A Lioness Hunt

A predator stalking a prey, hunting it, killing it and eating it is what we generally see on TV (Nat Geo, Discovery, Animal Planet, etc.), but we hardly see it while we are on a game drive. In fact, this is what most of the wildlife photographers aspire to see.


I was lucky to spot a part of it while I was on game drive at the Maasai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya. During this game drive, I saw a lioness come out of the bushes and stalk a Coke’s Hartebeest (mother and young one) for a long while.


She continued to stalk it in spite of being surrounded by about 10 vehicles that were on the game drive (this included my vehicle). The Coke’s Hartebeest did not notice this stalking lioness because of the vehicles around it.


This formed an excellent cover for the lioness. But, the lioness decided to chase even when the distance between her and her prey was quite large. This didn’t work to her advantage and the Coke’s Hartebeest (mother and young one) had enough time to run to safety.