The Marsh Lions: The Story of an African Pride

by Brian Jackman, Jonathan Scott

Overview

The Marsh Lions tells the story of a pride of lions in Kenya's world-famous Masai Mara game reserve. For five years, Brian Jackman and Jonathan Scott followed the Marsh pride and their progeny, recording the daily drama of life and death on the African plains. In time they came to regard them as old and familiar friends and real individuals. The Marsh Lions were the most successful group to be filmed for Big Cat Diary, the BBC's hugely successful TV series presented by Jonathan Scott.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781841624280
Publisher:	Bradt Publications UK
Publication date:	05/01/2012
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Brian Jackman is an award-winning journalist and Britain's foremost writer on African wildlife safaris.

Read an Excerpt

'Scar, too, was ill at ease. Increasingly he was torn between the need to remain near his lionesses and his urge to drive out the nomads. Night after night he patrolled his territory, reasserting his ownership by visiting all his regular scrapes and scent-markings, until hunger compelled him to look for his pride. But the Marsh lionesses were no longer so easy to find. They, too, could sense the rising tension as pride males and intruding nomads manoeuvred for dominance, and they seldom remained in the same spot for long. They behaved like fugitives in their own territory, and Scar went hungry when he could not find them at their kills.The task of guarding the entire range was becoming too much for Scar on his own. Some of the younger challengers had retreated without a fight, backing down the moment they glimpsed his massive frame trotting towards them. But the four Wageni were still there. Recently, too, Scar had begun to be aware of two more arrivals. These latest newcomers were not inexperienced sub-adults, but a pair of mature lions whose heavy pug-marks could only belong to large males well into their prime. Their presence added to his growing discomfort. He was tired but he did not sleep. Oblivious to the heat, he would lie out in the open grasslands, not bothering to seek the shade, twitching irritably at the crawling flies and gazing stonily into the distance with eyes that seemed to close less often. Unconsciously he missed the support of Mkubwa and Brando – still pursuing their amorous adventures on Miti Mbili Plain. For the first time in two years, his confidence had begun to waver. The nomads were all around him; their spoor was everywhere. But he was a pride male. This was his territory, where he belonged, and he would not relinquish it easily.'

Table of Contents

An Introduction to the Maasai Mara Game Reserve1 January 1978: Dark Mane's Pride2 February 1978: A New Alliance3 February–May 1978: The Long Rains4 February–July 1978: The Great Migration5 July–September 1978: The Murram Pit Clan6 October–December 1978: The Departure of the Herds7 January–May 1979: The Mitt Mbili Pride8 June–August 1979: The Dogs of Aitong9 September 1979: Summer Slaughter10 October–November 1979: The Spotted Assassins11December 1979 January 1980: The NomadsEpilogue: February 1980–September 1981Family Tree of the Marsh and Mitt Mbili PridesAuthor's NotePhotographer's NoteAcknowledgements

Editorial Reviews

'Absolutely stunning...It reeks of Africa. It smells of Africa. The whole thing is just living Africa. It's a lovely book for the armchair naturalist." Living World, BBC Radio Four 'For more than 30 years Brian Jackman has been one of Britain's finest nature and travel writers... There is no continent and scarcely a country that has not basked in the glow of his elegant, evocative prose, in which details of landscape, people and – especially – wildlife are touched in with painterly exactitude.' Richard Girling, The Sunday Times Magazine

From the Publisher