jasher

Hello,

I don't normally buy the paper, but when I saw this story on the front page of the Times I made an exception.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7-2386134.html

There is a huge pride of lions in the Savute area of Chobe national park which has made a practice of hunting elephants. While I was at Singita I met a wildlife cinematographer who was headed to Chobe to film these lions -- he was probably one of the people on the scene for the BBC.

Cheers,
Julian

mkhonzo

Julian,
many such sightings have been documented at Lebala and lagoon for the past few years. I was there (Lebala) when a Japanese film crew were stationed at the lodge with Mark Tennant waiting for the opportunity to catch thios event on film

sandi

National Geographic has been running this program now for about 9/months+/-. Quite awesome to see those lions attack.

FYI, as of Oct 8, 9pm (EST), National Geo running "Eyes of the Leopard." Sounds like a new one, but name is familiar... has this been on TV in the UK or elsewhere. If not, I've alrady set the VCR.

Bill_H

The BBC link says this is the first time this has been filmed, but in their book "The African Diaries" Dereck and Beverly Joubert have still photos of lions killing mature female ellies and I think they made a film of it, probably back in the late 1990's or so.

waynehazle

How interesting! and brutal.

I am a little dissapointed with the elephants not staying huddled together better. Some of the big adults should have been able to run the lions off. But I guess their poor eyesight really puts them at a disadvantage.

I am on the elephants "side" too but of course we are mapping on human emotions onto the whole situation. The elephants are noble victims, the lions are "brutal & savage". The fact is the lions learned to hunt elephants because they were starving and as article says "because they can".

This reminds me of some posts I read over on the Asia board. In India you can go on a tiger safari on elephant back. This of course is safe because tigers NEVER attack elephants right? Then someone sent a link to an article where 2 tigers brothers learned to work together and kill elephants. DOH! ~gt;

jasher

Hi Mkhonzo,

I've also heard of this before (a couple of years ago) but still thought the article was interesting (though it's sad to see how far the UK media is behind the US).

'Eye of the Leopard' is the Jouberts' new film about a leopard at Mombo. As you can see from the above, it will be a looooong time before we see it over here.

Cheers,
Julian

sandi

Julian - Then you're going to have to visit this side of the pond and coordinate with the latest and greatest of animal adventures!

jasher

Hi Sandi,

You have National Geographic, but I have 12-hour overnight flights to Africa...I know which one I'd rather have!

Cheers,
Julian

bigcountry

the Kratt bros have a great show on the elephant hunting lions of savuti on their "Be the Creature" show. They have footage of an attack with an ele pressing up against their vehicle in an attempt to hold its ground against the pride. pretty amazing video.

sandi

... the real thing!

afrigalah

The Jouberts were documenting this sort of thing nearly 20 years ago and didn't consider it a new practice then. They estimated that elephant made up 20 percent of the Savute lions' diet in 1990. They certainly took a lot of photographs of lions attacking and killing elephants. In addition to the book Bill mentioned, there are some good shots in 'Hunting with the moon', including a confrontation between a male lion and a bull elephant. They must have filmed such things, but I'm darned if i can remember seeing any of their footage.

CarlaM

John...could this be it?

http://www.wildlifeconservationfilms.com/film_1.html

afrigalah

Carla,

Thanks for jolting my memory. I haven't seen that film, but I had heard of it.

The confrontation between the lion and the bull elephant in the photo I've seen was probably a different event, though it may well be covered in the film too. The book 'The lions of Savuti- <i>Hunting with the Moon</i>' was published in the late 1990s after 14 years of observations! So it (and probably the film) covers a great deal of 'territory.'

I generally find the books of people like the Jouberts to be more satisfying than their films. The films are excellent, no doubt, but while the footage is awe-inspiring, the narrative is of necessity somewhat shallow compared with the text of their books. So if I have to make a choice, the book with a great combination of detailed text and wonderful photos wins hands down.

John

africaddict

I'm with you on this too John.

Cheers
Marc

santharamhari

Hi! The films by the Jouberts have been made a while ago.

The Kratt bros show mentioned by Big Country was filmed on location in the Selinda.

Mkonzo mentions Lagoon and Lebala....in addition to lions hunting ele's, i have seen footage of the lagoon pride hunting hippos very close to camp. Camp manager Jonah has the entire footage on tape (This happened two days prior to my arrival!)

But, ofcourse chances of witnessing something like this anywhere....depends on more than average luck!!!

Hari

PredatorBiologist

I have seen the Ultimate Enemies -- the Joubert film of lions hunting eles. It is good, not as good as Eternal Enemies: Lions v. Hyenas. It came out probably about 5 years ago and it is intense and a little hard to watch as taking down eles is no easy task and does not usually happen quickly. Typically the lions take young or adolescent eles but if I recall there was footage of an adult female being taken.

In the film they suspect lions first tried unusual big prey with hippos and after that success graduated to eles. When I was at Duma Tau lions took a hippo the day before I arrived. Throughout the general Kwando/Selinda/Linyanti/Savute area the big prey culture seems to have spread which isn't too surprising as genes must swap between prides throughout that region quite a bit.

santharamhari

The Jouberts also have another film that doesnt get enough credit,&quot;patterns in the grass&quot;. About Zebras and hunting issues in Botswana at the time the film was made.

Bill, agreed on Eternal enemies...also, Relentless enemies i really like (Perhaps because i hv seen some of those lions myself)

Hari

CarlaM

John,
Thanks for your feedback re: films vs books. I have found the info on the books you recommended:

http://www.wildlifeconservationfilms.com/books.html

Will get started...one at a time!

afrigalah

Carla,

Another Africa 'coffee table' book which is a bit different from most and worth a look is 'An African Experience', by the late Kenyan wildlife artist Simon Combes. He was killed by a buffalo while on an evening walk with his wife near Lake Nakuru in December '04. The book is a marvellous mixture of colour plates of his paintings (the migration among them) and the story of his life in Kenya. He was taken to Kenya as a boy by his English parents, and while he was growing up would wander the Rift Valley countryside in the area of Lakes Nakuru and Elmenteita. I discovered him and his book after my Kenya safari (in which I had a couple of nights at Lake Elmenteita) and immediately fell in love with his paintings. It was a hell of a shock when I learned of his death.

John

afrigalah

I've just taken a look at The Times article mentioned by Julian. Golly, haven't that paper's journalistic standards plummeted?!! Much of that article is rubbish. No doubt the influence of that pseudo-Aussie Murdoch is to blame

John