September 24th marked Seattle's third annual Global March for Elephants and Rhinos – expanded this year to include Lions in the title. And, let's be honest here, there are plenty of other critically endangered animals also deserving of space on the marquee.
"Language bearers, photographers, diary makers, you with your memory are dead, frozen, lost in a present that never stops passing. Here lives the incantation of matter, a language forever. Like a flame burning away the darkness, life is flesh on bone convulsing above the ground."
"The wilderness is a really simple place. It is about survival, life, death, and birth. It is about living in the present! Humans have created so many façades that we live behind. We have made life complicated to the point where we have lost touch of why we are here. We are so set on planning for the future, or reliving the sorrows and misfortunes of our past, that we forget to enjoy the 'now.'" -Adam Bannister
More photos of The New Cubs on the Block.
It wasn't until our last week at Lion Encounter that we were fortunate enough to finally see and study the Dambwa Pride.
In ALERT founder Andrew Conolly is a dogged determination to overcome whatever obstacle is in front of him; a drive that can easily be mistaken for stubborn foolishness at first glance. At the same time, there can also be a frustrating amount of contradiction.
The same day we went to make some field recordings of the lions roaring, we were invited at the last minute to return to BPG for a midday lion feed. It's intense being on the other side of the fence and having a half-dozen or so 400-pound hungry male cats running full speed directly at you. An E-ticket ride if ever there was one.
What can't be accurately described with words or photos are the lush bush sounds at Antelope Park. Each night there was a cacophony of croaking frogs loud enough to drown out most everything else. Except, that is, the sounds of lions roaring up at BPG. This time I was determined to capture both, and brought recording equipment to do just that.
While we only had one walk with Penya and Paza, and saw Lewa and Laili all but too briefly, we were able to spend both an afternoon and a morning session inside the Ngamo release site, and it certainly had to be the highlight of our working visit to Antelope Park.
I took a grand total of three pictures of Lewa and Laili, all of them of the former's butt. It wasn't my intention, but considering we spent only about five minutes with the pair and weren't allowed any closer than ten meters to them, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
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