To See the Animals: Our Safari to Tanzania, Part 6
18.05.12
Day 8: There is so much to say about lions. We see lions everywhere. Prides. Such a right term that: Pride. Proud. They are noble, regal, majestic, handsome, strong, magnificent. These are striking animals. Habituated as they obviously are to our vehicles, one is almost drawn to reach out a hand to touch the lions. Almost... I suspect that would be a very good way to lose a hand.
We've spent a fair amount of time over the past days watching this one mother lion and her cubs. They're part of a pride which appears to be made up of eight other adults, although this nursing mom has moved herself and her babies a short distance from the rest.
While an adult lion deserves strong and powerful adjectives more so than any other animal I can think of, it is impossible to think of these cubs as anything other than adorable. They are impossibly big kittens, staring with kitten wide-eyed innocence, clumbering on over-sized feet, playing lazily with each other in the heat of the day. Mom gave birth to her six cubs less than three weeks ago, and lost two of them almost immediately. We're told that is the norm, with the mother able to only feed four hungry mouths. Harder to accept than that, however, are the obvious injuries to the mother's face and inner right thigh, as well as the death just the other night of one more of her kittens.
Source: Huffington Post