Earlier this year during my now-annual visit to Botswana, I was lucky to witness something truly amazing, from start to finish. Two male lions, Sebastian and Old Gun (I’m calling them Seb and OG for short), chased three intruder males (not named yet) from their territory.
We had arrived at Lebala Camp a day and a half earlier, and we’d spent some time observing the three intruders. Two of them had been injured during prior altercations with Seb and OG – one with a bite on his right/hind leg, and the other with a similar injury. Both were limping badly and did not want to get up, so the group had decided to spend most of their time recuperating near the airstrip that served Lebala Camp. The guides filled us in on all of these details, and of course I couldn’t help but feel jealous of the sightings they had, and I hoped I would have the same experience one day. Well, today was the day!
On our second morning drive at Lebala, we started the day by greeting the intruders at their resting area by the air strip. The only uninjured male called to his friends from the airstrip, and then we followed him as he led us to them. Both of them were laying down, not much interested in moving, and he greeted them. Soon we decided to move on and see what else we could see, as these three clearly had no plans for the day.
A few minutes later we were watching a red-crested korhaan, which is a small ground-dwelling bird, making his morning mating calls. Very interesting and peaceful to watch. Suddenly our guide, Mayezi, and tracker, Mr. Moe, said they heard something. We all quieted down to listen, and in the distance we heard lions roaring. Mayezi immediately had a very good idea of what was happening. He told us this was Sebastian and Old Gun. They’d heard the intruder male calling his friends at the airstrip, and they were not happy about their territory still being challenged. They were picking a fight!
Mayezi started the truck and drove us in the direction of the roaring. Barely 10 minutes later, he put us in position to watch Seb and OG emerge from some tall grass, heading toward the airstrip. The time was about 7:25 AM, and for the next hour and a half we were going to witness some excitement.
We followed Seb and OG as they closed in on the airstrip. Meanwhile, another truck with a guide, tracker, and guests kept an eye on the intruders, and we heard them roaring their answer back at Seb and OG. It was on! Seb and OG kept closing, and the intruder kept roaring back. Then came a surprise – Seb and OG retreated! What the hell! Did I just see them pick a fight and then back out? Were their mouths writing checks that their bodies couldn’t cash?? We followed them as they retreated, and I was pretty confused about everything. But, after a few minutes, they stopped and thought about it and decided to resume their original plan! They turned and went back in the direction of the intruders. My favorite quote of the day, between our guide, Mayezi, and the guide in the other truck who’s name I’m sorry to say I can’t remember, via the radio:
Mayezi: Our team is reloaded, what about yours?
Other guide: Our team only has one player!
We all burst out laughing. The injured males had wisely decided that they didn’t want to have a fight today, leaving just their healthy friend to answer the call. He was in no mood to have this fight all by himself, so he led Seb and OG on a long chase, and in doing so, he may have saved the lives of his injured friends. If Seb and OG found them, I think they would have killed them.
Now we spent time leap-frogging with Seb and OG. We’d watch them jogging for a while, then we’d start the truck and drive ahead of them, let them catch up, and repeat. This was not as easy as it sounds. They were jogging through shrubby trees that we often couldn’t drive through, so Mayezi had to drive ahead and guess where they would emerge, and listen to their roars for clues. He did a great job, and we never lost them. We weren’t sure how much distance was between them and the intruder, but we soon found out.
Eventually we pulled ahead and waited for Seb and OG to catch up to us. We saw a male lion trotting in our direction, and initially I thought it was either Seb or OG, but I was wrong. After he passed, breathing heavily, I heard two distinct roars coming from behind him, meaning this was the intruder and Seb and OG were closing in. Now I started to get nervous that we might see him get killed. As exciting as it was, I didn’t want anyone to really get hurt. But this was the real deal, they weren’t just putting on a show.
The pursuit continued, and Seb and OG got closer and closer. The lone intruder could not outrun them, nor could he hide. Soon we saw what we’d been waiting for – Seb and OG were within sight of him, maybe only 100 – 200 feet behind. One of them decided that now was the time. He charged!
Mayezi hit the gas, this was the final sprint and he wanted us to see what would happen. We were off-road at this point, and let me tell you, there is nothing more bumpy than a safari truck pummeling through the brush during a chase! We were bouncing all over, everyone holding on to rails so we wouldn’t fly out of the truck, all the while keeping our eyes on the action in front of us. Seb and OG were not happy at all, and they were just feet behind the intruder, all running at top speed now, with us behind. What was going to happen?!
Well, I can’t tell you for sure what exactly happened, because it happened behind a bush! Seb or OG, I don’t know who it was, caught up to the intruder just as he ran passed a small bush. I heard roaring and saw dust flying – there was a one-on-one fight happening! Suddenly we came upon a ditch, Mayezi tried to slow down but it was too late, was smashed into it headfirst and we all went flying! The truck came to a stop and stalled, I dropped my cell phone that I was filming with, and there was.. quiet. We told Mayezi we were ok, he restarted the truck and quickly caught us up to the scene, and what did we see? The intruder had escaped! OG and Seb were finishing up the chase, but they’d allowed him to escape with his life. We followed them as they found a shady bush to catch their breath under. They were exhausted, and by now it was very hot as well. They were breathing heavily, and soon decided that our trucks provided better shade than their bush, and they came and plopped down right next to us. AMAZING!
I wish I could say how much ground the chase had covered, but unfortunately I screwed up my GPS tracking and I have no record of our movements that day. But my guess is 2 – 5 miles were covered, over about an hour and a half.
In the truck with us was a couple from the UK, who had been travelling to Botswana 1 – 2 times a year for the past 19 years. Later, during a morning break for coffee / biscuits, I asked them a question I suspected I knew the answer to: had they ever witnessed this before? Their answer: “never from start to finish.” That should give you an idea of how rare, and how difficult it is, to witness this sort of thing. And of how lucky I feel to have seen it.
There is nothing like the wild.