June 12

Yesterday morning I watched 3 lions kill and eat a warthog. Inbal and I camped at Etosha National Park on Saturday night. Sunday morning I got up early (while Inbal was sleeping) and went on a drive with a few other people. We saw 3 lions (a male and 2 females) sitting along the side of the road. We watched them for a long time. (We were safe in a car.) They were lazing around, watching the scenery, and playing with each other when they got bored. After a while, we saw one of the females get up and look off into the distance. Far away, I saw some brown shapes moving. The lions started walking through the long grass towards the moving shapes. They had a hunting strategy: one female took a curved path on the right side, the male made a curved path from the left side, and the 2nd female went last and slowly walked dead center towards the moving shapes. We could see that the clueless animals on the other side were warthogs because their tails stuck straight up in the air as they walked around. It was hard to see any part of their bodies other than their backs and tails because the plains grass was so long. After a couple of minutes, the female on the right started running, chased a warthog into the paws of the waiting male, and we heard loud squealing, and a roar, then nothing. Then the three lions gathered in one spot eating. After two or three minutes, five hyenas appeared out of nowhere, running at top speed towards the lions’ breakfast. The two females dragged the pork chops off behind a tree and the male lion scared off the hyenas. Eventually we left because it was hard to see what was happening. A few hours later we drove back to that spot, and there was a vulture party at the scene of the kill. The lions and hyenas were long gone. And the warthog was really long gone.

If anyone is wondering, I didn’t have the same sympathetic feelings towards the warthog that I had toward the cow in the pickup truck in my last post. Warthogs are sort of cute, but I got very caught up in the excitement of the moment, from a lion’s point of view. That is nature, baby. I don’t have guilt about the warthog like I do about burgers. I never ate a Pumba.