Relentless Enemies Page #3

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the Skimmer cubs are intrigued

by anything that moves.

It's an exciting

and prohibited world for them.

Their mothers let the teenagers

experiment with the porcupine.

It could be a painful lesson.

Lions are often disabled

by those sharp quills.

The barbed point will cause infection,

and with lions that are constantly in and out

of swamp water,

these infections could kill them.

But this play gives the cubs

experience they need to have.

Perhaps this is the day

for teaching the cubs about life,

even though it is a strange place to do it.

The buffalo are an ideal canvass

for that education,

and this is what they came for.

Sound carries forever here,

especially to ears attuned

to the one prey species they know well

and the one signal of distress

they know intimately.

The cow is an easy target,

but the herd has been emboldened

by a wave of successes

in seeing off such attackers.

With each success

they develop more confidence.

Their triumph further enrages them

and, as it does, the scales are tipped

against the splintered Skimmer pride.

There is a subtle power shift

that sends the hunters fleeing for cover.

It is a turning point in this relationship.

With the pride scattered and running scared,

now the buffalo have a real chance

of skewering a lion at last.

It turns into a chaotic scramble for safety

for the surprised young lions.

Far across the open grassland

from the fleeing pride,

one of the insecure

teenage males is isolated.

The herd has cut off his escape.

The Tsaro pride has heard the commotion.

They are here.

Skew Ear is always quick on the offensive,

and slowly they appear from everywhere.

Now they are united.

The Skimmer lions are too shaken

by the buffalo's aggression

to notice that the lions coming at them

from all directions are not from their pride.

It takes a moment to notice

the fire in their eyes.

The Skimmer pride has no heart for a fight.

The strength of being on their own territory

weighs heavily on the side

of the resident males.

The Tsaro males focus on any foreign male,

leaving the females to their own battles.

This is male business now, one on one,

or if possible two on one.

When these huge males fight,

it is at enormous risk to both.

Even the victors have to

guard against a stray bite

or defensive swipe that could sever a jugular

or slice open a fatal wound.

Slowed down by the water,

the cubs are taking a risk

of their own in crossing.

The incensed Tsaro females

could easily cross right in behind them

and take the fight to the far shore.

So even though the odds

are stacked in their favor,

this attack is not driven to the point of death.

This time their point has been made,

"This is our land and we will defend it.

"The boundary has been secured."

The Tsaro pride's

aggressive defense is extreme

because at last they have

a new set of cubs to defend.

Hunters by nature, they seem to know

what they are born to.

Their play is a dress rehearsal

for what will one day not be a game.

And already they smell of lion.

It is a scent that drives the lead bulls wild.

The buffalo are incensed by the wafting,

invisible smell of lions,

and they push deeper into the Tsaro palms,

stomping at any movement.

The twin mothers have arrived,

drawn back to their cubs

by the weight of the milk they carry.

And when they see the chaos around them,

the low growls of displeasure begin.

These are angry lions now,

not calculating hunters.

Flinging themselves at the buffalo

takes them beyond

the simple contest for food.

Now they are enemies.

But when their thrusts are countered,

the scales are tipped

in the delicate confidence game

that drives everything in nature.

But any retreat would mean

sacrificing their cubs.

Not these two mothers. Not the twins.

But when the mothers check for their cubs

among the palms,

nothing but a disturbing silence greets them.

Only half of the cubs seem to have

survived the buffalo onslaught,

but then, from the safety of the palms,

three more and finally

all of them come tumbling out.

With only one casualty.

Most lions recover well from the deep cuts

they endure in their violent life

because of their thin skins

and the dry climate.

But in the swamp,

injuries are kept moist and raw,

open to infection.

The twins decide as one

to move the litter away

from the aggressive herd of buffalo.

For the injured cub,

this may be the worst time

to have to go on a long march,

especially when the only way

ahead is through water.

And as their whiskers touch

the still unfamiliar water,

they feel their future as swamp cats

for the first time on their skins.

It is a future that is extremely precarious

for the whole pride,

not just the one lagging cub.

With such extreme hunting,

it's inevitable that at least

one of the Tsaro lionesses

will be injured or killed at some time.

When that happens, the pride will be

in desperate need of some of their cubs.

It is essential that they keep

the hunting numbers

at the ideal eight or nine lionesses.

This then is a precious cargo.

This wet, swampy world they live in

makes up an intricate part of

the lions' hunting strategy,

where the buffalo are slowed down.

But it also wears out the lions.

Both they and their prey

are more vulnerable in the swamp.

Beyond the ebb and flow

of this unpredictable relationship,

a strange set of patterns emerge.

The lions start to show signs

of understanding much more,

and going much further

in their strategies for hunting buffalo.

The season change brings

new wanderers through their territory,

big herds of elephants from the dry interior.

To the north, no more than

a few dozen pride territories away,

other lions have specialized

in killing elephants,

but not these lions.

Even though their bulk would be valuable

in an elephant hunt,

they show no interest at all.

Lions learn quickly,

but they most often stick to what they know.

And here, that is buffalo hunting.

When the buffalo are woken and scattered

into the 1 1 0-degree heat,

Skew Horn looks north

and picks out a landmark.

The Tsaro lionesses follow.

They've seen this before.

They know exactly where the herd is going,

almost before the last members

of the herd know themselves.

From their memory of past successes

and an intimate knowledge of the terrain,

the lions now do something

that shows the precise calculation

of their hunting strategies.

They position themselves,

ready to play out the same game plan

they have used many times before.

When the lionesses ignore the herd

and circle ahead of it,

it is because they are drawing on

memory from past battles.

They know where the buffalo

will be the most vulnerable.

Up ahead is where the herd will wedge itself

against the deep water's edge.

All the lions have to do

is to position themselves,

ready for the herd to turn back.

The cubs are along as well.

The Tsaro lionesses

may be this enormous size

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