“We had booked a houseboat on Lake Kariba to celebrate my dad’s 70th birthday. We were to spend an entire week on the boat, with the promise of sightings of wildlife from the comfort of our boat. Little did we know that the best of our sightings would take place on our very first morning.”
“Our first boat safari yielded buffaloes and elephants, and for us, that was already pretty amazing. But as we were heading back to the main boat, we noticed some movement and activity on Fothergill Island, which was about 500 meters away. It appeared to be lions from the distance, and as we got closer, it became clear! 22 lions hunting a massive herd of impala.”
“The lions were all split up and half surrounded the herd while the others sat in ambush close to the water’s edge; this resulted in chaos. The herd began scattering and running in all directions. Some of the impala came within inches of being caught, while others managed to make a safe escape.”
“The lions waiting in ambush were so eager to catch an impala that they were trying to grab them in midair! Luckily for the impala, lions are not as agile as leopards, so catching their prey midair is not that easy. However, one unlucky impala chose the wrong escape path, and things ended very badly for him.”
“The lions seemed to, at this point, all lock into one impala, and their attention was focused. The impala thought that it could make a quick escape by running along the water’s edge. It picked up speed and ran straight ahead, missing the first and second lions. But when it tried to dodge the third lion, it jumped, and so did the lion.”
“Before all four of its legs could leave the ground, it was down! And one by one, the lions came running in to have a piece of the meal. A small antelope for 22 lions doesn’t last very long, so they all knew they had to grab what they could while it was still there.”
