The Savute Pride, Elephant Kill

Saturday night, 11th of October
The Savute Pride did itself proud again.

It was around 21:30, just after dinner, that I went down to the fireplace in front of the lodge to get the fire going before our guest come down to enjoy a nightcap. Just as the fire caught nicely I heard a growl very close by. A huge female lioness was standing a couple of meters away. I retreated slowly, and made my way back to the bar to ensure that everybody was behind closed doors. After a while Gwist, one of our guides and myself took a vehicle around the front of the camp to see if the lions were still around before we escorted the clients back to their rooms.

Two Lionesses were directly in front of the fireplace, staring intently at the 150 or so elephants that were milling around the waterhole. On returning to the main area, we could just make out the one female as she walked past the front. A couple of minutes later we all could hear the frantic yelps of a pack of Wild dogs in the area. It was not easy keeping everyone inside, knowing what action there was around the waterhole – but as always – safety always comes first.

After less that a minute we could hear the panicking bellowing of an elephant. Very carefully I made my way down to the swimming pool deck. The two Lionesses have just brought down an elephant cow of around ten years old. With great care we moved the clients to a position from where they could observe the elephant and the lions. As we were not sure where the other lions of the pride were, this was only for a couple of minutes before we made our way back to the bar.

As everyone was settling down with a stress reliever, I observed another movement next to the swimming pool. A Leopard used the opportunity created by all the turmoil to come and get a drink from the swimming pool!

After escorting the majority of the clients back to their rooms, we could hear the male Lions approaching the area. Soon a huge male, accompanied by a female with two cubs were seen drinking around the swimming pool before making their way down to the kill. At around 00:00 we were eventually able to close down the main area for the night and went to bed, hopefully getting some sleep with the noise of Lions and Elephants all around us.

For me sleep was out of the question: I realised that there is a dead elephant in front of the lodge, not only attracting lions and other predators to camp, but also soon the smell of dead elephant would pervade the area.

Early morning we had to make a plan. With the assistance of Wildlife services we decided to drag the carcass a little bit up stream and on the other side of the channel. Much easier said than done.

A chain was attached to the one hind leg of the elephant and to the Wildlife Services vehicle. We probably moved it about 30cm before the vehicle was completely stuck in the soft sand. Only one solution; attach another vehicle to their vehicle and pull it out. So with another vehicle attached to the Wildlife Vehicle we pulled the car out of the sand, still no luck, even with two Landcruisers moving the elephant any further, was impossible. Next plan was to go to our neighbors at Savute Elephant Camp and borrow their tractor to try and get on with the job. Again the whole story repeats itself. This time however we had a plan that worked. The tractor was attached to the Elephant Carcass, Wildlife Services Landcuiser was attached to the tractor and in front of the whole lot was one of our Landcruisers, attached to the Wildlife Services vehicle. With major discussions, co-ordination and quite a few nervous moments the whole train started moving over to the other side of the channel. After a couple of repositioning we managed to get the carcass about 150m away from the camp fence.

We barely unhitched the chains or the big lioness was out of the bushes directly above us, reclaiming her prize. As I am writing this (around 21:00 on Sunday) I can hear the lions as well as the elephants around the waterhole.

Who knows what this night will bring?

Kobus Lubbe – Savute Safari Lodge Manager