You turn your head away for a few seconds…

An early morning research session was on the agenda for our research team on Friday (22^nd July).

The team entered the release site just before 4am and soon found Milo resting by himself near the Western fenceline. Nala, Narnia, Ashanti and Athena joined him not long after with AT1 following behind by a couple of minutes.

The females were alert and vigilant and started to move off into the grasses of Kruger, leaving AT1 behind in the capable paws of Milo. Quite often we see AT1 initiate play with her dad, but to our surprise this time it was Milo who decided it was playtime. He stalked his daughter and playfully bowled her over on to her back, gently pawing her face as she tried to bite his paws. AT1 seemed delighted with the sudden playfulness of her dad and was soon climbing on his back and biting on his mane. She became distracted by the sound of zebras alarm calling in the distance and set off in search of the other females. It wasn’t long before she found Athena, Nala and Narnia and together they set off further into the bush. The females stalked to approximately 15m away from a zebra herd and quickly chased; but to no avail.

Our research team left the lions just after 6am, and then re-entered the site 25 minutes later to begin the normal morning session. In the short time that the team had been absent from the site the lions had successfully killed a zebra. Frustrating as it was for the team to have missed the kill, they spent the remaining research sessions for the day with the pride as they fed and rested intermittently.