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Archive 2012 · Lion Cubs from South Luangwa National Park, Zambia - warning: Blood

  
 
anakha
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Lion Cubs from South Luangwa National Park, Zambia - warning: Blood


Last month, I was on safari in the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. We stayed at the Shenton Safaris Kaingo and Mwambe camps (http://www.kaingo.com) and at Flatdogs Camp.

Whilst on a morning drive from Mwambe Camp, five lion cubs spotted our vehicle and came out to investigate. Their mother had left them in the bush whilst she hunted, but the cubs must have become rather bored.

They were 4-5months of age and came out to pose for us on a fallen tree for about an hour. Then their mother returned from her hunt and called the cubs away to feast. We eventually found them and the cute little pussy cats had rather lost their cuteness!

Their mother had killed an adult male warthog (about 70-80kg in size) and the cubs were alternating between nursing on the lioness and feasting on the warthog's soft tissues. They were too young to eat its muscles, so the lioness had kindly sliced open its belly so that they could eat.

As I could only upload four photos per post, the graphic ones are linked to in the next post.

I took nearly a thousand photos on that game drive. Here are just a small selection.

Anakha



© anakha 2012


First cub to find us





© anakha 2012





© anakha 2012


Posing on the tree





© anakha 2012


More posing



Edited on Aug 15, 2012 at 05:16 AM · View previous versions



Aug 15, 2012 at 05:08 AM
anakha
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Lion Cubs from South Luangwa National Park, Zambia - warning: Blood


More photos. All of these were taken with a Sigma 120-300mm F2.8 OS lens with a 1.4x or 2x Canon III Teleconverter attached.

Anakha





a lion cub after it had finished snacking on the warthog.







the warthog being eaten - notice the puncture wounds from the lioness' teeth on its neck




Aug 15, 2012 at 05:15 AM
surfnron
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Lion Cubs from South Luangwa National Park, Zambia - warning: Blood


Nicely done. The first 4 are cute, but the last 2 show natural behavior ~ Ron


Aug 15, 2012 at 06:23 AM
anakha
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Lion Cubs from South Luangwa National Park, Zambia - warning: Blood


Thanks Ron,

I like the transition between the before and after shots - from oh so cute to bloodied little monsters ;-)

Anakha



surfnron wrote:
Nicely done. The first 4 are cute, but the last 2 show natural behavior ~ Ron




Aug 15, 2012 at 06:36 AM
KCollett
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Lion Cubs from South Luangwa National Park, Zambia - warning: Blood


Good look cubbies, and a nice set.


Aug 15, 2012 at 07:35 AM
DonGut
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Lion Cubs from South Luangwa National Park, Zambia - warning: Blood


How can you go wrong with lion cubs. These look very "soft" in a nice way. Great work and nice find. Don


Aug 15, 2012 at 09:04 AM
kmunroe
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Lion Cubs from South Luangwa National Park, Zambia - warning: Blood


the last 2 are my favorites


Aug 15, 2012 at 12:22 PM
321photos
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Lion Cubs from South Luangwa National Park, Zambia - warning: Blood


very nice series - thanks for sharing!

Mark



Aug 15, 2012 at 02:17 PM
waldr_p
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Lion Cubs from South Luangwa National Park, Zambia - warning: Blood


Anakha this a terrific sighting that you've captured very nicely. No.1 and the last two are my picks.

I hope you got some good shots from Kaingo's hippo hide too!

Paul



Aug 15, 2012 at 04:00 PM
anakha
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Lion Cubs from South Luangwa National Park, Zambia - warning: Blood


Hi Don,

Thanks. Can you tell me what you mean by "very soft in a nice way"? Would that be a function of my lens with teleconverter, or my post-processing? I'd be interested to see comparative examples of good shots which are not soft so that I can learn how to improve my skills in photography. This was my first time on safari and it was my first time travelling o/s with a DSLR.

They were shot in the relatively early morning light if that makes any difference to the softness.

Anakha



DonGut wrote:
How can you go wrong with lion cubs. These look very "soft" in a nice way. Great work and nice find. Don





Aug 15, 2012 at 05:03 PM
anakha
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Lion Cubs from South Luangwa National Park, Zambia - warning: Blood


Thanks KMunroe - does that tell us anything about your psyche? ;-)

Anakha

kmunroe wrote:
the last 2 are my favorites




Aug 15, 2012 at 05:04 PM
anakha
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Lion Cubs from South Luangwa National Park, Zambia - warning: Blood


Thanks Mark!

321photos wrote:
very nice series - thanks for sharing!

Mark




Aug 15, 2012 at 05:04 PM
anakha
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Lion Cubs from South Luangwa National Park, Zambia - warning: Blood


Hi Paul,

Thanks.

I have some nice leopard shots I'll post in a few days time.

I have a couple of nice ones from the hippo hide which I'll also post, but the floods last year caused the river to change at that bend - it caused the water to deepen in front of the hippo hide. Consequently, the hippos have moved to the shallower water further across the river. So the hippo hide was still a great way to see the hippos, but a teleconverter was required to get closeups this time.

Anakha



waldr_p wrote:
Anakha this a terrific sighting that you've captured very nicely. No.1 and the last two are my picks.

I hope you got some good shots from Kaingo's hippo hide too!

Paul




Aug 15, 2012 at 05:07 PM
Tim Kuhn
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Lion Cubs from South Luangwa National Park, Zambia - warning: Blood


Super set, I really like how you presented these.

Tim



Aug 15, 2012 at 06:19 PM
anakha
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Lion Cubs from South Luangwa National Park, Zambia - warning: Blood


Thanks Tim!

Tim Kuhn wrote:
Super set, I really like how you presented these.

Tim




Aug 15, 2012 at 06:42 PM
anakha
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Lion Cubs from South Luangwa National Park, Zambia - warning: Blood


A few more photos - I haven't had time to post-process these ones.

Anakha



© anakha 2012





© anakha 2012





© anakha 2012





© anakha 2012




Aug 15, 2012 at 06:48 PM
anakha
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Lion Cubs from South Luangwa National Park, Zambia - warning: Blood


Here's a few more raw from the camera



© anakha 2012





© anakha 2012





© anakha 2012





© anakha 2012




Aug 15, 2012 at 06:50 PM
anakha
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Lion Cubs from South Luangwa National Park, Zambia - warning: Blood


and a few more



© anakha 2012





© anakha 2012





© anakha 2012





© anakha 2012




Aug 15, 2012 at 06:51 PM
anakha
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Lion Cubs from South Luangwa National Park, Zambia - warning: Blood


the last few I'll post



© anakha 2012





© anakha 2012




Aug 15, 2012 at 06:52 PM
eyelaser
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Lion Cubs from South Luangwa National Park, Zambia - warning: Blood


Very nice series of images Anakha. I really like the variety of poses and the cute to covered in blood shots.
I think what Don may be alluding to is that there are a few images that are not crisp...a few seem to be sharp a bit in front of the lions rather than have the focus point on the eyes. And the first shot looks as though it wasn't post processed...it has a world of potential...I spent literally 30 seconds fixing levels and sharpening and this is the result I got...I will remove it after you see and comment
http://eyelaser.smugmug.com/Other/fm-fix/i-8SQ5Xqp/0/XL/697703LIONCubFix-XL.jpg
Number 2 suffers from the same problem while 3 and 4 seem to have the focus in front...0n the log. I suspect that some sharpening and fixing the contrast will make these very nice images super ones.
Looking forward to more post...thanks for sharing.
Eric



Aug 15, 2012 at 06:59 PM
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