Big Cat Experience – Amani Lodge

We took a day trip to the beautiful Amani Lodge just outside of Windhoek this past weekend. The lodge has lions, cheetahs and leopard on site and we arranged to go along for a feeding to see the animals up close.

Setting out the meat for the first feeding of the cheetahs. About 3 minutes after the meat was set the cheetahs came charging out of the bush for lunch.

Waiting for dessert, here the guide was about to throw down the back bone of a large buck. The bone is also a symbol of pride amongst the pack for the cheetah who gets to finish it.

Next up was the lions, which was a real treat. I have only seen lions once or twice in a game park from a great distance. Now we were literally 5 metres from them as they had lunch. We were up on a platform for safety.

Its actually the female lion which is the real danger in the wild. The females do most of the hunting and maintenance of the pack. I was lucky to get this shot of her. She was sitting just below us looking forward and I called her with a whistle. When this beast is looking right at you its really something. My heart was pumping.

As we were leaving the lion platform the female came below us and was really watching us as we went down the stairs back to the car. It seemed like she was tracking us and just waiting for one of us to slip through the cracks. What scared me most was how concerned the guide was. However we made it!

Finally the lonely leopard. The leopard lives by itself so we felt really bad for it.

Cacti

A great day with the cats!