The King's Pride

Masai Mara, November 2001

I can only hope for any one of you, that you ever had the chance to hear a Lion roaring in nature a close distance. And if it happened at night time, you will surely remember it forever. If you are sitting in the right spot, downwind and quite close, you don't just hear the sound but you feel it in every part of your body.

I don't know why, but the average person who knows Lions from nature movies of various productions, will still believe that the MGM Lion is roaring. It is indeed an impressive movement but it is more yawning than roaring. Lion roaring, like the one in this photo, is taking all the air it can in the shortest time and so spends a lot of energy while doing so. All his muscles are there to assist. If he is strong, the advertisement will work every night, quite frequent and the other Lions will be able to hear the sound from a great distance. (Depends on the wind but in good conditions about 6 km')

Lion's roaring is the greatest sound that the savannah can offer you at night. Escorted by Hyenas that will often join, Jackals calling their partners or Zebras barking to each other, it is a perfect symphony.

Sounds travel better at night and so most of these sounds will be heard at night. But a cloudy day or an early morning tour can sometimes surprise you. The pride of the area of which I lived in Mara had 2 big beautiful dominant males. I had followed these Lions 5 years day and night and knew where they were most of the time. 2 years after I got to know their pride, at night, we were watching one male with 3 females when another big male appeared from the darkness. Everyone was excited, but it was a surprising excitement. One would expect the whole pride to chase this stranger away, but they welcomed him like a long lost family member. Maina, a good friend that use to join our tours as the armed policeman, said that when they have started, they were 3 males and that might be the 3^rd one who was always with a bit more nomadic character. The third Lion stayed around and we had to leave. The next morning we found him lying around with 2 females leaning on his back. But the big world called him to leave. He sat proud, roared his goodbye and walked away. I never saw him again.