Monkeying Around: 24/09/2011

We arrived back from Katavi at 9 pm last night after a very long day. We were up at 05:30 am to go into the park for 06:00am. For the reason that early morning is the best time to see the animals and see the animals we did!

I wont bore you with the list but I will talk you quickly through the highlight… We spotted a lone lioness in the middle of the dried up river, in the mud, but I’d over driven. I reversed the car back until we could see her again. From here it was obvious she was doing something but we couldn’t see what. On looking through the binoculars it was clear she was eating something, she had blood all over her face which was a shocking contrast to her otherwise golden fur. What was she eating though? Again after looking more closely we realized it was a young hippo! But wait as if this was not enough, this hippo was not dead….. Far from it. Every now and again it swung its head in agony bellowing its panic. All this while the lioness tucked in. The scene was horrendous. Fascinating but very disturbing and sad. We just wanted the hippo to die which it did not look in a hurry to do.

Lioness eating a live hippo

It was hard to watch but difficult not to watch at the same time. I took some photos, one of which I’ve posted on here but I warn you that due to its graphic nature, it is not for the faint of heart.. In the end we left the hippo to its fate, my hopes were not high for its survival through the night. It should be mentioned that hippo hide is 4.5cm thick and tough as old boots, therefore it is very difficult to get through and the lioness was struggling. It was also not clear how bad the damage the lioness inflicted was. But there was a lot of blood…