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Panthera leo
Continuing the series started in my 3,000th spotting. Spotting 3,000 is dedicated to Cecil the lion, in Hwange park. The African lion has a complex social order. A male or males(usually brothers, but sometimes merely "friends") holds and protects a pride, mates with the females, and protects his offspring. If a male is deposed, by a rival or a hunter, the new male who takes over the pride will kill the prior male's offspring to bring the female into estrous more quickly so he can mate with them. Cecil was 13 1/2 when an American hunter illegally shot him, after baiting him out of Hwange and into the Gwayi reserve area. He had lost his pride once when he was 10, and after befriending jericho, regained control of his pride group. He has been part of an Oxford study for many years. For anyone who has not been inundated with media on this http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...... is a complete article with pictures of cecil and his co leader jericho.
Hwange park near the "main camp" entrance an hour or so before dusk. In the brush at the side of the road. In Kruger I was close enough to a male lion to hear him breathing, but he was recently fed and half asleep. This lion was engaging us with his eyes. As the rest of the vehicles left, he began the moaning cry that is a lion summoning his pride to keep him company.
Can anyone thinnk of a better excuse for being tardy to the exit gate? When our guide showed these pictures(at least his versions) the gate guard got very animated and they chatted for several minutes as we reveled in being out in Africa in the fading light While I can't say with 100% certainty this IS Cecil, as our guide didn't give us a name(at least not that I heard, as my ears/brain had trouble fully translating the Dutch and African accented British English accent and our guide was talking about him pretty rapid fire) he was collared. He is dark maned with a brown ruff. And we were in his territory near main camp. His eyes look more like Cecil's than jerichos. When we saw the collar we joked that this was how our guide found him and saved him as our finale for the safari. That's when we were told he was part of a long term Oxford safari. I do know he made us late leaving the park, and only the pictures our guide showed the gate keeper(next spotting) kept him from incurring a fine. By the time we left, Cecil had moved to the center of the exit road and we had to go the long way out as our guide said that passing a lion in that position is asking for a charge from the lion. I have many more pictures of him to go through and will post more as I can
Spotted on Jan 1, 2014
Submitted on Jul 30, 2015
25 Comments (1–25)
Thanks Karen.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=...
The lodge we stayed at just posted a picture of Cecil's pride, still together after the loss of their leader. I thought it might interest those who followed this spotting
Congrats KarenSaxton, your regal African Lion has made the top 10 mammal spottings in the '2015 Best Wildlife Photo' mission! Rangers are voting on the top 10 mammal spottings, and the top 3 will be announced on February 6th. The top 3 spottings will be commented on here on the site, but make sure you keep a look out on our Facebook app page for the announcement as well! Congratulations on making the top 10! https://www.facebook.com/projectnoah
Good news and photos post cecil's death, from Africa Geographic: africageographic.com/blog/cubs-doing-okay-after-cecils-death/
Three organizations that come highly recommended by conservation activist Peter Allison in Africa, all have low overhead and do great work in the fight against hunting and poaching. If you're looking for a way to turn outrage to action, but aren't on the ground, here are a few to think about.
www.walkingforlions.org/
https://www.ewt.org.za/donate.html
http://breakingthebrand.org/take-action/...
Thanks Karen, here's a trustworthy new source with the better news: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2...
This morning a photo of Jericho was tweeted, and that report posted to FB. He is alive and well. According to many Experts in Africa the original report came from a source that is only slightly less reliable than the National Inquirer. It isn't helping Zimbabwe's reputation to have these reports.
Conflicting reports http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2...
Ava is it confirmed?
Today's very troubling news is that his brother Jericho has just been killed as well. Jericho was taking care of the pride, so his death leaves them in in grave danger. Also, while these two beautiful lions have names; 600 lions a year are killed by poachers and trophy hunters. We must demand justice and sanctuary for all of them!
Mad world my friends,thanks for sharing these beautiful pictures Karen,your memory of this encounter will remain forever, and congrats on the our sad but great SOTD
I wish I'd thought to record some video of his calls!
That is a really cool spotting to be able to see!
Thank you, Mark. I had no idea at the time, that my special spotting of this lion was THIS special. I'd give anything to turn back time, however. I can only hope that by highlighting his magnificence people will think twice before giving trophy hunters a free pass
Sad for Cecil...Thanks Karen anyway for sharing those memories!
Brilliant eulogy Karen. Thanks.
Thank you Lisa. It is a sad spotting, but I feel extremely fortunate for the experience.
Good news is that his cubs are being taken care of by his brother.
This is certainly the saddest Spot of the Day we have had. So glad you shared this story with our community! Thank you!
https://twitter.com/projectnoah/status/6...
https://www.facebook.com/projectnoah/pho...
I hoped that the petitions wouldn't violate some rule I wasn't aware of! Latest news is that the pride is intact and his co leader is not going after the cubs, but caring for them. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/07/31...
I have signed these and others to make sure there will be an impact for this. Thanks for sharing, Karen!
petition seeking the finallization of listing lions as endangered and protected in the US will prevent more Cecils... https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Ad...
Thanks for sharing this, Karen.
I had completely planned to have them up a year ago, but things got in my way
So sad to stumble upon those photos now .....