A safari (pronounced /səˈfɑri/) is an overland journey, usually a trip by tourists to Africa, traditionally for a big-game hunt; today the term often refers to a trip taken not for the purposes of hunting, but to observe and photograph animals and other wildlife. There is a certain theme or style associated with the word, which includes khaki clothing, belted bush jackets, pith helmets or slouch hats, and animal skins—like leopard’s skin.

Entering the English language in the late 19th century, the word safari means “long journey” in Swahili. Originally from the Arabic سفرة (safar) meaning a journey  The verb for “to travel” in Swahili is “kusafiri”, the noun for the journey is “safari”. These words are used for any type of journey, e.g. by bus from Nairobi to Mombasa. The person generally attributed to having used the word in English is Sir Richard Francis Burton, the famous explorer.

The Regimental March of the King’s African Rifles was ‘Funga Safari’, literally ‘Halt the March’, or, in other words, stop work for the day.

Funga safari, funga safari. Funga safari, funga safari. Hamari ya nani? Hamari ya nani? Hamari ya Bwana Kapteni, Hamari ya keyaa.

Which is, in English:

Halt the march. Halt the march. On whose orders? On whose orders? On the order of the boss captain, On the order of the KAR.

On Kenya’s independence from Britain, Funga Safari was retained as the Regimental March of the Kenya Rifles, successor to the K.A.R.

The leopard (pronounced /ˈlɛpərd/), Panthera pardus, is a member of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four “big cats” in the genus Panthera, the other three being the tiger, lion and jaguar. Once distributed across eastern and southern Asia and Africa, from Siberia to South Africa, the leopard’s range of distribution has decreased radically because of hunting and loss of habitat. It is now chiefly found in sub-Saharan Africa; there are also fragmented populations in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Indochina, Malaysia, and China. Because of its declining range and population, it is listed as a “Near Threatened” species by the IUCN.

Compared to other members of the Felidae family, the leopard has relatively short legs and a long body with a large skull. It is similar in appearance to the jaguar, but is smaller and more slightly built. Its fur is marked with rosettes similar to those of the jaguar, but the leopard’s rosettes are smaller and more densely packed, and do not usually have central spots as the jaguars do. Both leopards and jaguars that are melanistic (completely black or very dark) are known as black panthers.

The species’ success in the wild is in part due to its opportunistic hunting behavior, its adaptability to habitats, its ability to run at speeds approaching 58 kilometres per hour (36 mph), its unequaled ability to climb trees even when carrying a heavy carcass, and its notorious ability for stealth. The leopard consumes virtually any animal it can hunt down and catch. Its habitat ranges from rainforest to desert terrains.

The lion (Panthera leo) is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg (550 lb) in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger. Wild lions currently exist in Sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia with a critically endangered remnant population in Gir Forest National Park in India, having disappeared from North Africa and Southwest Asia in historic times. Until the late Pleistocene, about 10,000 years ago, the lion was the most widespread large land mammal after humans. They were found in most of Africa, across Eurasia from western Europe to India, and in the Americas from the Yukon to Peru.

Lions live for ten to fourteen years in the wild, while in captivity they can live longer than twenty years. In the wild, males seldom live longer than ten years, as injuries sustained from continual fighting with rival males greatly reduce their longevity. They typically inhabit savanna and grassland, although they may take to bush and forest. Lions are unusually social compared to other cats. A pride of lions consists of related females and offspring and a small number of adult males. Groups of female lions typically hunt together, preying mostly on large ungulates. Lions are apex and keystone predators, although they scavenge as opportunity allows. While lions do not typically hunt humans, some have been known to do so.

The lion is a vulnerable species, having seen a possibly irreversible population decline of thirty to fifty percent over the past two decades in its African range. Lion populations are untenable outside designated reserves and national parks. Although the cause of the decline is not fully understood, habitat loss and conflicts with humans are currently the greatest causes of concern. Lions have been kept in menageries since Roman times and have been a key species sought for exhibition in zoos the world over since the late eighteenth century. Zoos are cooperating worldwide in breeding programs for the endangered Asiatic subspecies.

Visually, the male lion is highly distinctive and is easily recognized by its mane. The lion, particularly the face of the male, is one of the most widely recognized animal symbols in human culture. Depictions have existed from the Upper Paleolithic period, with carvings and paintings from the Lascaux and Chauvet Caves, through virtually all ancient and medieval cultures where they once occurred. It has been extensively depicted in literature, in sculptures, in paintings, on national flags, and in contemporary films and literature.

Now here’s a great idea! Using Google maps to identify the location of news stories about snow leopards in China. Juan Li, a young Ph.D. student  has created this Google map of snow leopards reported during the 20 year period of 1990-2009 by searching the Google News Archive.

She says”  I am a Ph.D candidate of conservation biology, in Center for Nature and Society, Peking university. And my supervisor is Lu Zhi.

I did this map, just because I wanted to know more about snow leopard in China. And Google Alerts is a simple and easy way to collect the information. But Google Alerts did not provide the auto-link to the Google map. So I have to map the news manually. And I will keep this map updated.

I don’t mind you put it on your website, which is a really great website for snow leopard. Thank you. All the best wishes!”

Thanks to you Juan Li, this is a very clever idea and it’s good for researchers and people interested in snow leopard conservation in China that you’ve committed to updating it. We’ll publish it on a regular basis.

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Sick of giving socks for presents? I know I’m sick of getting them. Well, not so much socks, not too many people give me those, but you know, those little gifts where people mean well, but you know that you’re never ever going to use the widget, gadget, thingumyjig.

If that’s you, then what about giving a goat? Why? Well, when you make a donation to the WWF, you can buy a goat, and get a personalized certificate to show your friend, family member, that you saved a snow leopard in their name.

How does it work? Snow leopards in Mongolia are going hungry because their natural prey, the natural food supply like wild argali goats, is being pushed out by domestic goats. So naturally they often hunt a domestic goat instead. When that happens the poor farmers and herders lose their only source of income and will often kill the snow leopard to stop it killing more livestock.

So WWF will give a herder in Mongolia a goat when he loses one and that stops him killing the cats and means they are protected and given a future. Great idea and everybody gets a wonderful present. Forget the socks – Buy a goat for some-one special today!

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The image below gives a vivid comparison of apparent and actual size of these felines. The image is self-explanatory. There are some links to video in this post where, when a lion stands near a tiger, you can have a good comparative view that conforms with the image here. The vidoes and this image clearly explain why a lion looks bigger even though an average Bengal tiger is actually bigger than an average African lion. The tiger being shown here is most probably an IndoChinese one (going by the color and stripes). Bengal/Siberian tigers are even bigger.

Another size comparison image, taken from National Geographic:

This image compares a 6′ man with a lion (without the mane), a Bengal tiger and a Siberian tiger. Even though it is from National Geographic, I’d say it definitely exaggerates the size of the Siberian tiger!

Here are more size comparisons from National Geographic (clock-wise from top-left: Polar Bear, Brown Bear, Black Bear and Grizzly). Notice that, Grizzly bear has been considered as separate from Brown bear and the Grizzly and Black Bear images are actually the same!

If these size comparisons from National Geographic are to be believed, even a Grizzly doesn’t stand a chance against a Siberian tiger, let alone an African lion!

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THE KING OF BEASTS:

Lion is known to be the King of Beasts across most cultures of the world. This is mostly because of a lion’s appearance and partly because of the social structure of a pride and the lion’s role in the pride. A lion does possess a royal look and attitude. Add to that a tremendous roar that can be heard over miles on the Savannah. Also, living in a pride, a lion doesn’t need to hide itself or avoid any other animals including human beings. A lions lives in the open and controls its territory like a true king, sporting a ‘kingly’ mane and heading a pride that feeds him. The Bible of the Christians and the Geeta of the Hindus both mention the lion as the king of the beasts. So it has got accepted as a sign of royalty all over the world from as early as the Roman empire. Have a look at this magnificent lion (Shambala zoo).

Vital Statistics:
[There are a lot of variation in the figures found online. I tried to collect them from reputed instituion and/or govt sources]

• Largest Lion in captivity: 806 lbs (366 kg)
• Largest Lion found in the wild: 702 lbs (318 kg) and 11′ (3.35 m)
• Average size (mode) of African Lion: 410 lbs (186 kg) and 8’10″ (2.7 m)
• ** Lions stand around 1.15m (including mane) at shoulder as opposed to 1m of a tiger **

The King of The Kings:
When you think of a lion, you think of an African lion. The Asiatic ones are somewhat smaller in size and relatively unknown living in the tiger country. There is no significant variation in size among the African lions. In some online forums it is claimed that Ngorongoro Crater lions are the largest sub-specis of lions. But there is no base to that claim.. The Tsavo lions are generally considered more aggressive, but they are naturally maneless.
Choice: African lion (with mane).

Relative advantages over a tiger:

1. Thick protective mane. It also makes a lion look much bigger, heavier and taller than it really is. This is of immediate psychological disadvantage to any animal fighting a lion. It’s downright scary to see a lion coming towards you roaring. A lioness, even if it were of similar size, wouldn’t inspire as much awe. From the fight videos, it does seem that the mane is of huge advantage to the lion. In the only fight-video of a maneless (shaved) lion, the lion seemed too easy to beat by the tiger. The mane is the biggest weapon for a lion – both for defence and for scaring off the opponent.
2. More massively built shoulders. Both the cats have extremely powerful and muscular ‘shoulders’ and forelimbs.
3. Taller structure. This makes the lion more intimidating. Also, this somewhat compensates for the weaker hindquarters.
   Here’s a very good video showcasing lions.

________________________________________________ THE AMBUSH KILLER:

Living largely secretive life and attacking preys using stealth, cunning and agility, a tiger is mostly considered a villain (like Sher Khan in Kipling’s Jungle Book). Moreover, the man-eaters in India have further maligned the image of a tiger. Not much is still known about the lives of the tigers in the wild and hence a lot of the information considered as ‘facts’ about tigers are merely informed guesses. Since the chance of encountering a tiger in the wild is way less than the chance of encountering a wild lion, a lot of data about tigers reflect either only a small population of them, or are based on indirect studies, or both. Also, a tiger’s unwillingness to fight without necessity has often been seen as lack of courage and aggression. Look at these majestic Bengal tigers.

Vital Statistics:
[There are a lot of variation in the figures found online. I tried to collect them from reputed instituion and/or govt sources]

Recently I posted a news story about the exPresident of Kyrgyzstan, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, having illegally kept a private zoo at his house. The zoo was discovered after he fled the country following weeks of violence and recent civil unrest. A number of endangered animals were found including two snow leopard cubs. Sadly the news has come through today that those two cubs died this week. A Russian news service said they were taken to a zoo in Jalal-Abad city, 240 km south of the capital, Bishkek. There have been no details about the deaths to date.

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A lioness begins the hunt in South Luangwa. Observing social animals like lions hunt
is fascinating and in darkness you have to depend on all your senses to capture the experience.
© Bill Given

In October, I had the extreme thrill to witness the team dynamics and strategy of a pride of lions hunting near The Bushcamp Company’s Chindeni Camp in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park. It was a dark night and as we headed back to Chindeni our spotlight caught glimpse of a couple of lions at a far distance that were moving slowly with purpose toward a large heard of around 100 impala.

We carefully rushed around to not disturb the approach and when we arrived, we could see a lioness crouched down just 40 yards downwind of the impala and two other lions were moving quickly around the flank of the herd in a stalking posture, bellies slung low to the ground.

We turned off the spotlight to not interfere with the hunt. After about three minutes we turn on the light for a quick status check and the downwind lioness has cut the distance in half and was now about 20 yards from the herd. We again go dark listening in anticipation.

There is an impala warning bark, then another and another. Turn on the spotlight and the impala have moved off in the other direction and the lions begin to gather together, panting from what must have been a brief and futile chase. One lioness stood up and began to walk in the direction that the impala had disappeared into. It appeared that hunger would drive another attempt and our hunger would build too as there was no way we could leave and head back for dinner now.

We hustled back to the road and drove ahead to find the impala but to our surprise the lions were already on the scene as well but this time we were there just in time to see everything unfold from the beginning. The impala were scattered throughout a large open plain. The breeze in our faces made it clear that the lions were downwind and one lioness stalked directly toward the impala while the other five quickly flanked around the side but as they neared the tree line they stopped.

We would sit in the dark and check every four to five minutes. The flankers continued to slowly stalk along and on our first check they were about 1/3rd of the way across the herd.

The second check they had made it across ½ the herd and it became clear to me that their job would be to drive the impala directly toward us and the remaining downwind lioness would attempt to intercept them by surprise. I was feeling optimistic now and felt that we were positioned perfectly for the action.

Our next check and the flankers were 2/3rds of the way across the herd, definitely looking good, the ‘catcher’ lioness had stopped stalking and maintained her position. Senses heightened we sat in total darkness and then a single impala warning bark followed by all hell breaking loose, a cacophony of stampeding hooves thundering in our direction.

The spotlight clicks on and impala are flying by all around us with tremendous leaps and bounds, then I hear the pronounced thud of a tremendous collision, which William, the tracker immediately catches in the light just in time to see a lioness collapse on top of an instantly lifeless impala. At this point I start the video of a feeding event that takes just 13 minutes for the impala to about disappear.