Elisha to the Ends of the Earth: Father's Day Lions

On Father's Day, I had made my dad a sharpie-drawn cardboard sign reading "Happy Father's Day!" that I was hoping to hold in a picture with elephants or giraffes or something that is cool and relatively frequently seen and easier to get a picture of as it was already the day-of and I hadn't taken my picture. My thought was to take a picture then send to him via the interwebs (email) to let him know I was thinking of him on the day of Fathers. All day I hadn't had the opportunity to take any sort of animal photo and I thought I would have to settle for just a shot of me somewhere with the sign which is kind of boring compared to the original thought. But then, late in the afternoon, our field assistant, Zach, came to Travis and I and told us that he had heard over the radio (the guards and wildlife patrol use radios to communicate) that group of lions had been spotted near the big dam. We quickly all jumped in a vehicle to go see if they would still be there....seemingly unlikely because such wild animals rarely sit still, especially when people are trying to go see them. Amazingly the lions sat still!! They were at the spot where we were told they were spotted! This was my first time seeing lions; they are so cool and beautiful. They were a fair distance away but there were 6 lions all sitting under trees being lazy but also not caring about all the multiple vehicles that started showing up (as word spread around the center).

So, this was my chance, my Father's Day photo! I got one or two! Even though you can barely see the lions in the background they are still there in my Father's Day picture! Yay! After awhile the lions got tired of staring at all of us people staring back at them and moved on. But as we drove away, we passed the big dam, there they were again!! This time they were sitting on top of the dam (a big, long dirt mound) and we were WAY closer than before! This was such a great view of them and they just sat there again and stared back at all of us staring at them. They stayed long enough for us to get even better pictures than the first round, especially using Travis' new camera that is able to zoom quite far. Lions; beautiful and powerful creatures! What a memorable Father's Day it ended up being! It was the day I got to see lions! I haven't seen one since. We were told it was rare to see such a large pride like that just chillin', 6 of them. We were told that there may have been 9 in total. I wish my dad could have been with me to see them!

That was definitely a cool experience. I am hoping to see more....or any large cats for that matter (cheetahs, lions, or leopards). I actually did get to see a leopard a few days later. It walked in front of our vehicle as we were driving to hang out at river camp after dark. Leopards, like most cats, are mostly out and about at night. We had a really good view of it but weren't able to take any pictures since it was dark out and it didn't stick around long. I was excited to see it! Travis had seen one the week prior but I missed it, but not this time!

Lions, leopards, and cheetahs....Oh my! I've seen them all now, but I want to see MORE!

Happy Father's Day to my Dad, Mark Kayser - the best dad! Love you!