Mark took this video close to Pride rock on the 25th of March. He found the cubs again after a lengthy search much to the delight of the guests in his safari vehicle. The area around Pride rock is very rocky which makes it an ideal place for lions to hide their cubs as it provides safety from other predators. Their are about 5 -6 den sites spread out over the area and eager guides often go there first thing in the morning looking for the elusive cubs.
I dug through the archives and found 2 videos that summed up and showed the personality of Big Boy the best. The first one is at a waterbuck kill and instead of feeding Big Boy spent most of his time chasing and harassing the 3 young males, we later called the Singwe males.
The 2nd video was taken by a guest during a walking safari and true to his nature the first reaction of Big Boy upon seeing the intruders was to charge. Lions actually does not charge that often and would rather just quietly slink or run away when spotting people approaching on foot. He was the exception and then started teaching this behavior to the others of the pride putting the Pondoro guides in more than just a tight spot. He made more men out of boys than Paris Hilton ever did!
Mark and his guests had the rare privilege to find the lioness and her 3 cubs yesterday morning. The mother then proceeded to pick one up and took it to a new den site about 300 meters away. She then came back and fetched the others one by one. Very few people have managed to see this in the wild as cubs of this size are normally hidden in very thick bush far from any roads. Pondoro safari cruisers can drive off road making rare sightings like this possible. This one of the big advantages of visiting a private safari lodge as off road driving are not really permitted in Kruger National Park due to the number of private vehicles driving around.
