Walking with lions

This past weekend we stayed at Ukutula Lodge which is a little over an hour from our home.  The lodge is best known for it's lion interactions.  Once arriving and checking into our own chalet we headed out to see the baby lion cubs first.  There were about 7 cubs ranging from 1-2 months old.  We spent 30 minutes playing, holding, petting and loving on these soft and friendly cubs.

 Just like cats they played with each other, jumped in the air to bat at toys and snuggled down for a nap together.  Adalyn treated them just like the cats we had back in the US.  I never felt any claws and the pads of their feet felt like a dogs'.  They loved to be played with and I could have spent hours with them.

Then we were off to see the next age group, those 3-6 months old.  Wow, what a difference a few months make in their size.

Adalyn was not old enough to go in with these guys so I ventured in to take some photos while she hung out with Mark.  But as we have noticed in all our animal visits here, the animals love her and even outside of the fence they follow her.  All 6 of them would pace the fence following her, one even put his paws up on the fence to see over at her.  Adalyn did not even notice and just ran around entertaining herself.

These cats would play a little harder with you, including biting at your clothes and try to wrestle with you.  They were not much for staying still so you could pet them, but you had to be quick and unafraid.

After our time was up, we went to see the big cats and other large animals they had.  Our guide informed us that often times they will find wild animals left on their door step.  Such as this beautiful cheetah that was left when she was 2 months old in a box at the front gate.  They did not know what happened to her but took her in and raised her.  She is not keen on other cheetahs, so mating is out of the question for now.  She was very friendly and came right up to the fence and would follow us as we walked along.

The lodge also had 2 bengal tigers that would be playful with the 2 lions in the cage next door.  It was interesting to see all the animals interact.

 But the interaction we saw with the tigers and lions did not compare to the interaction we saw between 2 lion prides.  As we ventured into the largest enclosure we were able to view a pride of 1 male lion and about 6 female lions all about 5-6 years old in their cage.  All of them were born on the premises by the pride right next to them.

The 2nd pride of lions consisted on 1 male and 5 females.  The male was about 13 years old and the females were a few years younger.  These lions are the parents to all the other lions on the farm, as the male lion is the father to 106 lions.  Interesting fact, the Lodge is doing research with 2 universities on the reproductive nature of lions and found that this particular male lion  has the highest sperm count of any lion in the world.

 Upon going in their enclosure they would mostly just walk around and lay there in the sun.  Though today was a little different as the two prides were attempting to establish who the top pride was.

As one male from a pride would roar all the other females would join in together, and as a group they would run to the fence between the lion prides and get even louder.  The second pride would follow in the same suits and you would hear this extremely loud roaring of about 14 lions.  (too bad our video won't upload to this blog, otherwise you could enjoy it as well.) The prides could not see each other as the fence had a barrier in between them but the lions definitely knew who was on the other side.  It was interesting as the lions were technically all family but their individual pride trumped any familial relations previously established.  In the 2nd and oldest pride of lions, one of the females had given birth a few weeks ago and had 2 baby cubs with her that she was cleaning.  The guide said that after 3 weeks with the mother they will go in and take the babies to raise them with the other cubs.  It was hard not to feel bad for this poor lion to have her cubs taken from her but the guide said if they did not take the cubs they would likely be eaten by another lion in the pride.

With all these cubs being born I had to wonder where they all were, which was our next stop.  We ventured into the enclosure that housed all the "teenage" lions, they ranged in age from 1-3 years old.  These lions had not established a pride yet and there were 20+ within each enclosure all playing and sleeping together.

Once again they were very interested in Adalyn but her interest in these animals was not as high as I would have expected.  This group of lions were being taught to do a "Lion Walk" with guests.  For an additional fee, you can go on a walk with the lions.  A guide and a trainer lead 3 lions down a trail as you follow along.

 For about an hour we were able to watch these lions run, play, jump, and enjoy some time out in the open.  The trainer carried a basket of dead chickens and would toss them into the air for the lions to catch.

The lions had done the walk so many times that they knew exactly where to go.  The trail lead to a pond and the lions enjoyed running in the water and catching more chickens in the air.  The guide said the lions would have themselves all licked clean within a few hours.

During the walk the lions would crotch down in the grass as they spotted an impala or other animal in the distance as they were ready to run but would always end up either rolling over and just coming back to the group.  Two of the lions were sister and they would wrestle and hide from each other then jump out and play together.  We even passed by a crocodile in a swap down a hill but the lions were not interested.

The guide said the lions are typically fed about 20 small chickens a day that are donated from a local chicken factory as these chickens were too small to be sold.  And since they fight each other for the chicken some of the lions would grab a chicken in it's mouth and bring it off to the side to eat.  One of the lions did just so passing right through our group of 10 people to sit down and enjoy his chicken.

The guides were very knowledgeable and handled the lions quite well.  I was not a bit afraid as they gave good instructions on how to act around the lions and the lions did not seem a bit interested in us anyway.  Adalyn did not get to enjoy this part of the experience as the lions would probably have thought she was a large chicken so she hung out with some volunteers and cuddled on the baby cubs some more.

After our time was up with the lions we headed back to our chalet but not before one stop to take a look at the baby ostriches and the Kudu (African deer).  The Kudu was very friendly and came right up to us to be petted.  It has much larger ears than an American deer and vertical white stripes on it's body.

 The baby ostriches took a bit longer to come over but then let us stroke their backs.  Their feathers were a little prickly on top and softer on the bottom if you scratched them.  They would also try to nibble your fingers and it felt very much like a bird.  I was surprised at how small they start out at as since when fully grown they are quite huge.

That night during dinner and early in the morning we would hear the lions roaring and it was magnificent. One of the best experiences we have had during our time in South Africa.