Suicide month: A lion pride's battle with 2 buffalo in Zambia's Sth Luangwa NP (Part 1)

I thought it was about time to contribute to the story sequence forum, now that all my PC/HDD storage issues have been addressed.

5.41pm.
The no-tip tailed female from the Nsefu pride was the first to spot 2 male Buffalo drinking on the other side of the river and promptly crossed, followed by the others.
(would have preferred the whole reflection, but the shoreline was coming into play)
What followed that evening was the stalking, attacking and eventual death of BOTH buffalo!
An amazing scene to witness!


ALL images taken @ Fish Eagle crossing, Luangwa River, Sth Luangwa NP- Zambia late Oct 2011

D3s 500VR 1/400s f/5.6 ISO3200 F/F






5.44pm
By now all but the 3 pride coalition males had buffalo on their mind.

D3s 500VR 1/320s f/5.6 ISO3200 F/F







Again, deliberately keeping focus on the central lion as she had my attention.
D3s 500VR 1/400s f/5.6 ISO3200 F/F








5.46pm
The pride were now closing the gap rapidly. (the other dagga boy is just out of frame, upper left)
At this stage we were sure both knew they were being stalked, but they seemed to defiantly stand their ground.

D3s 500VR 1/640s f/4 ISO6400 -cropped (top & bottom only) to pano. I now needed to up the ISO to 6400 & f/4 in order to keep a reasonable S/S.







5.48pm. +temp still hovering close to 105F/40C!
The activity was really ramping up now, as the no tail tip female the best & most experienced hunter of the pride led the way by
climbing on the back of the first buffalo.
At this stage there were 3 adult females and 4 sub adults in the thick of it.

D3s 500VR 1/400s f/4 ISO6400 -cropped (top & bottom only) to pano.





We sat back and observed from a distance............. but now with heart/excitement level racing :bg3: I needed to be closer.
D3s 500VR 1/400s f/4 ISO6400 -cropped (top & bottom only) to pano.



Cheers
Marc

Hello Marc, and Welcome to the Story Sequences Forum! What a lovely surprise:w3 I knew you had something special and it was worth the wait, so a big Thank You from me:5. I am sorry to come in late to this, in fact I am a bit late to comment everywhere these days - unable to squeeze a few minutes to go online during the day because of work demands and I only get to my big screen in the evenings... so bear with me please...

Awesome sighting and story from the beginning to the end, whew, the concentration on the lions' faces... The muzzle of that young chap in image no. 3 says it all: "...we're gonna have a feast tonight, like mom said...". Those poor Dagga Boys did not stand a chance, the images tell us they were completely unaware of the hunters stalking them. I love all frames - cannot pick a favourite really, they are all packed with action and the characters participate to this build-up which culminates with a rather tragic ending - the death of the two old Dagga Boys.

According to Forum rules we must limit our Sequences to 5 images, but I cannot ask you to take any one frame away dear Marc, there's great continuity to your story here and I love it as is, just please remember in the future...I so look forward to more, this was indeed very exciting to view - as you know I love lions tremendously and they are such great subjects to photograph because of their behaviour and facial expressions! Once again thank you so much, selecting and processing multiple frames takes quite of bit of time and requires some "planning" and "plotting" - I really appreciate your contribution:5

Wishing you a lovely evening (you made MY evening!),

Wow! It must be so amazing to get to see lions hunting! And to be able to capture it is wonderful! Well done!

Hi Marc - Super sequence. Well done.

TFS,
Rachel

What a riveting sequence of images, Marc. The lioness in the water is a good teaser to start, and the last image is the most powerful for me.

Great story and sequence mate, remember some of these well.
I like the last one, even with the "further positioning"...