There are about 100 lions in Namibia but most of those live safely inside the fences of Etosha National Park. The Skeleton Coast area has 5 lions: 3 sisters, Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie, Alpha's daughter, and Opie, the male lion. Opie was recently moved here because the previous male lion was killed by the community after he acquired a taste for their cattle.
Today, we saw both Opie and Charlie.
Just off camera to the left is a half-eaten giraffe killed by these 2 last night. To quote Trevor's mom: "Nature." They are sitting here relaxing and keeping an eye on the rest of their meal else the hyaenas will help themselves to it. Alpha and Bravo were the lions we were following yesterday. Charlie appears to be pregnant so we are hoping for a few more lions soon. The giraffes are not as enthusiastic.
Notice they are wearing collars. There is a researcher in the area known as the "lion man" who has been studying desert lions for years.
We are staying at a lodge run by Wilderness Safari. Wilderness also supports researchers and we attended a wonderful lecture given by Emsie Verwey about the brown hyaena.
In addition to lions, we followed the tracks of a cheetah until they reached the mountains, we saw giraffes, an elephant family including babies, a wild African cat running in the opposite direction of the cheetah, ostriches, and various antelope.
We have our final sundowner drive tonight and then tomorrow we fly to Windhoek for an overnight before continuing on to Cape Town on Monday.
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