Some mornings, we leave camp without a clear plan. That’s not unusual. The bush rarely rewards rigid thinking, and after enough time out here, you learn to hold your intentions loosely.
The other morning, I made a bit of a bold call with my guests. They have been to Londolozi around 40 times, so they know the place incredibly well, and when guests come back this often, they normally have a few favourite animals or sightings that they are hoping to see again.
Tracker, Phendulo, and I were not quite sure where to start that morning. As we left camp, I gave the guests two options. We could go and look for a female leopard, or we could go and look for buffalo and hopefully find some lions following them. I even went as far as saying that maybe, just maybe, we could watch lions hunting a buffalo. It was a bit far-fetched. In all my time here, I had never seen two lions actively take down a fully grown buffalo bull. I had seen plenty of videos, but seeing it happen in front of you was still very much on my bucket list.
We chose the buffalo.
A Buffalo bull staring at the vehicle amongst the sea of the herd.
Not far from camp, Phendulo picked up on tracks of a herd moving through the area. More importantly, there were fresh tracks of the Styx male and the Kambula female woven in among them. Things were already looking interesting.
Moments later we managed to find the buffalo on the move. The buffalo had spent some time on a crest in an open area before slowly making their way towards water. For the first 30 minutes, we couldn’t see the lions anywhere. We knew they were around here somewhere. As the buffalo moved into thicker vegetation and started circling towards the water, we eventually spotted the two lions coming out into the open. Their body language said everything.
A note before I begin: I didn’t take a single photo or video of what I’m about to describe. For once, I chose to just watch.
Styx Male stops to gaze over an approaching herd of buffalo
The problem was that hunting a herd of buffalo in the open is not an easy task for two lions. The strength of the herd is their biggest defence, so we decided to wait and see what happened when they moved into thicker cover. For the next 20 minutes, we followed the lions as they followed the buffalo. We covered about a kilometre, maybe a little more, through thick vegetation. Eventually, it looked as though the lions were giving up. The herd knew they were being followed and were moving further away. One large bull had fallen behind, still trying to close the gap with the rest.
At that point, I thought the sighting was probably over. Then everything changed. The two lions suddenly got up and moved closer. Before we really had time to think about what was happening, the Styx male launched himself onto the buffalo, with the Kambula female following closely behind. We scrambled around to get a better view as the Styx male managed to get hold of the buffalo’s throat, while the Kambula female hooked onto its back and tried to weigh it down. They were on a slight slope in a small gully, and as the buffalo struggled, its footing went. It slipped, and that was the moment the lions won the battle.
What surprised me most was just how quickly it happened. From the moment those two lions pounced to the moment they had successfully brought down this huge buffalo bull was no more than four minutes.
I had always imagined a buffalo hunt taking hours. You see the videos of the back and forth between buffalo and lion. Yet here we were, watching two lions bring down a fully grown buffalo bull in front of us in a matter of minutes. It was one of those sightings that you don’t really stop thinking about.
Almost like this sighting of James Souchon’s
It was raw, it was powerful, and it was a reminder that out here, you can make a plan in camp, but the bush always has the final say. I certainly never expected that morning to end the way it did, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.
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on When the Bush Calls Your Bluff