The zebras of Kirkman's Kamp

It was the last hour of our morning game drive. We decided to stop for a hot chocolate on one of the open areas at Kirkman’s Kamp. Japhott, our tracker, spotted a pride of lions from far away. We stopped in a distance since those lions had been skittish around the vehicle the day before. Through our binoculars we could make out that the pride, consisting of 4 lionesses, one adult and one young male, was feeding on a young zebra. Suddenly a dazzle of zebras appeared in the scene. One stallion popped his head from the nearby thicket into the open areas. Even him being aware of the lions, he started trotting easily about 20 metres past the pride, all lions now staring at him. The first female zebra walked past and one lioness started stalking the dazzle with full belly. The zebras started to call alarm and ran towards us – two lionesses and the big mal lion right behind them. But the lion’s bellies were too full to keep up with the zebras pace. They had to give up the hunt. The zebras now in a safe distance spent another half an hour in the area, watching how the pride finished the rest of the zebra they killed the day before. This evening we found three Hyaenas feeding on the remains of the carcass in the open areas. One of the females dragged the rip cage and the rest of the skin past us and disappeared with a big laughter into the dark night. The pride of lions had moved on, maybe on another hunt of the horses with stripes.

Posted: Kirkman's Kamp by Stephanie Mast, Date: 24 May 2008