in the forest, there lives a lady

Lady

The best lioness

Allow me to sing her praises yet again  

First, some photos.   

All of the photos up until the 57 second mark were taken by a friend named Brad who was helping shoot the documentary about the young lionesses.

a moving picture:

lazily a lady lion lay beside me

(follow the interweb pathway below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6TEBUrnTSo&feature=youtu.be

Here she is touring the camp.  Notice how she rakes the sand with her paw before flopping down.  After a visit from her, the sand around camp would be scarred with paw marks from this maneuver.  Also notice how she checks out the laundry hanging on the wire.  She eyed up Matt’s shirt three times that day.  The next morning, the shirt was lying on the ground with a few holes in it from where she took a bite. 

how about a sneeze

As you probably heard, I said her name a lot.  I do the same with domestic dogs (and with any other creature I'm trying to connect with).  This was my way of keeping her and myself relaxed, of keeping the vibes good and the energy light.  It was a way for me to show her that I was aware of her and that my focus was on her, a way for me to reinforce our connection, and a way for me to show my appreciation and gratitude towards her.  

She would never bring the male lions with her into camp, nor would she come into camp alone if the males were in proximity.  Solo visits only.  It seemed she knew that it would not be safe for the males to be around us.  One afternoon she was lying placidly around camp when we heard the males roaring nearby.  She immediately perked up from her slumber and listened, then quickly moved out of camp.  Interpret it as you will, but I think she was concerned for our safety.

Here are some photos of the males.  

The locals and others who had been around for a while told me that although she is friendly towards most, if not all, humans, she only showed such as strong connection to one other person beside myself.  That person is Herbert Brauer, a Namibian film-maker of German descent.  Herber was one of the first non-locals to ever see Lady (a few years back), the first person to ever film lady, and possibly the first person for whom Lady greeted and rolled.  She would wait for him in his camp and follow him around the way she followed me around.  I felt overwhelmingly grateful and honored to share that connection with her.      

The video below is from my last morning in Liuwa.  Lady showed up the evening before and stayed with me all night.  I didn't sleep much.  I spent most of the night interacting with her, playing guitar for her, listening to her, and just enjoying her presence.  The behaviour she shows in the video was pretty common when she was in camp with me.  She almost snapped the tent poles a few times due to heavy rolling.  At one point in the morning twilight, she walked past my unzipped tent door.  I was sitting inside the tent, and as she was passing by, I stuck my hand out through the door and let it graze along her side.  Either she didn't notice or didn't mind (she just took a couple steps and laid down at the corner of the tent).  It was a touching moment.  

 Listen to those purrs

.   

 How many other wild lions in the world would act this way towards humans?

Sometimes she would walk directly at me, staring straight into my eyes, and when she got too close, I would just put up an open palm towards her and she would change directions or stop.  Just a simple gesture to let her know our boundaries.  She meant no harm (quite the opposite, really), but one must still be careful when interacting with adult African lions.  At one point, I started carrying around a 4ft palm frond as a tool for keeping her from approaching too closely.  But this actually added tension to our interactions.  Legend has is that some years ago a poacher sent a spear into one of her front paws (and thus she has one small paw).  She may be spear-shy, and my palm frond probably made her uncomfortable.  So I abandoned the palm frond of the tree and kept to palm of the hand.  Usually I would accompany the open palm with a calm but confident “hey” or “hey lady” -- to which she would reply with a flop, roll, and purr.

Open palm, not closed fist.  You can live by fear or live by love.  We are animals too.  Humans are not the only animals we can connect with.  

Namasté