The Swag of Lion Cubs

2 days ago / Nature / Photography / Travel / Trip - Africa

There are cubs and there are lion cubs.

Watching any cub is a tug at your heart – to see them clumsily stagger around, picking themselves up after yet another stumble; to see them get fascinated by and explore every bit of the world around them; when they ferociously fight with a broken twig or get into a do or die battle with their mother’s tail; when they crouch and launch a cunning ambush on their siblings when they are resting.

The energy, curiosity and innocence that cubs display, all at the same time, is what will make you drop everything and rush to where cubs are. Yes, there will definitely be photo opportunities, but that comes a distant second to the simple joy you get in watching the young ones learn about their new world.

There are cubs. And then there are lion cubs.

Lion cubs display all what other cubs do. But they do it with swag. They demonstrate a confidence that appears to come from the inborn knowledge that they are going to rule their kingdom.

Cheetah cubs or leopard cubs or even elephant calves run around in unabashed curiosity and delight when their mother signals that it is safe to do so. (And that joy pulls you in.)

Lion cubs chug along on their chubby little legs with their heads high and going this way and that as a monarch does while looking down on their insignificant subjects.

Lion cubs offer an added advantage for the viewer. A pride often has more than one litter and each litter will have around 3-4 cubs.

That’s a fair bit of cubs to watch.

They’ll play. They’ll endlessly trouble their mothers and aunts. They’ll torment each other with nips and bites and fight for the best place to feed. The action never stops at their end; and the chuckles at ours.

That is the reason one particular kopje kept drawing us back.

We knew that the pride that occupied the kopje had two litters. One of the litters had cubs so tiny that their mother had to regularly carry them around moving them to new safe places. But the other group was old enough to run and tumble around.

It was just a question of staying put, being patient and not getting tempted to explore what we might find elsewhere.

One afternoon we did exactly that – wait.

We spent long hours there, watching the lionesses nap, stretch, look uninterestedly at a buffalo that was aimlessly coming their way and nap some more. We circled the kopje not only trying to get into the best position to create an image when the lionesses stand up, but also to keep an eye on where the cubs might emerge from.

After many hours, the mother decided that it was time to give the cubs some play time.

The next hour was spent watching these little adorable energy balls play with each other, bite each other’s plump backsides, fight for prime position with the mother, ignore their aunt’s snarled warnings and survey their realm. All with swag.

Some images demand ferocious concentration, focus and an intent not to miss an opportunity. Others are created with a wide goofy grin on your face.

Here are some images taken with such a grin.