Asiatic Lions.
There is only one place in the world where lions live in the wild, outside of Africa. It's in the Sasan-Gir National Park Wildlife Reserve, Gujarat, India, about 3.5 hours drive south of Rajkot.
...and it's totally cool !
It's a bit remote, you have to drive down from Rajkot, which itself is a bit remote (about an hour's flight northwest from Mumbai). Along the way the highway gets more and more "rural", as you share it with an assortment of companions.
The park is nicely organized. You go in via open 6-seat jeeps, the vehicles are highly regulated, only 30 go in per session (6-9am, 9-12noon, 3-6pm), so it isn't crowded.
This tiny little guy is a Bee Eater, saw several of them.
Our first glimpse of a loin came during our first afternoon session, just an ear visible back in the bush, but it least it meant we wouldn't be "skunked" when it came to seeing large wildlife.
This created eagle posed for us just a few feet off the road.
There are indigenous people living in the park. I read that their livestock (cattle, buffalo and goats) make up about 25% of the lion's diet. I asked my Indian partner about this. He said the native people were allowed to stay when the reserve was created, and that they are compensated (nicely) when an animal is taken by a lion. Works out well for the farmer and the lion, but not so great for the livestock...
Pea Fowl are native to the area, and they are everywhere...
This termite mound is about 4 ft (1.2m) tall.
I'm sure there are hundreds of thousands of termites in there.
Our next lion sighting was a large female, perched on a small mound, rather near the roadway, resting, sunning, as a small flock of crows taunted her from the tree tops.
This is a "ghost tree", taller than the surrounding trees, it's smooth, white bark likely stands out in the moonlight, to look like an eerie ghost in the forest.
The local farmers stock...(and favorite snack for the lions)...the water buffalo that is domesticated is large, but not as "mean" as the wild variety.
There are 535 lions in the sanctuary, about 600 leopards, and about 10,000 of these axis deer.
More to come...
-Mark
