Sunday, May 11, 2008

playtime for simba - murchison lion cubs take 2





2 comments:

  1. if you've been keeping up with the photos here and my posts on andersonbowen.comBLOG then you know that last week while paige was working in arua i had a great experience viewing nine lion cubs from very close range. this week i picked paige from arua and we spent a day and a half in murchison mostly on the hope that she'd be able to get a glimpse of the cubs.

    going in to a safari with high expectations is usually a recipe for, well, not meeting those expectations. but we broke the rules by hoping for another lion sighting and risking disappointment.

    8am, after an hour and a half of driving, i spotted a big group of uganda kob all looking in one direction and not paying attention to anything else. paige trained the binoculars in the direction of their gaze, and sure enough. simba!

    if my first time with the cubs was amazing, this only topped it. they were all hanging out at a water hole right along the game track, and we got them all to ourselves for 30 minutes. we got to see the two moms, too, who were beautiful, healthy lions. clearly they knew they were the top of the food chain. just as they all were retreating to the shady bushes, the other safari vehicles started showing up.

    unlike last week, they were in full-on play mode. lots of stalking and ambushing and wrestling.

    the top picture is taken through the wind shield, but the rest are standing on the runner board with the door open. times like these i so wish i had a 400mm to separate the background from the subject. 280mm at f/5.6 just doesn't do it.

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  2. good thing you've had that recent practice shooting uno and ttaano in play mode - looks like these cubs are in the same state of mind! CANNOT belive you saw them. twice. bring me one to play with when you come.

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