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Extremely Rare White Lions Caught on Camera | Short Film Showcase


4m read
·Nov 11, 2024

[Music] Well, we set off from Cape Town, and we've arrived here in this beautiful area known as the Wetlands Concession. This area is situated in the far eastern corner of Kruger National Park. As I worked here for a number of years, I got to know these lions that frequented this area very well. We've come back here to find one particular pride, which we've heard have two white lion cubs. White lions are critically endangered; there are only 13 in the wild in their natural habitat, and two of them are right here. There are no documented records of them ever having existed prior to our times. They very possibly existed in Ice Age times thousands of years ago.

It was September; it was cold at that time, so it was a little bit misty early in the morning. So, we saw actually it was one less three cubs. And then when the first guide called him in, he said, "I've got a white lion. It's snow white." Quite no one the guide sort of ded him. Then two or three more guards arrived, and they said, "Yes, 100% it's a white lion," and everybody was ecstatic about that. I was so excited. Yes, Clement let got fun one world. L I was so excited. This is an opportunity to find these animals, and in doing so, possibly be the first to document these animals in this area for decades.

One of the key assets when filming in the bush is knowing animal behavior. If you know how the animal is going to react in a sighting, then you can predict how to film that animal, and that is really, really key when, especially with white lions such as these. Finding these animals in this massive wilderness concession can be a difficult challenge, especially with the terrain, the Lebombo Mountains. So, you really need a lot of expertise and experience to be able to find these animals, and with a bit of luck and a bit of perseverance, we'll do just [Music] that.

These areas, particularly because of those large open expanse areas having large volumes of game and having very good water all year round, do mean that the predator numbers are always going to be very good. But because of the fact that they move in and out of the concession, it's never a guarantee that they're going to be there. Approximately 1,500 to 2,000 lions in the greater Kruger Park region; there are only about eight or nine known individuals that are alive at the moment, including the two from this pride.

Tracks [Music] this area is very difficult to track lions because it's very mountainous, lots of rocks, and the soil after rain is very hard like cement. So, it's not easy to spot the footprint of a lion and indicated that the tracks are extremely fresh. What we're going to do is, this is over 40 lions according to the tracks, we're going to have to follow them on foot as they are heading into the Lebombo Mountains. We suspect them to be very, very close, so we're going to leave you in the vehicle. We'll be back in a few minutes; we're going to have to trail them on foot. The rule of tracking is that wherever you walk, you must see like 50 m ahead of you.

[Music] We found them, Andrew. We tracked them, and we managed to find them on a rocky outcrop within the mountains, not too far from here, where the white ones are. I can't confirm, but there are definitely quite a number of lions, and it seems to be the pride that we're looking for. We're moving in now with the vehicle. Chris is guiding us in, and we're seeing if we can possibly locate these lions in the vehicle so we can view them from a slightly closer proximity. This is cool.

[Music] That white lion cub's head [Music] up, really exciting. We're in the heart of the Lebombo Mountains here, and in the distance, I can pick up even from about 100 m away a little white lion cub sunning itself on the rock face. [Music] This is such a privilege. We finally managed to find this big pride of lions, which contains two of the white lions that we've been looking for—one tiny little cub and an older male. It's been a lot of work trying to find these guys, but with our guide and tracker and working together as a team, we've managed to pull it off.

Like I said, just such a privilege to be able to witness these animals in their natural environment. It reminds me again, when I see something like this, how incredible it is seeing an animal for the first time to actually see this white lion pop out of nowhere—pretty spectacular. I remember for a long time because these white lions that have occurred here within Singas concession, it's a protected area; there's no hunting. They're also within this incredible super pride, a huge pride numbering nearly 40. That means huge advantages in terms of the potential survival of the cubs.

It's critically important that we protect these animals not only from a conservation point of view; they are an important part of the biodiversity of the Kruger to Canyon's biosphere. I mean, that should be enough reason to protect these rare animals. I mean, just how awesome would it be a huge fully grown white lion male in this region? I mean, I think that is a dream, but I think it's going to happen.

[Music] [Music]

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