2 lion cubs vs 1 hippo
This is a rare showdown caught on camera – two lion cubs stare down a hippo in the floodplain deep inside Gorongosa. Even at this young age, I think these two cubs know better than to mess with a several ton hippo. Hippos are notoriously territorial and, even though they only eat plants, they are considered one of the most dangerous animals in Africa. These two cubs are keeping a safe distance but their curiosity is getting the best of them.
Two lion cubs stare down a hippo… or maybe its the other way around.
Baby elephant caught in snare
Gorongosa’s rangers are constantly on patrol removing poachers’ snares before they capture their next victim. Sometimes, they are too late, and an animal is captured in a snare. If we’re lucky, the animal will still be alive when they find it. In the case of this baby elephant who was found caught in a snare, she was very lucky. A rescue team, including our own vet, Rui Branco, tranquilized the baby and it’s mom, so they could safely remove the snare. After baby was freed, they both woke up and went back to their elephant ways. We hope this young one will have a very long and healthy life ahead!
This baby elephant and its mom were both tranquilized so the vet team could remove the baby’s snare safely. Our vet, Rui Branco, performed the operation.
The baby elephant and its mom are both doing just fine after the snare was removed.
Tracking Amelia, the pregnant lioness
Tonga Torcida (L) and Chintsomba (R) – our lion guardians – work tirelessly each day to monitor and keep Gorongosa’s lions out of snares. This lioness is Amelia, she was just collared this week and is pregnant. We will use the collar to keep an eye on her and soon her new cubs. We soon hope to welcome her new cubs in to the world!
Tonga Torcida (lion intern) and Chintsomba (scout) help collar Amelia, a pregnant lioness.
School Visit to Gorongosa
I had a very rewarding day today. A group of students from Casa Banana, a local village, came to visit the park. This is an incredible opportunity as most of these students have never been inside this national park that they have lived next to their whole lives. The community education department in Gorongosa brings these school groups in to learn about the science and conservation that is happening here. I had the privilege of speaking with them about our work tracking lions. They were very curious about the satellite collars that we use to track lions. The more the young neighbors of Gorongosa understand about the importance of lions, the more they will want to protect them!
Explaining satellite collar technology to students from Casa Banana
3 Lion Generations
Wow, 3 generations of the Sungue Pride seen together this week! Cleopatra with 4 of the 2014 cubs and… guest of honor Mozambique (the older male here and a Sungue cub of 2013.) Cleopatra is Mozambique’s grandmother and mother and aunt to the cubs seen in the background. The cubs were curious and wanted to socialize with Mozambique but that resulted in him being walloped each time by the fiercely protective Cleopatra. An intriguing interaction!
Three generations of the Sungue pride
A Little Help from our Friends
How we accomplish all that we do in any given day in Gorongosa… by working together. This morning Gorongosa Guides – Simba and Montinho – helped us check in on 2 groups of lions (while also sharing those sightings with guests to the Park). Thank you, Gorongosa Guides!
Montinho (Gorongosa Guides) and Michel (Projecto Leões Intern) just returning from checking in on Nginga the lion
A New Phase for the Sungue Pride
Flavia has split from the pride (and her 14 month old cubs) and begun mating with the newly arrived Xivulo Coalition. Some of Gorongosa’s safari guides captured this fierce moment ! This male (we are calling Xivulo M2) showed up out of the blue with one of the Park’s oldest males a few months ago. They have seized the core area of the Sungue range and have been mating with two of Nginga’s recently claimed courts – Flavia and Pandora. New cubs are likely on the horizon this year or early next year – stay tuned!
Xivulo M2 (male) and Flavia (collared female) mate after Flavia splits from her pride.
Back from the Field
We just got back to camp after some intense field work to find that the WildCam images are 28% complete! That makes us so happy to have an extended team around the world working with us. We will be posting nuggets from our field diaries over the next few weeks, so stay tuned.
Here’s one from September 13th:
We were setting up trail cameras along the Urema river today, deep in a remote part of the park when we noticed that we had some curious onlookers. This herd of buffalo seemed to wonder what we were doing with these funny looking cameras on their trees. These buffalo may be from one of the groups that were relocated to Gorongosa to help boost the buffalo population that was almost wiped out during the war. 85 buffalo were relocated from other parks between 2006 and 2009 and their population is on the rise. We hope you find some of these beautiful creatures in the WildCam photos!
A herd of buffalo look on as we set up these funny looking cameras.
WildCam Gorongosa 