Born Free Page 21

  At one moment she became interested in some dense bush and remained beside it. As George saw no sign of the cubs in the thicket, he went on searching, but fruitlessly. Later he found Elsa at the base of the Whuffing Rock, still calling desperately for her children. Together they crept along the ridge, looking into all possible hideouts. They found the spoor of a large lion and of a lioness and Elsa seemed most upset. During the morning she had insisted on taking the lead, but now she was content to follow George.

  After they had reached the end of the rock, near to the place where the cubs were born, Elsa sniffed very persistently into a cleft. Suddenly George saw one cub peeping over the top of the rock above them and soon another appeared; they were Little Elsa and Gopa. Jespah was missing.

  When they saw their mother they rushed down and rubbed noses with her and finally went off with her towards the kitchen lugga. All this had taken place just before I had arrived and as soon as he had finished his lunch George intended to look for Jespah. Naturally I went with him.

  About an hour later Elsa appeared at the foot of the Big Rock and gave me a most heartening welcome. As I was brushing off the tsetse flies from her coat and dressing her wounds, the two little cubs peeped at me from a distance of about sixty yards and then ran off. When I began to rub the M and B powder into Elsa’s injuries I found that not only had she gashes on her hindquarters but very nasty tears on her chest and chin.

  While all this was going on the cubs remained in the bush and Elsa paid no attention to them. To encourage them to come to their mother we retired behind some rocks and after a while they rushed to her.

  As soon as they were safely settled on the top of the ridge, George went off to search for Jespah by the Zom rocks, while I investigated the foot of the range. Looking back at Elsa I noticed that she was pulling a grimace and scenting in the direction of the thicket which George said had interested her so much in the morning, but when I called to her she did not budge. The ground was covered with fresh lion spoor, so I understood why she was frightened. However, after George returned, she and the two cubs joined us below the rock.

  Now she trotted ahead of us towards the interesting thicket. Just after she had passed it I suddenly saw that not two, but three cubs were scampering behind Elsa, in the most casual manner. Jespah’s reappearance after a day’s absence seemed to be taken by the family as the most natural thing in the world. We, however, were greatly relieved and followed them to the river where they stopped for a long drink, while we went ahead to prepare a carcase for them in camp. When finally we were able to sit down and enjoy our dinner we discussed Elsa’s curious behaviour. Why had she not persevered in the search for Jespah? Had she known all the time that he was hiding in the thicket? But was this likely? Why should he have remained alone for twelve hours only a very short distance from the camp, the river and the rocks where the rest of his family were; and why had he not answered his mother’s call and ours?

  Had the strange lions still been near the rocks, this would have explained Elsa’s fears and Jespah’s, but had this been the case it was unlikely that the other two cubs would have chosen to take refuge there.

  After dinner George had to start back for Isiolo to prepare for his three weeks’ safari. I was not very happy to see him go at this late hour, when all the wild animals were on the move.

  Soon after he had left the lions began to roar from the Big Rock and kept on calling for most of the night. Elsa when she heard them at once moved herself and the cubs as near as possible to my enclosure and stayed there till dawn.

  One afternoon I called to Elsa, who was on the far bank. She appeared at once and was preparing to swim across with the cubs, when suddenly they all froze and stared intently into the water. Then Elsa took the cubs higher up the river and they appeared opposite the kitchen lugga. Here the water is very shallow in the dry season. In spite of this they did not cross for an hour, nor did the cubs indulge in their usual splashing and ducking games. This was reassuring for it showed their prudence, but it was characteristic of their variable reactions that next day when I called Elsa from the same place at the same time, they all swam across at once, and without the slightest hesitation. Then I noticed that Elsa had a wound the size of a shilling in her tongue, and a very deep gash across the centre which was bleeding. This did not prevent her from licking the cubs, which surprised me.

  When it was getting dark we were all sitting near to the river. Suddenly Elsa and the cubs looked at the water, stiffened and pulled grimaces and three or four yards away I saw a croc. I knew that he must have been a big fellow for his head was about a foot long.

  I fetched my rifle and killed him. Although the cubs were less than three feet from me, the shot did not upset them. Elsa afterwards came and rubbed her head against my knee as though to thank me.

  Nearly every afternoon she brought her cubs to the sandbank. Among its attractions were fresh buffalo droppings and sometimes elephant balls as well; in these they rolled to their great satisfaction. The cubs also played on the fallen palm logs. There was no question, when they fell off as they frequently did, of their landing on their feet, like the proverbial cat; on the contrary they fell clumsily on to the grass like a dropped parcel and seemed most surprised at their abrupt descent.

  It was about this time that Jespah became more friendly. Now he sometimes licked me and once even stood on his hind legs to embrace me. Elsa took great care not to show too much affection to me in the presence of the cubs, but when we were alone was as devoted as usual. Her trust in me was as complete as ever and she even allowed me to take her meat from her paws and move it to a more suitable spot when I thought this necessary. She also permitted me to handle the cubs’ meat. For instance, in the evening, when I wanted to remove a partly eaten carcase from the riverbank so that the crocs should not finish it off, she never interfered, even if I was obliged to drag it over her, and, still more remarkable, even when the cubs were hanging on to it and defending it.

  At dusk the cubs were always full of energy and played tricks on their mother which made it hard for her to retain her dignity. Jespah, for instance, discovered that when he stood on his hind legs and clasped her tail she could not easily free herself. In this fashion they would walk round in circles, Jespah behaving like a clown until Elsa had had enough of it and sat down on top of him. He seemed to be delighted by her way of putting an end to the game and would lick and hug his mother until she escaped into our tent.

  But it was not long before the tent ceased to provide her with an asylum, for he followed her into it, giving a quick look round and then sweeping everything he could reach to the ground. During the night I often heard him busily engaged in sorting through the food boxes and the beer crate; the clattering bottles provided him with endless entertainment. One morning the boys found fragments of my precious rubber cushion in the river; but I really could not blame Jespah for this as I had stupidly forgotten to remove it from my chair the evening before. He became quite at home in the tent, but his brother and sister were less venturesome. They always stayed outside.

  18. Elsa’s Fight

  One morning Makedde observed vultures circling and, going to the spot about a mile downstream, found the remains of a rhino which had been killed by poisoned arrows the day before while drinking.

  The poachers had left plenty of footprints and had erected machans on trees close to the drinking place.

  On the night of 8 July there was quite a concert, Elsa’s lion ‘whuffing’, a leopard coughing and hyenas howling. The next evening while I was taking tsetse flies off Elsa as she sat in my tent with her head on my lap, I was startled by a great roar from her lion. Like a flash she dashed off in the direction of the kitchen lugga. The cubs rushed after her but soon returned and sat looking bewildered outside the tent. Later, Elsa came back and stayed in camp until the lion ceased to call. As soon as she had gone, I heard the cracking of bones and realized that the hyenas were feeding.

  The following evening she brought th
e cubs with her. After I had gone to bed she set off three times to cross the river, but as I did not see why I should be obliged to provide free meals for any predator who happened to be in the neighbourhood, I called her back each time and insisted that she should guard the remains. She obeyed and only made a final departure just before daybreak, when the carcase needed no more protection.

  For three days she arrived in camp long after dark, and on the fourth (15 July) brought only two cubs; Jespah was missing. I was very worried, so after waiting for some time, I began repeating his name over and over again, till Elsa decided to go upstream and look for him, taking the two cubs with her.

  For over an hour I heard her calling, till the sound gradually receded into the distance.

  Then suddenly there were savage lion growls, accompanied by the terrified shrieks of baboons. As it was dark I could not go to see what was happening and awaited the outcome feeling miserable, for I was sure that Elsa was being attacked by lions.

  She came back after a while, her head and shoulders covered with bleeding scratches and the root of her right ear bitten through. There was a gap in the flesh into which one could stick two fingers. This was much the worst injury she had ever suffered. Little Elsa and Gopa came back with her and sat a short distance away looking very frightened. I tried to put sulphanilamide into Elsa’s wounds but she was far too irritable to let me come near her, nor was she interested in the meat which I brought her. I placed the carcase halfway between myself and the cubs. They pounced on it, dragged it into the dark and I soon heard them tearing at it.

  I sat a long time with Elsa; she held her head on one side and the blood dripped from her wound. Eventually she rose, called the cubs and waded across the river.

  I could hardly wait till it was light to go and look for Jespah. Next morning, following Elsa’s spoor, Makedde, Nuru and I went to the Cave Rock and were much relieved to find the family reunited. I was happy to know that Jespah was safe and that I could now concentrate on treating his mother. The wound in her ear was still bleeding profusely, and at intervals she shook her head to drain the cavity. Owing to its position she could not lick the wound, but scratched constantly to keep off the flies; none of this was likely to improve the cleanliness of the wounds.

  All the cubs seemed very subdued though Jespah licked his mother affectionately.

  The boys stayed out of sight while I tried to put M and B into the injury, but Elsa was not co-operative and each time I approached her head she moved away, apparently with considerable effort. Suddenly I was startled to hear voices. I thought they were probably those of poachers. I had to think quickly. Was it best to stay put? Probably not, for Elsa did not seem to want our company and might well go off with the cubs and fall into the poachers’ hands. I went back to camp, hoping that as she must be hungry she would follow.

  We made a detour on our return journey, so as to inspect the previous night’s battlefield. We found it on a sandbank in the middle of the river, about half a mile from the camp. There were plenty of lion pugmarks mixed up with baboon spoor, but though we could distinguish the imprints of one male lion we could not be sure whether he had been alone or not.

  I waited anxiously till the late afternoon for Elsa and her family to arrive. I then managed to introduce some M and B tablets into the meat which she took from my hand. I thought that if I could get fifteen tablets down her daily, there was a good chance that her wound would not go septic. Her ear drooped, suggesting that the muscles had been injured and she constantly shook her head to get rid of the oozing liquid.

  Jespah, who had been the cause of the encounter, was very friendly. He licked me and several times tilted his head looking straight at me for a long time.

  There is a belief that the members of the cat tribe can never look one in the face for any length of time; this is not true of Elsa and her sisters or of her cubs. Indeed, I have found that they convey their feelings by the varying expressions of their eyes, far more explicitly than we do in words.

  After Elsa had settled down for the night a lion began calling. This seemed to alarm her and she shortly afterwards went off with the cubs.

  I was glad when they all returned during the following afternoon; Jespah occasionally poked his nose into my back, in a friendly fashion, but apparently Elsa did not approve for she placed herself between him and me.

  Towards evening Nuru herded the goats towards the truck. This was the first time I saw the cubs take any interest in them. We had, of course, been careful to avoid any contact between the cubs and living goats and they had never before reacted to their bleating.

  During the night I heard two lions grunting as they cracked the bones of a carcase which was lying in front of George’s tent. They spent a long time over their meal and only went off at dawn when the boys began talking in the kitchen. Then they crossed the river accompanied by the barking of baboons, to which they replied by loud ‘whuffings’. We found the spoor of a large lion and of a lioness.

  Elsa kept away for some days. I thought her absence was explained by the presence of this pair who had remained nearby, and who the following night grunted round the goat truck.

  The boys and I made several searches for Elsa, but these were unsuccessful; while so occupied, we put up a rhino and a few buffalo.

  After Elsa had been absent for four days I became very anxious, for her wound must be a very big handicap to her in hunting, and I was afraid also that the poachers might do her some harm. When on the evening of 20 July I saw vultures circling, my heart sank. We went to investigate but all we found was more evidence of the poachers. They had made hides near to every drinking place, on both sides of the river. We also found the ashes of recent fires and charred animal bones.

  Three hours later I returned to camp to be told by two Game Scouts whom the warden had just sent to catch the poachers that they had seen Elsa and the cubs under a bush on the opposite side of the river, about a mile inland.

  She was lying in the shade and the cubs were asleep. She had seen the men approach but had not moved. This sounded odd, unless she were so ill that she did not care if even strangers were close by.

  Makedde suggested that we should take some meat to her, but not enough to satisfy her hunger, and so tempt her to come back to camp. As we approached her lie-up I signalled to the men to stay behind and called to her.

  She emerged, walking slowly, her head bent low to one side. I was surprised and alarmed that she should have settled in such an exposed place where she could easily be seen by poachers. I noticed that her ear had gone septic and was discharging pus; she was obviously in great pain and when she shook her head, as she did very often, it sounded as if her ear were full of liquid. Besides this, both she and Little Elsa were covered with blowflies. I was able to rid Elsa of hers, but the cub was far too wild to let me help her. Meanwhile, she and her brothers fought over the section of carcase we had brought them and soon there was nothing left for Elsa but polished bones. She looked on resignedly and certainly gave the lie to the well-established legend that lionesses gorge themselves and let their cubs go hungry. Jespah thanked me for his meal by licking my hand with his rough tongue. I tried to induce Elsa to come back to camp by calling, maji, chakula, myama, but as she did not move, went home without her.

  As I had taken a lot of photographs I went to the camp to get another film; then I heard the cubs arrive on the opposite bank and took a short cut down to the river. Suddenly Elsa broke out of a bush and knocked me over. She obviously was suspicious that I had returned from a different direction, and feared for her cubs. She had been nervous all the afternoon and was plainly in pain for whenever the cubs accidentally touched her ear she snarled and cuffed them irritably. Jespah seemed aware of her state and constantly licked her.

  That night after I had gone to bed – Elsa and the cubs had left the vicinity soon after – I heard a leopard cough and a lion roar. I got up and called to the boys to open my thorn enclosure so that I could go out and put the remains of the m
eat into my car. I did not wish to encourage all the predators in the neighbourhood to share Elsa’s food supply and in doing so drive her away.

  As soon as her ear had healed and she could hunt, I was determined to leave her. By now I had been three weeks alone in camp and George was overdue. I wished he would return soon for when his tent was occupied the predators never came near the meat which was tied up close to it. In his absence wild lions prowled round the camp every night and although Makedde and Ibrahim could have used their rifles if an emergency arose, I was nervous about the safety of the boys.

  At last George arrived and was greeted by the roars of a strange lion. Hearing that Elsa had not been seen for several days, he decided to go and look for her, and he was also determined to try to scare off the strange lion and his fierce lioness who had so often injured Elsa. We knew her and her mate quite well by now, at least by voice, and we were also familiar with their spoor. They ranged along the river for about ten miles. Of course they shared the country with other lions besides Elsa, but she was the only one who kept permanently to the vicinity of the camp. The fierce lioness had lived in this region long before Elsa but we did not know what she had done to displease this disagreeable beast. We were pretty sure that she had not competed for the attention of her mate, but had kept strictly to her own young lion. Perhaps Elsa had interfered with her hunting or her territorial claims, or perhaps the creature was just bad-tempered. Anyway, we were sure now that she had chased Elsa and the cubs over the river and towards the poachers and that she and her mate had, for several days, taken over the Big Rock.