While working out in the bush we very quickly learn to expect to be surprised by the inner working of mother nature. Nothing is a certainty! However, there is one concept for sure that we get our heads around fairly quickly. The cycle of life will happen throughout all niches, ecosystems and environments whether we are there to witness it or not. Animals die so that others can live. At times we may be faced with some difficult sightings and are confronted with the harsh reality of life – and death- in the wild.
The two Plains Camp Males scan the surroundings for any sign of intruders that may have been drawn in by the ruckus of them taking down this injured zebra.
During my childhood, I would love to sit and watch many different wildlife programmes on the TV, and very quickly change the channel or look away if anything gruesome was about to happen, (ie. an animal about to kill another). Since working at Londolozi, something shifted for me. Armed with more extensive knowledge and understanding of the intricacies of each species and their will to survive, I was no longer watching something occur secondhand but rather experiencing it first-hand. Each story unfolds in front of you where you are also engaged in an environment on many different levels and senses. It holds you and captivates you so deeply that you can’t look away because you are part of it.
Another successful hunt for the Ximungwe female!
Having been viewed by vehicles from an early age, this leopard is supremely relaxed around Land Rovers.
Now don’t get me wrong. The moment of death is never one I find easy to process but being there to witness the entire process is certainly a powerful experience. From the build-up and stalk to the patience of the predator. The final launch and athleticism of both predator and prey each fighting for their lives and in the end the final result being one’s life being taken to sustain another’s.
The Hosana Male arrived in mid-2018 and is now dominant over Othawa, rarely seen on Londolozi's western boundary.
Without a doubt, one does become somewhat desensitised to the shock of witnessing another life being lost. The more exposure you have to something the more palatable it becomes. But by no means am I saying that it is easy to watch or that we enjoy the actual death even though one is desensitised.
The Senegal Bush Male stalks a duiker walking straight down the road towards him.
Initially seen as a young male in 2016, this leopard only properly established territory on Londolozi in mid-2019
In a previously written blog, Josh Attenborough, Londolozi Alumni, scrapes the surface on whether animals have emotions. We cannot deny that we as humans do have the capacity to empathize and feel and therefore we do form some type of emotional connection to the animals we see and in particular to the predators.
I say this as we have a closer relationship with the predators in terms of following them a lot closer and focusing on each individual animal that we see. Tracing lineages and family lines and getting to know their movements in a lot more detail. We are intrigued by the elusiveness and scarcity of the predators and drawn to them more so than the prey animals.
Whereas we focus less time on identifying an individual impala due to the much higher numbers and less complex individualistic lifestyle. So there is less of a connection to the prey species.
The Plaque Rock Female glances down from a marula tree. This female is now learning to raise cubs of her own which would be the 7th generation of the Sunsetbend lineage.
A pretty young playful female found along the river to the east of camp
The harsh reality in the wild is that animals will die, most of the time these will be prey species such as impala, bushbuck and other herbivores. But we cannot turn a blind eye to the staggeringly competitive world these animals live in. Whether it be intra-species competition for the rights to territory or inter-species competition over resources such as food.
There is, on the odd occasion, a situation whereby a predator loses its life. Possibly having been killed by a larger more dominant predator or through a fight for dominance and territory with another individual of the same species. Or possibly, even, a male killing a female who is protecting her young or sadly was not submissive enough to the males.
So how do we then adjust to being confronted with a harsher reality?
Just like strangers, we have no internal connection to them whereas with someone you have met more than once and can recognize a different bond is established. Jess Shillaw wrote a tough blog on Leopard Kills Wild Dog where she had witnessed the Flat Rock Male kill a wild dog, or when the reputation of the Tortise Pan Male was soiled after killing the Ximungwe Female’s cub and is discussed in the blog Nature in its Rawest Form: the Death of a Leopard Cub. You can’t help but feel the loss.
However, if we had to strip away our human emotion and consider this world as it is for them, survival. If we took into account the fact that they do not emotionally relate to each other as we do. They see members of another species as competition for resources and do their best to eliminate such competition. The young are viewed as weak and the vulnerable as an easy food source. If we stop to think about the territorial pressures placed on individuals and the pressure to hunt to survive, we can then only get a glimpse of understanding how simple in some ways this world is. They exist because they need to survive.
The Tsalala Female climbs a marula tree to try to steal a kill from the Senegal Bush Male.
It is much easier to vilify situations that occur far less than ones that occur often. If we consider that humans tend to relate more to an individual than to a group and in the context of this blog, to a single lion or leopard over an entire group of impala. Do animals make us more human? Or do we hope we can make animals more human? Either way life in the wilderness is about survival. When faced with any threat to one’s life or the primal need to survive we cannot vilify predators because we are denying their innate instincts… of which we have no concept.
As a kid, I too felt such empathy and devastation watching a cheetah kill an impala on a nature documentary, but watching wild dogs hunting impala right in front of me had me excited with the hopes they would be successful. It was a strange contrast, but context certainly makes a difference.
I noticed the Hosana male is marked as deceased this year. Do you know what happened to him?
Great blog Kirst, very well written and thoughtful. I guess we also identify more with predators as we are predators ourselves, though it is very rare we do the killing ourselves, making it a much more “sanitised” process.
( By the way, I think Tortoise Pan also killed a litter of Mashaba’s about 3 years ago?)
FYI, If I am not mistaken, Hosana was killed early this year by an anti poaching team, in a very sad but unavoidable encounter. It was on Wild Earth.
A very thought provoking blog. I can understand what you are saying and where you are coming from however I don’t think I could watch a predator stalk and kill it’s prey and be pragmatic about it. I’m always happy when the prey escapes in documentaries but at the same time feel for the predator who walks away still hungry. To survive they need to eat and to eat they need to kill. As you say wilderness and wildlife is all about survival.
Lions are especially interesting on such topics. The Cam Pan males that killed the Tsalala female are not easy to forget, I guess. It is a matter of more factors, such as the rarity of the species, the fact that they are apex predators and have a complex society. I remember the Mapogo and Majingilane killing other lions more or less easily and protect their pride. Another death that is mich harder to digest is the Hosana male, as it was caused by humans. Right or wrong it is a symbol of a species we put too strict boundaries upon, like brown bears in Europe…
A very thoughtful and insightful blog, Kirst. People have often asked me how can I stomach seeing an animal lose its life to another while on safari. I can only say that I feel privileged to be in their world for a time, that I know I’m the intruder and this is what’s necessary for one animal to live. I’ve not said this as well as you have but it’s all about nature and instinct. Thank you for your thoughts.
You have perfectly described the range of emotions I felt observing a one hour stalking and kill of an impala by a mother cheetah at our very first day on safari. The horror was intense, but we quickly learned the cycle of life aspect, as she summoned her 2 baby cubs to feed.
Kirst, perhaps your best and most thoughtful dissertation yet. Really interesting and thought provoking! Truly you have the benefit of watching Mother Nature as she spins the wheel of life’s cycles daily in front of you. And I don’t believe that you are becoming more desensitised by the frequency of these occurrences, or you wouldn’t be able to speak so sensitively as you have in this blog. Our hat is off to you for doing such an interesting commentary!
Life in the bush is never easy. The strongest and most cunning always find a way to survive and even flourish. Thanks for the reminder Kirst.
In the past year, I have witnessed some very gruesome or intensely upsetting moments in the bush. I cannot say that I am more used to it now, and I might argue that I do not ever want to get used to it, as I think that it would diminish my humanity and empathy for the very very tough world that we and all of the creatures live in.
Also, I am happy to say that I have seen all of the leopards showcased in this blog post, but the loss of Hosana simply stings and stings and stings.
That is incredible Lisa. Indeed the loss of Hosana male is a tough one to digest
Excellent article Kirst and one over which there is always much debate. I read and then re-read this blog, trying to come to some sort of conclusion but I wasn’t successful. Rather I thought a lot about a sentence that spoke to the survival elements of predators. I thought immediately of the new mothers in the leopard population who are more driven than ever to seek out prey in order to feed herself and her cubs. And then there are the male lions in search of new territory and prides to conquer, killing or chasing away any resident males or going as far as to kill cubs that don’t belong to them. I can justify the leopards’ kills but find it a stretch to agree with male lions’ territory kills, and that comes down to using human emotions to justify any kill, I suppose. More to ponder…
Definitely a lot to ponder and I suppose it’s good to not always have the conclusion. Thanks Denise!
I completely agree with you: Life in the wilderness (and not only there) is about survival. And it is certainly the hardest thing to watch if young cubs or foals or other very young animals are killed, or if they die of hunger because of the harsh conditions in nature.
And it is really exciting to watch the build-up to a hunt and the stalking of a prey of the predator. This I find really interesting: how the animals interact and try to become successful. The final stage, the killing, is sometimes indeed horrible to see. But, as you said, it all belongs together for survival in the bush.
And it is really exciting to watch
Thank you Christa. Definitely is a memorable experience to witness first hand
It is certainly an emotional experience for any human to see a killing happening right in front of you. The predator has to eat to survive and to feed her cubs, but on the other hand it is hard to see these beautiful impala, driver being killed. The leopard is illusive and has to hunt on there own to survive, lions again hunt together and eat and fight over the kill. I always hope the prey escape somehow. Well written Kirst and explained so perfectly.
Thank you Valmai.
Kirst, Thanks for a beautifully written post. You are right, as much as we want to humanize animal behaviors, the bottom line is that they need to kill to survive. We cannot change that in the wild….
I would dearly love to get the image of Hosana hunting at the waterhole! I can see in your photo gallery that it is available in a more close up version, but I prefer this full frame view of the entire waterhole viewing. Could you direct me to somewhere that I might able to purchase the full photo?
Hi Lisa, it is such a spectacular image, here is a link to the image on our Fine Art website:
https://store.londolozi.com/image/73766
Let me know if you are successful and whether it is the one you are wanting.
Hi Sean! this is the photo! I have bought and paid for it via the link, but still cannot download it yet……will keep trying! I appreciate your help!
Ok, let me have a look into it and make sure that we get it to you as soon as possible.
I really appreciate your reflective and deeper thoughts presented in your article. Not just report what has happened, this is the hash nature, accept it; rather more thoughts behind such manifestation of the harsh nature and the process of digesting our emotions that were stirred up inevitably within us when sighting the harsh nature at its full play.