We have some pictures of this little lion cub up already, but we never told his amazing story. You can see from the pictures that he lacks good muscle condition even though his belly is quite full. In the video his sister walks past him and she is noticeably larger. His detailed story is told in full by the wonderful rangers at Londolozi in their blogs. In short, he was separated from the pride during a hyena attack and survived for five weeks alone. He stole our hearts, and he was so adorable to watch with his little tough guy persona. We subscribe to the Londolozi blogs and get nice updates and pictures, so we looked forward to watching this little wonder of nature grow up. Sadly, that is not going to be the case as he was killed by one of the four big male lion brothers the other day. This has been much more difficult for us to accept than all the other hunting and killing we saw while we were there. I guess that's the downside of getting up close and personal with wildlife.
Read more about this lion cub at Londolozi's blog
Read More about the attack at Londolozi's blog
South Africa: Londolozi and Thonga
This blog site was put together to share our trip to South Africa with our family and friends. We spent four nights at Thonga Beach Lodge and five at Londolozi, having a great time at each.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Londolozi: Birds of Prey
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Londolozi: The Big Five
The term, "Big Five," was created by hunters and refers to the five most difficult animals in Africa to hunt. The term is still used in most tourist and wildlife guides that discuss African wildlife safaris. The big five are the lion, African elephant, cape buffalo, leopard, and rhinoceros. We saw all the big five and more in our visit to South Africa. The game drives at Londolozi offered excellent views of many animals much closer than we could have imagined.
Rhinoceros
Buffalo
Elephant
Leopard
Lion
Zebra
Hippopotamus
Giraffe
Hyena
Rhinoceros
Buffalo
Elephant
Leopard
Lion
Zebra
Hippopotamus
Giraffe
Hyena
Londolozi: More Birds
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Londolozi: Birding with Talley and Freddy
Our ranger Talley and tracker Freddy did a fantastic job of helping us round out our adventure by finding all kinds of new birds for us. We think they enjoyed it as much as we did, because they said most guests are only interested in the big five and don't take the time to sit and wait and admire the birds and their behavior.
Malachite Kingfisher
Diederick Cuckoo
Bearded Scrub Robin
Southern Masked Weavers
Egyptian Goose
Korhaan
Brown-headed Parrot
Greater Blue-eared Starling
Gymnogene
Golden-tailed Woodpecker
Sombre Greenbul
African Hoopoe
Mike's favorite bird.
African Pied Wagtail
Hooded Vulture
Little Bee-eaters
European Bee-eater
Marabou Stork
Natal Spurfowl
Red-necked Spurfowl
African Barred Owlet
Bateleur
Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill
Blue waxbill
Red-billed Quelea
Crested Barbet
Chris calls this the crazy ugly bird.
Black-backed Puffback
Burchell's Coucal
Red-backed Shrike
Magpie Shrike
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
White-faced Whistling Duck
White-backed Vulture
White-browed Scrub Robin
Retz's Helmet-Shrike
Crested Francolin
Black-collared Barbet
Black-headed Oriole
African Grey Hornbill
European Roller
Purple Roller
Lilac-breasted Roller
Bearded Woodpecker
White-crested Helmetshrike
Southern Black Tit
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