Monday, January 17, 2011

Waiting for the Cubs

Couldn't resist posting a few lion shots.  The season is winding down, they are roaring a lot lately, though a tad harder to find with the rains making everything so lush and dense, and we'd like to show off a few of our most well-known characters.

We are anxious to see how many cubs appear when we re-open the camp in May.  Lions carry their pregnancies for only 3 and a half months, and September was like a month-long episode of the Love Boat in the Chada pride.
True love
So we're expecting births this month, and then we can expect the mothers to keep their newborns secreted away til the end of February before bringing them out to join the pride, giving them a chance for their eyes to open, to learn how to walk and run, play, wrestle.

This picture scares people.  We don't know why.
It's a system that works best for them, giving birth to underdeveloped babies in order to avoid getting too fat and immobile during long pregnancies, which wouldn't be very practical for a predator who needs to be swift and agile in order to feed itself.  So we think there are cubs out there now, but chances are we'll have to wait to see them.

For now then, no cub shots, but stay tuned because we're keeping our fingers crossed that they survive the next few months and show themselves next season.



1 comment: