Where Were You When You Heard Your First Lion?

Chewore South 1989.

Aside from watching TV.
At my house.
We had just finished building the house and moved in. Sitting in the backyard about dusk and WTF! That sounds like a lion!
Turns out there was a small zoo / Lion rehab right up the road from us.

Kalahari 2019. I think Lions excite me more than anything in Africa. I just wish they were more affordable to hunt outside of a fence.

Meru, Kenya

Samburu National Park Kenya in 1994 on my first trip to Africa while doing a photo safari. Most recently in the Okavango Delta of Botswana 2023

Years before the 24 lions project on the floodplain of the Zambezi River of Mozambique. I was in Coutada 10 and we heard the roar on 2 different nights and saw tracks on one occasion.
The PH’s said it was probably a young male on his own for the first time and just passing through.
We went out one night to try and call him but with no success, he had most likely moved on.
It’s probably a more common experience now with the success of the 24 lions project push100 lions in the area now.

At a zoo.

In the wild Zimbabwe 2026 — at least I hope!

The Hide in Hwange Park.

August 1973 Westworld starring Yul Brenner. First movie of my memory; I was 43 months old. My mom and dad took me to all the movies every weekend.

While hunting Hyena on a cattle ranch near Etosha NP in 2015. There were lots of lions around on that hunt but I never saw one.

Hard to believe it’s been 10 years since my last trip—need to remedy that very soon

Maasai Mara In 2010. Every night, what a great sound

SA Kalahari, 2010.

On my very first DG hunt for buff in SA. At breakfast before first light I heard them…one of my greatest memories knowing indeed I was in Africa!!!

Gardendale, Texas USA. A small farming community made up of 5 to 20 acre farms for people who like to raise animals (horses, cows, sheep, goats, lions). It was tied to a steak on a 100 foot line in the middle of a 5 acre plot. There was a 4 foot fence surrounding it with big signs every 50 feet or so that said "Do not attempt to pet the Lion. It is a wild animal. It will eat you". The last score I heard about it was Lion - 4, Idiots - 0. No one ever blamed the lion.
The roaring it did late in the evening made a fellow have second thoughts about being out after dark.

I think Etosha NP in 2013 with a couple nights stay there and watching the waterholes at dusk and dawn. I know we saw a few, some pretty close. But whether we heard them, not so sure. I do recall hearing one at Addo NP in 2018 for sure.

Coutada 10 in Mozambique, September 26th, 2024 while hunting Nyala.

In Rungwa Tanzania, between a herd of buffalo and a small pride of lion. The buffalo left and the lions turned their attention on us and approached. They eventually went on their way. It was interesting for sure.

In Upper Volta, on the Singou River, in the 1970s. I must have been 15 or 16 years old. It wasn't my first time, but it was the best.

At that time, we could set up camp wherever we wanted in the bush. Later, camps were only allowed within a certain radius of the Forestry Service post (Pama for the Singou area).
My father and I used to set up camp not too far from the hunting trail and we would choose a shady tree for the duration of the hunt.

That day, we arrived at the trail that ran alongside the Singou at nightfall and we were eager to set up camp because we were tired.
We found our campsite using a spotlight and the car's headlights. Several thorny thickets would do for that first night, and we would move camp the next day at daybreak. We had left the track about thirty meters away. We emptied the Land Rover and the 404 pickup truck of their contents: cots, a table and chairs, food supplies, beer, and personal belongings. We were a team of four: my father, the tracker, the Land Rover driver (who was also a tracker and butcher), and myself. Once the equipment was set up and the cots assembled, my father asked us to make a fire.

Oh, I forgot to mention that on the track between Pama and Singou, we killed a very large python (maybe 5 or 6 meters) that was crossing the road. It was killed at the tracker's request for the meat. We cut off its head and put everything in a canvas bag, like a flour sack. It was one of the things we unloaded.

Once the bag was unloaded, it started rolling around and going in all directions. The bodies of large snakes, even after death, take time to become inert. Regardless, it wasn't going to be able to go far, and it continued to thrash about.

So we had to light a fire. We started it with kindling we found where we were, but it wouldn't last the whole night. We were about to go looking for more wood with our flashlights when two lions began to roar (we heard them about 50 meters away). For those who know, they were answering each other in turn, and the roar ended with their characteristic throat-clearing sound.

The night was pitch black.
The lions roared at regular intervals and seemed to be moving. We thought they were on the trail and following it. Once the initial shock had worn off, we discussed how to find firewood. My father said, "It's simple, we'll wait for them to roar and then go to the opposite side to look for wood with our lamps. One person will stay at the camp to make their presence known with a rifle." And that's what we did three or four times.
The lions were there for a good part of the evening, perhaps until 10 p.m. They walked along the trail for a few meters, roared, and stopped. At one point, you could have thought they were in the camp, when the trail passed closest to us.
And then they moved away, still following the trail and calling back and forth regularly.
What's certain is that they weren't hunting. For them to stay so long, perhaps our presence intrigued them, or the smell of snake blood intrigued them too. The next day, we found the tracks on the trail and all our suspicions were confirmed.

It was a magical evening; 45 years later, I still remember it.

The Save Valley Conservatory, Zimbabwe, May 2010. We were sitting around the campfire after a day of hunting and one cut loose. We teased the PH’s that they had planted speakers around camp and were piping the sound in for us, they didn’t think that was as funny as we did! A couple of days later as we were leaving camp we stopped and found a fresh lion track in the sand road between our tents!

My first trip to Africa was for a photo safari in Botswana way back in 1998. The tour package included a few days stay at each of three camps. It was a flying safari as the group flew from camp to camp in bush planes (Cessna 206 and 210). The tour concluded with a few days stay at the Victoria Falls Hotel in Zimbabwe.

The second camp I stayed at was the Khwai River Lodge located on the eastern edge of the Moremi Wildlife Reserve. The first night there, I went to sleep listening to hippos grunting in the river and a lion roaring/calling in the distance. It was a magical, almost surreal experience.

By the way, Harry Selby founded the Khwai River Lodge.

Khwai River Lodge --> Google Maps link

Cheers! Bob F.



The image above is a screenshot from the following video at timestamp 6:51.

Remembering Legendary PH Harry Selby
video posted to YouTube on May 22, 2024
YouTube link