As we retraced our path back towards the middle of Masai Mara after sighting the sleeping Lions, a curious Thomson Gazelle caught my attention. While I was taking a couple of pictures, Emanuel, our driver and naturalist, was intently scanning the horizon. Soon he spotted what looked like another pride of Lions a few kilometers away. We rushed to intercept the Lions before they moved deeper into the savannah. When we reached the location, the Lions had moved away from the road. We took another track and reached a safe distance from the pride. It seemed like these four sub-adult Lions were part of a larger pride and they were heading in search of the other members.
The sub-adult male (above) in the pride was the one leading the way and the other three females were following him. When the Lion started walking away, our driver drove the vehicle a little ahead of the pride and positioned the vehicle where he thought they would walk by. And true to Emanuel’s predication, the male nonchalantly walked towards us and we captured his walk in a few beautiful compositions.
The sub-adult ‘King in the making’ came right at us giving us this opportunity to get a closeup portrait before he settled down in the grass close to our vehicle. As he lazily yawned, we captured the pose as the feature image (first image) of this post. Soon he got up and walked away with all the Lionesses following suit. And we took this picture of the one of the Lionesses looking into the distance, probably trying to locate the rest of the pride. Soon the ambling pride of Lions disappeared into the tall grass.
