Ngala

“The cat may look like a lion, but that does not make it a lion.”

-African Proverb

“It’s good to be king”

-Mel Brooks

We left Makalali Lodge today and drove to the 'Mother of all Reserves', Kruger National Park. Here we will spend the next nine nights. This time we are allowed to explore the bush on our own. ....So no Musa, no Amos - Just Colleen with a knife and me cheering her on from the car with the doors locked.

Before we left we had some beautiful encounters with Ngali, the local word for ‘Lion’. We had such personal attention from our guides we were able to learn more than merely seeing the animals.

This is ‘Zamala’. He is the alpha male for the local Pride.

He is always with “‘Junior’, his brother. He hunts with his brother. However, Zamala always eats first. Since they came from the same litter they are always together and, yes, they hunt just as much as the females do.

The thing is Zamala is around 10 years old. For a Lion that is literally long in the tooth. His brother will not challenge him.

But this guy will.

He is a huge three year old we found about 2 miles from Zamala. He is heading that direction. Zamala’s reign may soon end. He came up right to the side of the Jeep. Intellectually, I knew I was safe, but those big yellow eyes were unnerving and I instinctively moved back. He was enormous, powerful, and clearly deadly.

They both want to control this large Pride of eight.

We found them after they made a Zebra kill. There is a very big female mother with seven adolescent cubs. One is a male, and while young , is already as big as his Mother. He will have to face Zamala soon, or the intruder coming from the North. If he somehow survives, he won’t, but if he did, he will start trying to make babies with all the females in the Pride. That includes his Mother.

We saw the Pride come to the watering hole and watched all eight drink at once while Amos told us this tale.