Lions - III (Sasan Gir, Gujarat, India)

UPDATE:

My friends from India visited Houston this week (Feb-2018).  They reported that a lioness in Gir Forest killed two people who had entered the park unauthorized, and thought it would be interesting to tease the lion.  Bad idea.  Like I said, these are wild lions...

-M

* * * * *

Some final shots from the lion preserve...

Fellow visitors, out searching, just after dawn...

In my book, it was pretty darn cold for a crocodile to be out cruising the lake, but there he was (approx. 2.5m long !).  ...  Da-dum, da-dum...

So, when you are a game warden on the preserve, roaming around making sure that visitors don't bother the lions (or that lions don't eat the visitors...), they give you a motor cycle, and a stick !  Not a "bang-stick" (like for sharks), not an electric cattle prod...just a regular stick that looks a lot like a broomstick.  I imagine that when trying to back down a full-grown lion, it takes a stick plus a heavy dose of attitude !!

The native axis deer are frequently seen in the company of the monkeys, even close enough to be touching.  It seems that they are not competing for the same foods, and both are quite watchful for lions and leopards, both erupting in vocal warning calls when danger is spotted.

Not sure about my ability (willingness) to handle a lion with a "stick"...but maybe a mongoose.

 A pair of resting jackles.

The brush is kept in check via controlled burns, otherwise it would get so thick you couldn't see anything.  This probably also promotes grass growth for the grazing animals (and healthy grazing animals make for healthy prey animals...)

This large lioness is looking at a guide that got out of our jeep to attract her attention...he was thinking "look at me !", she was thinking "...two steps closer, Snack-boy, two steps closer..."

Then to cap it all off on Sunday morning, our last trip out, we saw a leopard !!
Not only saw, but had him (or her) pose right in front of us !!  What luck !!

So, we hit the road, back to business, along with this group of farmers, likely heading off to market somewhere.

Y'all take care.
- Mark