Etosha Park: A Lion Encounter by the Side of the Road

Article by guest author Peter Brooker

Marius finds even the slightest queue to get into Etosha Park insufferable. "Why must we go through this?" He asks the guard checking papers and credentials. Marius says everything with a smile, so even his direct challenges to authority can come across as mild flirting.

Etosha Park contains over 110 species, including the big five. There are more than 350 species of bird including the Kori Bustard, Blue Crane, Violet Woodhoopoe, Ruppell's Parrot, Pygmy and Red-necked Falcon, (not to be confused with the Red-breasted Karhoon, aka The Suicide Bird, more on that later) Bare-cheeked and Southern Pied Babbler, and Burchell's and Double-banded Courser.

lion

The Park had just last week suffered a fire that had scorched up to 35% of the land. At some points in the drive, it becomes clearly visible where the road dissected the fire from spreading. A lone zebra wanders through the charred marsh and looks to bear the scars of the fire. "No, that's just his pattern," Marius corrected.

"Each zebra stripe is different. Like a fingerprint. But this one is beautiful, I've never seen one like that. What shall we call it?"

"Smokey." I offered.

We stopped off at various watering holes, viewing stations and lodges. One had the chalet huts overlooking the watering hole where elephants, zebras and wildebeests all drank. The huts looked more dilapidated than our lodge, however because of the uniqueness of having a watering hole so close to the huts, the waiting list to get a booking in this lodge is at least a year, and needless to say, comes at a premium.

We parked up to use the amenities. On the way out a mob of Zebra Mongoose, (or Banded Mongoose) scuttled across the green and feasted on the grubs in front of us.

"If you have a Mongoose around your house you'll not have any snakes," Marius said, stubbing out another cigarette on the sole of his crocs and filing it in the coke bottle-cum ashtray, already 1/4 full. "They eat everything. Including scorpions."

We reentered the park. The tree looked like every other tree. The road was like every other road that we’d been hurtling down for hours. Only this time Marius stopped suddenly and chuckled. ‘I knew it, I knew it,’ he laughed. He performed a very slow and deliberate three point turn in the road. ‘Get the cameras at the ready and please be quiet.'

We rolled up slowly and the warning snarl of two male lions instantly shot a lightning bolt through my legs to my feet.

There they were. Two huge, adult male lions, panting furiously in the shade. The one behind stood upright and kept guard. Studied us for a minute, inspecting the threat capacity. He eventually holstered his suspicions and sat. Springbok passed close by, but not too close that they could mount a chase in this heat. The other adult keeled on his side. There is very little elegance when a lion chooses to sit or slump. They appear to collapse like an old man would do in a leather chair, leaving the last foot or so to freefall after putting all the effort into a slow and calculated descent.

"The only person to have been killed by lions in Etosha is a man who got out of his car in the 1970's to get closer to the lions for a photo. His last photo was of him being eaten by lions whilst his family watched." Marius spun this story with his usual but authoritative nonchalance but there is no evidence online to validate this.

The only record I have of lions attacking and killing tourists in the park was back in 1993 through an article now behind a paywall.

Down by the salt pan, a female ostrich chases out a hyena. She tries to stamp on the hyena like one does trying to catch their hat flying off in the wind. The hyena is wise enough to keep out of range from her talons. One correct strike with an ostrich foot could split the hyena's stomach open.