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.

While we’re glued to the latest updates on the monster oil spill that threatens our shores and aquatic life, there’s another wildlife controversy unfolding in our backyard.

It’s about using dogs to hunt foxes and coyotes inside large fenced enclosures, and fox hunters and animal lovers feel equally passionate about it. Both sides packed a large conference room at the Tallahassee Holiday Inn on Graves Road last week, when the state held a public meeting on whether hunters should be allowed to let their dogs loose on wild foxes and coyotes – hunted for their fur – inside such areas.

Hunters say they need to do it to teach their dogs to hunt. They say the foxes and coyotes – at the meeting, they used the terms “the game” and “the stuff” – often aren’t hurt.

Others who spoke at the meeting, such as Jen Hobgood, the national Humane Society’s Florida director, and Tallahassee wildlife rehabilitators Sandy Beck, of St. Francis Wildlife, and Noni Beck, of Goose Creek Wildlife, say the foxes and coyotes often are torn apart by the dog packs. The practice is cruel, they say, and the state should prohibit it.

I couldn’t agree with them more.

As I write this, the state continues to have a temporary moratorium (in place since September) on issuing new permits to operate such enclosures. On June 23 and 24, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission meets in Orlando to discuss, and possibly decide what do about, the 14 fox hunting pens in our state. The commission could resume regulating them as before, draft new regulations for them or ban them.

Permitting such hunting pens may be tricky, as dog hunting in fox and coyote enclosures “is not a typical form of hunting and should not be associated with raccoon hunting with dogs, waterfowl hunting with dogs, deer dog hunting, etc.,” according to a commission staff report. The enclosed hunting areas, which vary from about 100 acres to 840 acres, are all required to have escape areas for the foxes and coyotes. These escape spots vary widely, too, sometimes apparently consisting of abandoned appliances.

As I sat in last week’s meeting, though, my thoughts kept drifting back to the last fox I’d seen, just a few days before. He was a little gray fellow, only a few weeks old, at the St. Francis Wildlife Hospital in Gadsden County. Amy Darling, an animal-technician, held him in her hands as she fed him with a syringe. His eyes weren’t open yet, but he was so excited to eat that she hesitated to bottle-feed him – worried he might choke himself.

When released, that fox will face obstacles such as loss of habitat and rabies that will make it tough for him to successfully eke out a life and create a family. He shouldn’t have to face being hunted inside a fenced enclosure as bait. That’s a waste – and shameful.

Florida can do better.

You can do something about it here:

http://www.capwiz.com/bigcatrescue/issues/alert/?alertid

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A German zoo, the Serengeti-Park Hodenhagen, has sold three lions to a South African park known for offering inexperienced hunters the opportunity to join professionals in a hunt. Under CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), African lions are endangered but not threatened. As such, African Lions do not benefit from the strict protections on import and export of species threatened with extinction. But a potential exporter must still present a “non-detriment finding” and have a permit for the export. What will become of the lions in Africa?

According to reports in the German news daily Tagesspiegel, the owner of the Serengeti Park, Fabrizio Sepe, was assured after the German Ministry for the Protection of Nature contacted their partners in South Africa: the animals would be used only for photo-safaris and breeding programs, it was promised. But that has not calmed animal protection groups, who are advocating for stronger protection against zoo animals being sold for breeding if successive generations will be deliberately used to attract people to the sport of killing big cats.

Advocates of the practice of “canned hunting” argue that breeding lions to be killed serves to protect animals in the wild. After all, there are people out there still seeking to prove their prowess in the “pinnacle of African Dangerous Game hunting”, (quote from a hunter’s forum where the fear of up-listing lions reigns). But the fact is that this booming trade is becoming desperate for “new blood” as successive generations of captive-bred lions become increasingly inbred.

The lions from the German zoo boast thick, black manes — a prized trait in the stuffed souvenir which, as a CITES Appendix II listed species, can still be imported legally back home to support bragging rights. Bragging rights which might inspire the next bold hunter to make the long trip to the home of a fast-fading symbol of lost wilderness, where he too may test his luck.

It is this vicious cycle that puts animal activists in opposition to “canned hunting:” making a popular, even “safe,” sport out of lion hunting puts pressure on the animals left in the wild — either in the form of poaching trophies in the wild or because animals are taken from wild populations for breeding to support hunting farms. Experts estimate that only 23,000 lions remain in the wild on the African continent.