The morning of 21^st November started with our goal in mind of tracking down the Southern Pride. We tracked them for around 30 minutes when another ranger called in saying he had located the pride at a close by watering hole. When we arrived in the sighting there were 4 large females and 4 older cubs which had just finished quenching their thirst at the watering hole.

The females then started sniffing the air and started heading into the wind, following the scent. They ended up in a large open area with a blanket of new green grass from the recent rains.

My tracker, Mike Ndlovu, then said he could see a herd of buffalo on the horizon. The Southern Pride was showing huge interest in these buffalo. The lionesses headed straight towards the herd with not much cover, being in the open area! The four large females took some cover about a 100m away from the herd, who were now sleeping.

We watched the lionesses, not moving a muscle and as still as can be, just waiting patiently in the few small shrubs for just over an hour. The buffalo herd was now starting to move and headed straight towards where all the lionesses were taking cover. At this stage, there was one lioness, not even a meter away from a female buffalo... In a split-second, she burst out from cover and launched herself at the female buffalo, scattering the herd and creating huge confusion amongst the buffalos! At that moment, the one Southern Pride lioness managed to grab onto the female buffalo and the battle began...

The buffalo had great momentum and threw the lioness to the ground! The lioness did not let go, but instead, took advantage of her position and went straight for the neck of the buffalo.

As the struggle continued between the lioness and the buffalo, with the lioness hanging on with all the power in her body, she was joined by another lioness who joined in to help pull the buffalo down to the ground.

Within less than a minute of the buffalo being pulled down, the cubs came running in to reap the rewards!