SERENGETI MONARCH

Any student of African wildlife will know that the lion, far from being the regal, noble beast depicted history, is actually an arrogant, lazy, callous, often scavenging bully. His treatment of his mate and offspring is overbearing and, to human eyes, cruel. In a lion’s world, life is truly a question of the fittest surviving.

Yet, it is difficult to brand a king like this one with such derogatory adjectives. He is resting on a kopje – one of those curious outcrops which dot Tanzania’s famous Serengeti Plains. It was almost as if he knew the best way to pose to show off his fine profile.

Lions are great opportunists. This monarch would sit all day high in the rocks, shaded from the sun with a good panoramic view of his territory. No ailing animal or another predator’s kill would escape his notice and attention.