LIONS AT THEIR EASE

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 March 1928, Page 10

LIONS AT THEIR EASE

STALKING BY CAR.

My two companions and I started from Nairobi on September 8 with one light car and two one-ton lorries (writes the Hon. Denys Finch Hatton in “The Times.”) The road, for an African bush road, proved excellent, and we reached our destination, the Serenget Plains, in three days’ easy travelling, a distance of something over 200 miles.

The principal object of our trip was to obtain moving pictures of lions; and this we believed we could best accomplish from a motor-car provided that, we could find them in suitable country. We knew from past experience the great difficulty of' getting near enough to lions in the open and on foot to get good pictures, and our idea was that if we could happen upon lions which had not previously seen a motor-car they would not connect this strange sort of animal with man, and might therefore allow us to approach close enough to them for our purpose. With this end in view we fixed a bracket with a universal joint-fitting for the cinema camera upon the left-hand side of the car, the operator being in the seat, next the driver: the man with the gun for repelling any boarding parties was to be in the left-hand rear seat back of the camera man. We subsequently found that this arrangement worked very well. In the fourteen days we were there we saw no fewer than 70 lions, counting males, females, and cubs, in varying groups, from singletons up to one magnificent group of 20 which was seen by my two companions upon a day when it was my ill fate to be engaged in repairing one. of our lorries. The largest number which I saw together myself was a. troop of eleven lionesses without a. single male with them.

We were cruising along the bank of a dr.y river course in the car at about 11 o’clock; the going was good hard sandy soil, with large mimosa thorns here and there, and occasional patches of thick bush in the river bed. We had been out since dawn without seeing any thing to picture, and were beginning to think that our luck was out, when we came upon a small pool in the river with a good reed bed above it. Upon investigation the water proved very brackish, but we found recent'signs of lions. Getting back into the car we crawled on up stream, and after going 300 yards we spotted two lions and two lionesses lying right out in the open teed up on a bare red ant hill, in a most photographable position about 60 yards from the river course. We steamed slowly up to within 30 yards of them, and turning the car righthanded came to a halt broadside lon with the camera and .450 bearing upon the mildly interested group. The

camera started with a slight whirr of gears; one lioness got np and walked off to another ant hill 20 yards to the left, the other one, after raising her head for one sleepy look, lay back and closed her eyes. One lion »at upright observing us with some show of interest, while the other continued to look in the opposite direction. We realised that we had here the matter for a perfect lion picture, and after taking 200 feet we moved slowly out of earshot and out of sight to prepare more film and more cameras, praying to the God of the mid-day sun to-keep the drowsy victims under his spell. Our prayers were answered. We were photographing those lions for four hours in many positions, and at all distances from 50 yards to 70 feet. During that time we were lucky enough to get a picture of one lioness making an unsuccessful stalk of some gazelles, while her companions watched every move of the game with the greatest interest, and paid not the faintest attention to us in the car about 30 yards away ....

It was clear that they in no way connected the motor-car with man.

A DECOY.

About 2 o’clock my gunbearer remai'l<Qcl tliat t.lie lions behaving very well, and that as they looked very hungry we ought to shoot a congoni for them as baksheesh when we had finished taking their pictures. This seemed to us an excellent suggestion, and gave me the idea of trying to get a picture of the lions coming on to the kill. So we went off in the car and shot a congoni on the edge of the plain not more than 600 yards from the lions.

Tying the antelope to the rear spring by a. slip knot we dragged him down to where the lions wetre lying, and loosed him as we passed in'full sight at about 35 yards. We then drove the car up under a tree about 40 yards from the kill, and got ready to take the picture. We had not waited for more than a minute before a lioness left the group and cautiously crept up to the congoni, finally taking possession, with a little rush from six yards off.

The others came up one by one, and the feast began. Every now and again a, bloodlred face was lifted to take at the car as we crept up by si ages to get closer pictures. Intent upon the business in hand, they showed no apprehension even when we reached 70ft., the closest photographing range, which included the whole group in our 6in. lens. After about half an hour they seemed to be temporarily sated, and evidently felt the sun fo be too hot for full bellies. One by one the two lionesses and the youngest lion walked slowly away, ami lay down under a big umbrella thorn near by, leaving the largest lion to bring the remains of the congoni to them in the shade. After a few minutes he picked up the half-eat-en carcass of the large antelope in his

mouth and carried it to the tree as easily as a retriever carries a hare, but, with a slightly straddling swagger due to the congoni’s trailing legs. . . . It. was now nearly 4 o’clock, and after taking several still pictures of them under the tree we pulled out for camp, leaving the lions as unconcerned with our movements as they had been upon our first appearance in the morning. It had been a great day. I cannot remember having spent a more interesting four hours in watching wild animals.