It was a drizzly, cool, and windy morning with the occasional break in the clouds allowing the sun to peer through. It felt like ages before the research team and the volunteers accompanying them found a lion. Finally, they found AT1 on her own in the Etosha area with a beam of sunlight spotlighting her for a short period of time.
After following her for a few minutes, something caught her eye. She paused and perched herself on a rock and stared into the distance. Flicking her tail in frustration, she realized she couldn’t capture what was out of her reach, and then carried on down the road. There was an ant hill with numerous shrubs around it that promised something could be hiding. She saw movement and leapt into the bush as two frightened guineafowl flew for their lives!
About ten minutes later, the research team was still following AT1, hoping she would lead them to the others. Suddenly, she turned into the grass in the Tree Tops area, vigilant to a small herd of four impala. The impala started to sound off their alarms as they saw the young lion take interest in them. They stomped and snorted in protest, but AT1 continued to take cover and carry on her hunting, regardless of being upwind. The research team and volunteer struggled to keep an eye on the youngster as she moved deeper and deeper into the tall, thick grass. But sadly, she was eventually gone from sight.
The research team waited for a few minutes to see if there was any movement or sound from the attempt. But there was none. They finally decided to look for the others in the site. After driving around on all the bumpy roads, there they were on the Grasslands road between the Masai Mara and Serengeti West area, all resting. But there was still no visual of AT1. “Was she successful?” we wondered.