Many people have a bucket list. Things to do and see or places to go before they die. Our sighting last week was something so rarely witnessed in the bush that nobody would sensibly put it on their list, knowing how remote their chances of seeing it to be: A lioness ferrying her newborn cubs from one den-site to another, carrying them each in her mouth, before returning for the next one.
The Sparta lioness carries one of her cubs across a clearing on her way to her new den site - James Tyrrell
A brilliant spot by Candy, one of my guests, revealed the lioness to us, walking about 50 meters to our right in a dense thicket. Reversing quickly, I managed to get a brief view of her back as she crossed a gap in the bushes, but we failed to find her again after we took the vehicle in after her. We guessed that she was one of the Sparta lionesses, most likely returning to the pride from a den-site, as we were fairly certain that her 10-day absence from the other four females meant she had given birth somewhere.
Driving around to a road further along her anticipated line of march, we failed to find her or any tracks in the sand, so we headed back to where we had last seen her to try and establish in which direction she had walked. Myself and senior tracker Eckson Sibuyi left the Land-rover and walked towards the thicket, stepping down into a wide drainage line scarcely 20m from the vehicle. As we descended, we both glanced to our left at the same time, and froze immediately as we saw the lioness staring at us from about 50 meters away. She was coming towards us, moving in the direction we had originally seen her going, but she was now further back towards where she had come from. The small bundle she was holding in her mouth immediately sent our pulses racing, as it was very evident that it was a tiny, tiny cub.
Sparta Lioness carrying her cub - James Tyrrell
We immediately retreated back to the vehicle, and watched her calmly walk by in front of us, barely glancing in our direction, and vanish once more into the thicket where she had first disappeared. I was pretty incoherent with excitement by this time, scarcely believing what we were so privileged to be seeing. Again losing her in the dense bush, we were amazed to see her re-emerge after only about 5 minutes. She was clearly going back for another cub. We re-positioned ourselves on the road with a clear view in both directions, and were rewarded when she returned after a further 5 mins, bearing another precious cargo. She didn’t come back out and so we moved off, absolutely speechless.
The Lioness disappears into the scrub with her young cub - James Tyrrell
I am now considering handing in my notice, as I know that as long as I work in the bush I will most likely never again see something so special!
Written and Photographed by: James Tyrrell
Filmed by: Derek Pollard
Abolutely Incredible James!
What brilliant photos – and yes, I have never seen anything like this before, what a life stopping moment. I have seen a wild dog kill and a 3 day old ele but never a lioness carrying her cubs. I am going to put that at the top of my wish list….. and expect to be disappointed!
Unbelievable! Extremely jealous! Well done JT.
Good work JT-easy to mess up opportunities like that in the excitement of the moment, which you certainly did not do. Much envy!
Those cubs are incredible to see. Hard to believe they grow up into such phenomenal predators. Good to see the Majingilane lineage coming through stronger than ever.. Well done.
Adam,
I suppose these could be the cubs from the mating we saw in mid-August. Very cool.
Ed these may well be the ones. Very exciting to see. Well done James on a magical photo! Print that out large and put it on the wall forever
Wow! This is now on my bucket list!!
Incredible…wish I had been there.
OMG. The planets aligned for those shots, you lucky dog. But great photography!!!
Amazing! Thank you!
We celebrated with amarula & coffee immediately after. An amazing experience–especially considering it was my 2nd drive in the bush….ever! What a great way to spend the last day of 2011. Good luck beating this one in 2012, James.
There are no words for how incredibly exciting this is. You must have been trying not to jump out of your skin! Very, very jealous, James. Well done to you and Ecks for a) not getting killed while tracking her on foot, b) maneuvering to not miss the show and c) remembering to take pictures! Thank you so much for sharing!! ….P.S. you’re not allowed to resign until after my next visit. 🙂
You beat me to it…Mike.paredes…OMG! We got to see four-month old cubs in their first human sighting, and sadly got to follow one of the cubs, who we affectionately named Shayne, miraculously survive 5 weeks on his own and then be killed by one his own elders. This is amazing and now I know there are new cubs to follow and hopefully survive until I return to see them in person. Well done James.
Absolutely fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing – you folks are so lucky. All we talk about lately is how wonderful our time was there and how nothing else will probably ever compare. You told the story so exquisitely that I can feel the shivers as if I witnessed it myself. I can’t stop looking at the photos!
Great shots! May I ask what camera was used??
Morty, I was shooting with a Canon 1000D which is a pretty entry-level body, but the lens was decent, a Canon 70-200mm f4 IS USM. Not quite as good as the 2.8 but still more than adequate for this situation as the light was fine. Luckily the lioness wasn’t too far away either, so the small amount of cropping on the final photo did not affect the quality of the image.
INCREDIBLE SHOT JT VERY EXCITING TO SEE VERY JT WELL DONE
Great moment. Does this mean both the older Sparta lionesses have cubs now? There were two cubs born in late Sept 2011? as well? How many in total now? Thanks heaps.
I love Londolozi, but this story was a bit overhyped.
I disagree Kion, it is an incredible experience to be able to witness brand new lions cub in the wilderness and I feel that the story captured the excitement and emotion of this event for many people. What part did you feel was overhyped? rich
Kion, the magic of the bush is that everyone has their favourite animal or bird or tree, and something that can be amazing for one person can be boring for another. It is the individual emotions or play on your senses that can make something incredible for the individual, as your own experience is completely subjective.
This is by far and away, for me at least, the best thing I have ever seen in the bush, and I am pretty confident it will remain so!
Like Rich, I would also be interested to know why you feel that the story was overhyped, as this is certainly NOT something that you see every day…
From the title of the post I expected something of such a rarity and intrigue as “Battle at Kruger” or something like that. Though of course it’s very rare to see on safari (unless you spend a lot of time out there, know the pregnant females, and look for them), females carrying their newborn cubs between dens is something that happens, well, every time that a female has newborn cubs…quite a few times.
Still, I do think this sighting is cool and that the lioness was so relaxed even with those guys out of the jeep. It amazes me how savage the animals can be with one another, but because the animals are accustomed now to jeeps and people, and modern day (and looking) humans are not part of the evolutionary hard wiring of their brains which register prey, predator, or competitor, like sharks in the ocean, they typically ignore humans unless the humans act really silly.
I personally feel that to see a lioness carrying her new born cubs is a more special moment then the much HYPED ‘Battle of the Kruger’. Thats just my opinion.
I don’t know anything about ‘the Battle’ to which you refer…but I find it amazing ANYTIME I see these lions being as gentle, caring and tender as they are with their cubs and prides. Everyone knows they CAN be brutal and are amazing preditors…and obviously they battle and on occasion, eat their own’, but to witness this in pics and on video, is special! I can’t imagine how amazing it was in person! Congrats to all for spotting and photgraphing and THANKS AGAIN for sharing!
Thank you for sharing this treasure with us. My smile can hardly fit in the room. So glad you were able to capture the moment. May the little ones live long healthy lives.
Amazing. When I went to Africa I finally saw two lions on day 8 out of the 10 days that I was there. When I did see them they hid in the bush! You are so lucky to have seen this lioness move her cubs as they are so elusive. Thanks so much for sharing your pictures and writing your blogs. I look forward to it everyday.
What an amazing experience! To see a lioness carrying her new born cub… Makes me want to visit Londolozi again.
Tyrell… Unbelievable. That is something Ive always dreamed of seeing. Well done
EPIC James! You didn’t tell us about this. Thanks again we had a fantastic time, will definitely be back!
JT, INSANE, INSANE sighting!
All that clean living of yours finally paying off!
Great shots!
To anyone that thinks this sighting was over hyped…I was there with my family as we watched this lioness carry her cub across the road. It was the most exciting thing we’d ever seen, poignant and special. Gave us all goosebumps. I knew it was very special, when our guide Rich F. turned round, and with tears in his eyes expressed that in ten years of being a guide he had never witnessed such a sighting. So over-hyped?? I think NOT, it was a privilege to have been there at that very moment. Nature…never disappoints!
Wow, each time there was a new paragraph or photograph I got a whole set of shivers run all over my body. That is unbelievable. And a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience. The man in the video is right: “Stunning” 🙂
Can you explain a bit why it is so rare? <3