The morning drive on day 4 was my absolute favorite. We found a group of lions relaxing in a somewhat open area with mom and dad (mufasa) hanging out on top of a small hill watching over some of the kids playing. We watched for a bit and then heard a rustle behind the jeep. When we turned around the young male that couldn't figure out how to be discrete when hunting a giraffe the first day was coming out of the bushes. Following closely behind him were a few females and the others greeted them with excitement and loving nuzzles. Two of the cubs starting playing and one fell backwards down the hill. It just may have been the cutest thing I've ever seen. There were a total of sixteen lions in the pride. Mufasa got up suddenly and started doing a low roar before running towards the young male. Freedom explained to us that one of the other females was in heat and Mufasa wanted to get the young male away from her. Once he went over, he was very protective over the female. It was interesting to watch. The young male looked like he was up to no good. I can't imagine that the ladies are lining up for him though considering his hunting techniques are less than impressive. He's still adorable though. A little later Freedom found some rhinos for me. I told him I hadn't seen any yet and as always, he did not disappoint. We came across three of them and they are not the cutest of the big 5 that's for sure. They are really cool to watch though. I stared at one eating with my binoculars for quite a while. I can't get over how interesting and strange they look.
In the afternoon we went to Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre. The number of cheetahs in Africa is dropping at an alarming rate. Much of this is because the lack of free range due to farmers claiming land. The cheetahs need a lot of open space to hunt and farmers are taking that space to raise cattle etc. The Endangered Species Centre breeds Cheetahs in an attempt to keep them off the endangered species list. Once old enough, they release them into the wild. They had a few animals there that were rescues such as two lions that they rescued from a circus where they were mistreated, the male was castrated at a young age, and both the male and female were declawed. The guide told us it took them years before they began to trust humans and they can still become hostile. Sometimes I really hate the human race. We learned how they breed the cheetahs and it's actually really amusing. They let the males walk down the road where all the female enclosures are to put them into heat. Basically the males strut their stuff and get the females all hot and bothered. The females choose who they want to breed with and the staff finds them laying back to back at the fence of the females' enclosures and then they let them get it on. They call the road lovers lane. The guide also told us about one cheetah who liked to climb out of his enclosure. One night he did just that and made his way over to his favorite female cheetah's enclosure where he had a late night rendezvous with and snuck back to his enclosure with no one the wiser. The staff figured it out when she had babies though. Now they keep a top on his enclosure. The centre is also home to a feisty zebra. His surrogate mother is a sheep and apparently whenever he's around mom he likes to act up and try to kick tourists. Anytime he came close one of the staff members would chase him with a water spritzer.
Our night drive was fun and we finally were able to check off all of the big 5. We found the elusive leopard. She looked like she had eaten a LOT as she laid passed out asleep in a small opening in the brush. Her stomach was protruding quite a bit and judging by the mostly eaten wildabeast carcass across the road she definitely had a big lunch. We stumbled across tons of Zebra in what I declared Zebra Town. There were a few babies, which I hadn't seen up until that point. The babies are very skinny and look like colts. They must really let themselves go at a certain age because all the adults are really chunky. We stopped by a beautiful watering hole to "stretch the legs". During every drive when there's just over an hour left the drivers stop the jeep, generally in a very open space, and we get out to have a snack and a drink or coffee in the mornings. My mom and I were thinking how fun it would be if I had downloaded the sound of a lion roaring on my phone and played it during one of these breaks. I think we may have been the only ones that would have found that amusing though. During this break I was walking toward the edge of the water and Freedom told me not to get too close because there are crocodiles. I definitely felt safe there.
All in all it was another fantastic day on safari
Day 4 Pics
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