Rise of the Lioness

Rise of the Lioness — page 1
INTRODUCTION Be careful in the morning they said they live the way they play everything in Sometimes the lions come into camp a lion's world revolves around its pride The I had traveled around the world to see idea of a sole lioness taking down a massive the famed Lady of Liuwa le Yoo ah and bull wildebeest would seem impossible but her small family of lions up close laving not for Lady She'd done it before For more them wandering into camp I thought was than ten years Lady was a lioness without probably too close But on the third day a pride a last queen trying to survive in a at Matamanene Bush Camp that s exactly fallen kingdom She had to hunt her own what happened Lady three lion cubs and food and defend her kills and had to do the cubs mother Sepo walked right past so utterly alone the front door of our tent and wandered Today Liuwa seems like a pristine around the camp Then after finding noth A wilderness It is not There are tens of thou ing to entertain them they headed back out sands of wildebeests where there used to to the plains There Lady began to hunt two be hundreds of thousands and there's a wildebeests all alone handful of cheetahs where there should Lions are the most social of cats and be dozens And where lions should reign almost always live and hunt in groups supreme they are at risk known as prides The prides are key to a I'd come to Liuwa Plain National Park lion's success The way they hunt the way in Zambia Africa to meet this legendary Lady of Liuwa walks lioness explore her isolated wilderness through camp meet the Lozi people who live there and at Liuwa Plain learn how scientists and a community are National Park bringing a once damaged ecosystem back to life Lady s story like Liuwa's is a story of death and rebirth tragedy and hope and having courage to continue when all seems lost Today right now Liuwa's lions are being brought back from the edge of extinction Through animal reintroduction conservation and research an ecosystem is being restored There is hope These magical places can be saved even those that are down to their last lioness Bradley Hague October 2015