Mountain Zebra National Park welcomes two new lionesses!

Two lionesses have been introduced to South Africa's Mountain Zebra National Park. The two sisters were brought into the National Park, which is situated just outside Cradock in the Eastern Cape, from the Kwandwe Private Game Reserve near Grahamstown. One of the lionesses is fitted with a satellite tracking collar, as they will most likely move together while exploring the Mountain Zebra National Park. The collar will allow park management to monitor them so that rangers and researchers can observe what habitats they use, their proximity to the males and other predators and which species they prey on. The two lionesses are about two years old and are now sharing Mountain Zebra's 28 000 hectares with the two five-year-old male lions. The males were introduced into the National Park in April 2013 – becoming the first free-roaming lions in the area after an absence of over 130 years.

South Africa: Lioness hunts down prey with GoPro camera mounted to its body (video)

South African animal behaviourist Kevin Richardson, also known as the "lion whisperer", posted a video to YouTube (via GoPro's youtube channel) offering a piggyback view of a lioness named Meg hunting down a water buck in the wild. The rare video was filmed by strapping a GoPro camera onto the animal’s back. Eish!



Kevin's "Kevin Richardson Wildlife Sanctuary" is located just an hour north east of Johannesburg and half an hour from Pretoria in the Welgedacht Private Game Reserve, which forms part of the Dinokeng Game Reserve. Since 01 Nov 2013 Kevin's Wildlife Sanctuary is open to the public. Tours include a welcome refreshment, sanctuary tour and a guided game drive with a Field Guides Association of Southern Africa (FGASA) guide in the greater area of the Big Five Reserve, as well as a boma braai lunch at the end of the tour. For more information please visit Kevin's website!

Okavango Delta: A super close encounter with a 300-pound lioness

Earth Touch cameraman Graham Springer was in the Okavango Delta in Botswana photographing a pride of lions while a colleague of him was filming them from a different position. After a while the pride decided to walk off, but one 300-pound lioness took a different route, walked past Graham and got curious about a box right at his feet. Then the cat turned to Graham and had a look and sniff at his family jewels. Graham's only choice was to stand deadstill and to wait. Luckily the cat got immediately "bored" and walked off...

Thx to Earth Touch & Graham Springer for sharing the video! 

South Africa: Lioness steals camera...

Photographer Roger de la Harpe, of specialist photo stock agency Africa Imagery, was recently shooting pics of lions for his new book in the Tswalu Kalahari Private Game Reserve in South Africa. He needed close up shots of lions and so he placed a GoPro camera in a spot where he knew that lions would pass by.



Unfortunately one of the lionesses passing by showed some surprising interest in the camera, lick it, sniffed at it and borrowed it for a walk...

A warthog chasing a lioness off...

Probably rarely to be seen - a warthog successfully chasing a lioness off... not bad, pumba! Respect ;-)

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