, hoping to be able to reunite him with his pride. The cub kept walking but stayed in the general vicinity. Soon he was spotted by a pair of jackals who started barking, as jackals usually do when they see a big cat. Only this one was a really small and scared big cat. This added to our worries. While we didn’t think the jackals might attack the cub, they certainly were drawing attention to him and there were hyenas and baboons- and perhaps even leopards- in the vicinity who might want to kill him. So, we stayed close to him and waited. And waited, and waited.
And then, just as we were beginning to lose hope, we spotted Naramat and Nempiris in the distance on the other side of the stream. They had finally realised they were short a cub, and were hurrying back, homing in on the barking jackals. They crossed the stream, and we could see that they were accompanied by one of their cubs, while the remaining four followed. As they approached us, we could see the cub seemed to have lost his head and in confusion was wandering away. The cub with the lionesses, saw this too and ran ahead to retrieve her lost brother, calling out as she approached him. She joined her brother and guided him back to Nempiris, their mother. The reunion took many minutes because the lost- and now found- cub needed the reassurance of body contact.
In this season of hope and joy, we couldn’t have asked for a more appropriate game drive. Merry Christmas to you and yours!