It is mating session and lions they hardly eat
Source:: Sunday News
Story by: Gulamabbas Mohamedali
Date: 04.06.2006
THE couple can be tender between two matting sessions. For matting there is no particular season. Lionesses can be on heat at any period of the year. Lion move less during coupling. Coupling can be in high grasses or dense shrubs.
The lioness when on heat could be followed by different males of the same pride. While in the act of coupling the male and female rub their heads together and sniff each others groins. The lioness gets ready and at the end moment rolls off to quite a distance. The male follows her to that spot and then the female lies down. The male insists in matting and the female presents him with her hind quarters.
Matting could take place then, which would last a few seconds. The lioness would growl and grimance. The male then moans as his pleasure increases. The male would bite the nape of the female's neck. As the matting is over the lioness slaps the male with claws retracted. The male moves away fast while the female lies down.
After 10-15 minutes the male moves in and mates again. They stay next to each other and hardly move to a greater distance. This carries on for almost a week. During this period they hardly eat. They wouldn't involve themselves in hunting. They would help themselves with small meals once or twice only from the hunt by the other members of the pride. At the end of this period both male and female lose a lot of weight which is visible.
As the coupling approaches almost a week and if this male observes that there is another female on heat, the male frequency of matting with the former lioness reduces as this male would be getting busy with the new female of the pride in coupling.
During the first matting session, if the male lion was accompanied by another male, the other male not involved in coupling but was following the lioness on heat, would just keep a distance from the couple and observe. He shall never dare to approach the lioness while the other male is there.
Any pray passing by there near vicinity are usually ignored.
When the lionesses are on heat and if the resident males are not available which happens in most of the cases, the lionesses wouldn't mind approaching the males on the outskirts of their territory or even the males of the neighbouring prides.
Likewise, the male would mate with all the females on heat, but could chase the female from outside the pride if she wouldn't show any respect towards the male.
The lioness in heat usually moves her tail in the air and rubs against the male, provoking him. The male follows her sniffing the urine, which has a secretion from her anal glands. From this the male can analyse the level of hormone to see if she is receptive. If it's a group of males following, it's only the stronger male that moves in and the rest move away.
While I was at Inkaya Nkalamo (near Otospot) the last visit, I noticed that the signboard which was there resembled with another place called Mopipi, which was 70km away from there. I was told they too had lions. On our way back from Inkaya Nkalamo, I jotted down the telephone number, which was written on their signboard.
After couple of days, I called Mopipi and was told that they only had two grown up lions and four lion cubs. These lions were next to the resort. Over the phone I talked to the owner of the estate about my interest of going into their lion's territory, but they refused, but had invited me to visit them. Hence I decided to go there. My visits to these different lion territories were actually after an interval of 8 to 12 weeks, on Sunday afternoons after work.
Upon my arrival at Mopipi, on weekend and was taken around the lion holding paws. I saw the too grown up lions about 4 years of age to which permission was denied since they were hand raised and also were not much familiar with them. The four lion cubs were about four months old. I went in their pen and played with them. The way they play with each other I took couple of pictures with them.
As I came out of there my heart wasn't satisfied to that I did not get a chance to be with the big ones. I expressed my feelings to the owner but he suggested me to go back 30km, to a place called Derville and from there on the left on to the grounded road for 8 km, I would come to a place called Orion safari.
I decided to go there after 4 weeks. During the period I managed to get in touch with the owner of Orion safari, Mr Thiery, and he had no problem in visiting the place. The day of traveling, I called to make sure that he (Thery) was there so my trip would not be a waste. Upon arrival I met Thiery who was waiting for me. I introduced myself and showed him my album which then had pictures of Sundile lions of lehurutse, cheetahs, lions of jimmy and also of Leo.
Thiery was quite impressed and asked me how he could help me out. I told him about my interest of going to his lions. I assured him that I could handle them. In return he told me "you already have good pictures with those big ones"! I told him these lions of yours were different and in addition to it they were five in number. He told me to jump in to the van and took me to the holding pans.
The pans were very strong with waterproof fencing. Thiery and the caretaker told me that they do not usually go in but if you think you could handle them then you could go and we would click pictures for you.
He opened the gate for me and closed behind me. Immediately all the five came towards me tackling me from different directions, which I did not mind. I was just making sure that none of them sneaked behind me. I did not show any sign of fear, but instead approached them with my hand for it to be leaked. As one of them got busy leaking my hand the other was trying to pull my left leg with his paw. As I would calm one the other would approach me from the other angle. When they felt comfortable with my presence in their den they dispersed to a shady place to laze around.
Now it was the right time for me to approach them for some photographs. As I would try to pose with one, the other one would try to come from my back, hence I'd to be very careful. I came out from their den with a smiling face.
I always came with new autographs whenever I visited the lions (in the form of claw marks). Today my body is full of claw marks.
