When Elephants, Lions or Hyenas take on a camera-trap the result is usually fairly predictable. Its not simply that the former three have home-ground-advantage but they also have many match-winning attributes. Attributes like 60mm canines or many tonnes of body-weight come to mind - and they don't tend to play 'friendlies'. So by the end of most encounters the camera-trap is facing relegation of one sort or another. Sadly, for me, I seldom get to record the match!
Occasionally though, things go against the run of play ..... AND I got to record the game. This is what happened:
We had a number of cameras set up at waterholes in South Africa's Kruger National Park. All was going peacefully until a large pride of lions arrived during the early hours of one morning.
The cubs spent a lot of time examining the camera (which was loosely enclosed in a pile of rocks) but this was just curiosity rather than malicious intent. They wandered off after a while but the pride returned just before sunrise........
.......and things started to get more serious.
The lioness pulled the camera from the stone cairn which resulted in a number of photos which all looked something like this:
The camera somehow survived and took, in my opinion, the shot of the match:
Amazingly, they then left the waterhole and we recovered the camera later that day - with hardly a scratch!
So I guess lions do play 'friendlies' after all!
Fantastic. I actually enjoy those pics from a different perspective. It didn't really occur to me how to camera trap without abundance of trees. Could you not plant a post either in a hole, or just like a metal T-post? Maybe that would be even more conspicuous.
ReplyDeleteThanks Alyssa. A pole or post is always a possibility - but I simply didn't have any with me. I also believe, but haven't proved it, that cameras on posts are more likely to be tampered with by the resident wildlife. They are very aware of their surroundings and many species took about a day to get used to the stone cairns.
ReplyDeleteYou still got some great pics even after it was pulled out.
ReplyDeleteWow! I just can't even fathom having to consider the activities of mega-carnivores while setting camera traps. Seeing your pictures of lions and hyenas will never cease to blow me away!
ReplyDeleteWonderful shots and story. Put a mount on the cam so you can bolt it to a post, pound the post in the ground solidly, attach the cam, then surround it with the rock cairn. Works pretty well for black bears and cattle, so maybe it'll work for your lions too.
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff :) I tend to drift towards the smaller species, so it's great to seem some of the larger South African mammals being camera trapped on your blog!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic. If possible, as you gain expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more information? It is extremely helpful for me.
ReplyDeleteAccommodation in clarens
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete