Raw Tsavo Nights

KENYA | Thursday, 4 July 2013 | Views [414] | View Smaller Image

3. This is the Tsavo night. Some places feel more real after dark and Tsavo is one of them. Reminiscent of a crime scene photo the evidence shows buffalo is high on the menu during the drought. Once famous for man-eating, the maneless lions here make use of the large numbers of buffalo that concentrate in the areas surrounding meagre remaining water sources.

2. Driving through the pitch black Tsavo scrub, our ears bombarded by surround-sound animal noise but our eyes blind. Suddenly lions materialise out of the darkness into our spotlights. Blink, and we could have missed them. There are three lions. The sub-adult male here is in the company of his brother and mother, concealed in the nearby darkness. In the Tsavo night photography is a true reflection of the place and life - raw, real and instantaneous.

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4. On this night the family trio we first saw were lucky. A full grown buffalo had been killed by two fully-mature male brother lions (one above), who allowed the unrelated family to share it - within limits. At this moment the sub-adult males have just been chased off leaving the mother lion (lying down with the radio collar) to continue eating. But one of the muscled-up males persists in displaying his dominance. Note the missing mane (just a little mohawk) and the grey colouring of his head and body.

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Raw Tsavo Nights

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