Serengeti - Part 2 - The big scene

In the middle of the day, we had an unforgettable encounter. After seeing a lone lioness resting under a tree we drove a little bit and saw a lone jeep staring up at a tree. We encouraged our driver to go check it out. When we got there, this is what I first saw...



Needless to say I was quite excited. A lion cub in a tree! How cool! I felt pretty good but then suddenly there was another cub trying to climb the same tree and join the first one...

This tree climbing sequence is a multiple photo layout to show you the steps as I saw them...











Pulling back, I saw there were many lion cubs already in the tree. I quickly counted and saw there were 11 cubs hanging from the limbs of this small tree! It looked like this...



After taking a group of photos, I began to spot more lion cubs heading toward the tree. Some trying to climb and others just laying in the tall grass around the tree. The lion cub count reached an outstanding total of 17 individuals. Needless to say, I was in photo heaven, just trying to make sure I didn't mess anything up.

These were the best of what I took...















too much traffic on the tree...









Then, suddenly all the cubs were trying to climb out of the tree as fast as possible. I was pretty sure there was no predator headed toward them, but turning around, I saw five lionesses, the proud mothers of this group, on the other side of the road wondering why there were ten jeeps surrounding their young.



Here's the lookout lioness...



The mad dash and scramble to find the right mother looked like this...



Finally, a few ending shots of the cubs belonging to the lookout lioness including the endearing closeup of the young looking to mom for approval...





Whew! I'm tired!