Bill sent this from Sankuyo Bush Camp a few days ago. He had a fairly unique lion encounter from Sankuyo Bush Camp and goes on to discuss other portions of his journey.
It is wonderful to be back in Botswana and Sankuyo Bush Camp is the perfect place to begin my latest safari. I visited this camp in September when it had just opened and much was still to be done, the camp is even better now and I can think of no camp in Botswana that delivers a better vintage experience. In the next few blog entries I will write about my experiences with the camp and the wildlife of the area.
A Lion With a Tooth on the Outside of his Mouth
On our first game drive (I’m guiding 5 safari first timers) the animals were plentiful with many giraffe and bull elephants providing the highlights until we heard the roar of a lion. We were able to follow the roars and found a large black-maned lion, who is about 9 years old, and with a partner dominates the Sankuyo pride in the eastern portion of the concession (3 prides are seen frequently – Santawani, Sankuyo, and Gomoti prides). Completely unique is this male has one of his large canine teeth hanging outside of his mouth!
Despite the Fang Issue, He's Doing Alright
Three months ago he was hunting zebra and ended up in the Santawani pride territory resulting in a brawl with the two Santawani males leaving him with this bizarre injury. It appears the tooth is dangling from connective gum tissue that must be quite strong since he has been eating without it falling off. In fact the lion appeared to be in very good condition.
We were able to follow this male for an hour and had excellent behavior to observe as he was smelling each large bush that he approached, then marking by rubbing his cheek glands against the bush followed by the characteristic raising of the tail and spraying urine directly behind him right at lion face level to ensure that other lions will recognize his territorial scent posts. From 15 feet away in the downwind position of one marking we were all able to make an olfactory memory of the pungent lion scent, perhaps awakening an ancient recognition when such a smell might have dictated our own course of action. We skipped our sundowner and stayed in the darkness with this magnificent lion before returning to camp with a group elated from their first ever safari game drive.