Lion Visit NK Today - Your Opinion Please

IMHO The Lion was NOT uncomfortable at all.. If he was he sure didnt appear it to me.. He had 2 landies on his sides and yet he still drank his water took a little stroll then went back to th efinger and drank more water. If as you said he was uncomfortable he would have ran away with the arrival of the first landie..

BTW he seemed ok when the flashes were going off too!!!

Seemed more concerned with the jackal calls!!!!

I have to agree with you Aquila.  He did not seemed stressed at all.  If he was bothered I am sure he would have just left.  When he did leave it was very casual.

I didn't think he was bothered.  His posture and attitude didn't give the impression of fear or agitation,  when he had enough of the people he simply moved away from them.

Being some one who spends a lot of time in the bush I would like to tell you that you are absolutely right if the lion feels harassed he will disappear. The majority of these animals have grown up with the vehicles around them and are very used to the vehicles, they also have no interest in the vehicles as they are not fed from them and do not equate the vehicle as food or an enemy

Sure Aquila.. I'd be glad to give you my opinion.
I did not see the lion being harassed or abused in any way by the landies or the spotlights.
As Janine shared.. these animals can and will move off if they are uncomfortable in any way.
I truly enjoyed the sighting myself.. THANK YOU NKORHO FAMILY!!!

Thank you everyone! I appreciate your opinions!

That was one heck of a sighting! A real adrenalin rush when the Wildebeest all of a sudden ran and the cam swung around and there he was coming to the WH. Loved every second of it! LOL

This is Penny2.  My husband and I have jut spent the past 3 days at Nkorho and must take issue with the comments made about the lion sighting last night.  We have actually commented a few times on how relaxed the animals have been with the vehicles and spotlights around them and the same applies to the male lion last night.  Its brother/friend was still at the buffalo kill site and it was just in a hurry to get back to him.  We have been here many times before and our experience has always been that the rangers are very professional and won't shine spotlights on non-nocturnal animals.  They also respect and don't pressurise the nocturnal game. The comments made were totally unjustified.

 

Thanks Penny2. No-one better to give her view of the situation than someone who was there. I cannot see anything wrong in the behaviour of the landies last night. The lion did not feel any pressure of the landies at any time.

You only have to look at the videos to see it.

I watched very carefully to see that very thing Aquila.

I felt the lion was fine and not bothered with the landie being there.

I thought that he would have run off and not finished drinking.  He did not run when he was done....just walked away. 

I agree with the comments here. Had he been "stressed" he would have left. He definitely had control of the situation.

It's strange; I had JUST found a video on YouTube that criticized the viewing of the lion. The video upset and angered me....NOT that I agreed with the video but that it was clearly using footage and text to create propaganda. I also noted that the video creator disabled comments to the video which I find to be cowardly.

I didn't find the viewing of the lion to be harassment at all. It seemed very relaxed to me......'nuff said.  

Hi thanks Aquila for this interesting topic.

I think it’s important to note that nothing and no one is perfect, and what we accept as a standard today is inevitably contradicted tomorrow and as we gain knowledge and understanding of our environment we can only hope as the custodians of the earth we use this to better serve this wonderful Planet of ours.

Safari tourism is one of the main drivers behind making wildlife areas all over the world sustainable. If it was not for this hundreds and thousands of hectares would otherwise end up as cattle ranches, and other agricultural farms ultimately compromising that environment and its diversity.

The use of spot lights in the safari industry has become the standard all over the world. The alternative is too expensive and would cost the “tourist” and the operators far too much money equipping  game drive vehicles with IR viewers (effectively black and white LCD screens or goggles to allow the user to see Infra Red light) This means that marginal wildlife areas from a tourism perspective would simply not make it. Having said that it’s not perfect and the spotlight operators need to adhere to what have become standard rules:

Don’t shine the hottest part of the spotlights rays in the eyes of the animals, reflective light as in any of our homes at night provide sufficient light.

Don’t shine on diurnal animals at night, like Impala, Giraffe, buffalo etc. There eye structure is not the same as nocturnal animals.

Limit the time one spends with the animal at night….and so on

A few more points to consider;

That the actual time that any animal is subjected to vehicles and spot lights in their life time is marginal. This is one of the reasons that in many of our National Parks you can go on supervised night drives and game drives.

Animals also get used to game drive vehicles and spot lights as do people living near highways and train tracks, eventually you don't hear them. At Nkorho and Elephant Plains these animals were born into this environment, and it’s in the land and lodge owners best interest that these animals live long prosperous lives’, after all you can’t just replace them.   

There are wilderness areas that no vehicles/ spot lights are allowed, and animals especially sensitive animals can live out their lives in peace.

In summary the lodge and landowners including Africam take these issues very seriously. In the Sabi Sands other lodges and private land owners share traversing rights. The vehicles that you see at our live waterholes are not necessarily related in any way to the lodges we work with. There are rules governing traversing in the Sabi Sands, and violations of these rules can result in traversing rights being withdrawn, or staff being dismissed.

Please note both Nkorho and Elephant Plains live camera feeds at night use infra Red light.  

Regards

Campbell

i watched the cats and jeeps many times

as i watch many africa sites -

the animals have grown up since birth with jeeps and touirst

the only answer to some people concerns with the lights would

be for all the jeeps to be equipped with red filters over thier

head lights and the use of red filters on thier spot lights

i have used red filters on my spotlight for over 30 years

i have used light on cats - coyote -wolves elk- deer

when you shine light on them with red filter they

have no reaction to the light - it dosent illuminate the eyes

 

Aquila plain and simple, nope

 I saw nothing that would constitute harrasment of the Lion. He seemed pretty relaxed  by the whole thing.

I will admit that when I first joined,  the lights on the animals and the close proximity of the vehichles did bother me. Probably bothered me more than it bothered the animals.  But I stayed and I learned. I learned that the tourist industry has done far more for the conservation of the wildlife of Africa than many of us realize. 

 I think one of the first things people learn about the animals we see on the cams, is that this is not a zoo.  Sure some of them may become frustrated when they discover that a side of beef and baskets of fruit and vegetables are not scattered about to attract the animals in range of the camera for their viewing pleasure . But the ones that stay,they stay to learn. And learning about the role of tourism is part of the process. Learning that man must learn to live side by side with these amazing animals  is part of the process. And if taking tourist out to see these animals in the wild , in their world, means shining a light on them rather than aiming a gun ..then I am all for it.

I missed the lion and the leopard too, had a very busy few days so hadn't visited the site.

Just viewed the wonderful video's that I think it was Aquilla made and I have to say that the lion didn't seem too phased at all by the people, maybe just a little more alert. 

 All animals wild or domestic have a natural instinct to remove themselves from situations that bother them. Think how your pet dog/cat acts when kids are around - it slinks off to somewhere it wont get bothered by them.

The lion would have done the same too don't you think, he could have been long gone before the landies had got to the waterhole as he would have heard/smelt or seen them cominga long way off. An if not he would certainly left pretty much as soon as they arrived and switched on the spotlights. 

The lion didn't though instead he stayed to drink, wandered off to investigate the hyenea? calls and then come back to the same spot close to the landies to drink again. He seemed pretty much relaxed yet alert

 

I think what I can say though is initially when you see the video it does look like a very invasive situation. That was my first thought as a person whose never had experiance of a game drive or anything like that. I think that comes from the combination of the loud engine sounds, the people talking and the spot light.

You can see past that though once you notice the lions behaviour and like you all say there are rules and regulations that have to be abided by and the majority of the animals are used to a human presances and are alright with it as they are not a threat - maybe a minor annoyance like a fly or a tick hehe. 

Can some one point me in the right direction I could not find any negative NK comments re the lion sighting in the Africam chat threads I did see some on another web site's thread. It seems to me that us Africamer posters are all of like mind on this subject.

The negative comments were made on other internet forums, not here on Africam.  

I think that the people who complain also don't realize how incredibly sensitive the microphones (which we love and enjoy)   are. All they have to do is observe the actions of the animal, and know they could remove themselves very quickly if they were upset.

Aah okay!! and for obvious reasons they could not post their comment there comprehende

 

If it was cruel to the animals then they would stop driving around and viewing them lions dnt care most of the time they sleep i very much doubt it felt horrassed if it did it would of attacked or warned the jeep away it looks fine

Campbell, thank you for your informative response. I haven't viewed any other African sights, but I can sense that the NK staff are very caring and sensitive to the animals. I trust your integrity - you have my "seal of approval"!