Scarface has a hippo for breakfast

A little while ago I wrote a story of how the marsh pride of roughly 17 lions had killed a zebra. At the end Scarface showed up and feasted with the rest of the pride. He is the dominant male of a coalition of 3 males that rule several prides in the Masai Mara. He is also a bit of a celebrity.

Me and my wife have been in the Mara for 3 nights now and today is our last day here. We have looked for the pride every day but could not find them again. We have seen one of the other males the day before. He was beautiful but his mane was not as dark as that of Scar. After our drive yesterday, we decided to get up and do one last game drive in the morning before catching our plane at 11 am which will take us to the Serengeti.

We will be rewarded for waking up early today by getting to see the king of the land one last time.

It is rainy season in east Africa right now, as it is April. We have experienced quite a bit of rain the last few days. The clouds and rains are different here from what I have ever seen. I think it is truly magnificent. My wife is not as enthusiastic and it was not always best for pictures.

We have also gotten stuck a few times, but our driver always managed to get unstuck without us having to shovel or call other rangers. His name is Benson and he is a true Masai that lives in a Masai village a short travel away from our camp. He is amazing and he loves this place. It is clearly his home and he has a deep connection with the land and many of the animals, such as Scar.

Here is a view over the Mara with the rainy clouds from when we stopped for picnic the day before.

This morning we have been on the road for only a short time. All of a sudden Benson stops the car. He is speaking Masai on the walkie talkie and suddenly is turning around. We are going towards the edge of the Masai game park, where he is allowed to drive the range rover on the gras and off roads.

We have been here before, it is a huge wide open grassland with almost no trees that stretches towards the Mara river. At the river the landscape changes dramatically. It is bushy there and also forms the end of the game reserve. Our camp is on the other side of the river and it is outside the park.

We see some cars at a distance gathered around something. And there are hyenas everywhere. We have seen many hyenas the days before as they are truly the most successful predator and certainly the most abundant here. But I have never seen this many together. They are scattered over a large area and some are fighting and quarreling like they always seem to do.

It must be a very successful clan as usually hyenas live in groups around thirty. Today there are certainly more than 30 hyenas here. It looks more like the numbers are in the hundreds, although the biggest clans usually comprise around 80 members. They are scattered in a half-circle around where all the cars are parked and are running around anxiously.

We get to the where the other cars are and now see what the fuss is all about.

It is Scareface and what appears to be a dead hippo. Because Scarface is part of a coalition that control at least two prides, they often split up and travel back and forth between the two territories. Lions are known to patrol their lands while females tend to stay together forever and do not move quite as much.

When we saw the females kill the zebra a few days before some people in the cars were talking about how male lions are lazy and rarely kill anything.

Benson laughed at them. Clearly that is not the case. Around the dead hippo there is mud everywhere. A small circle of mud is around the carcass but there is a much bigger area where the grass has been replaced by wet black dirt. The struggle must have been enormous, quite different from the practical instant kill the lionesses have performed on the zebra. A hippo is probably quite a difficult animal to kill. I did not even know that these animals were on the lions menu.

Scarface is eating the intestines and the belly flesh of the hippo. He is clearly enjoying it.
I ask Benson to move around to get different views of him. At one point we get a sniff of what was inside that belly. It stinks horribly bad. Benson quickly moves the car again so he does not have to smell it, while holding his nose closed. Quite a wuss for a former Masai warrior.

We are not the only ones watching the spectacle. There are many other photographers, tourists in range rovers and of course the hyenas are still lurking and quarreling. Either there are members of different clans around the kill or they are pre-negotiating the access to the hippos when Scar moves on. For a big lion this animal might appear huge but for all these hyenas it won't be enough.

They still keep their distance.

Scar is not the least bit worried. He guards his kill and shows some minor sings of territorial behavior here and there, but mostly he just enjoys his kill and ignores everything else, like a true king would.

He must have been eating for a while as he seems to be getting full. There is only one feisty little jackal that comes very close. Scar seems not happy about it, but also too lazy to do much about it. Further back we see two other jackal fight for access to the scene.

After a while Scar seems to have a full belly, as all he does now is look around. I wonder if he is looking for other members of his pride.

Shortly thereafter even that is too much work and he just lays sleepy in the mud. You can see on the edge of the picture there is a camp. That camp is outside of the park, that is how close we are to the edge of the park. This is also why the hyenas are not on the pictures with Scar. They are behind the cars coming from inside the park.

Even though Scarface is laying flat on the ground now, the hyenas are still not coming closer. I cannot believe the respect this huge clan is showing to this one lion.

We do not stick around to the end and I do not know when Scarface will leave and if the hyenas get to finish off the hippo or if the rest of the marsh pride will show up after all.

Benson wants to show us one other places and we drive on.

Below is also a video that tells the same story. I have made it particularly for steem and used an intro from @blockcore. I have tried something new by narrating over it in one take. Let me know if you like it.

The video is 5 minutes long.

Also check out the other story of the march pride that features Scar as well https://steemit.com/photography/@knircky/lion-hunting-zebras-and-being-chased-by-buffalo-in-the-masai-mara-afrika

It also comes with a video of the whole event.

Pleas make sure to upvote and follow me @knircky if you like this story.

Thank you for your time and attention.

I hope you enjoyed the story, the pictures and my video.

The pictures and video footage is all taken by me and my wife. She took the first picture of this set, where Scar looks directly at us. This is my favorite picture out of all the roughly 6000 pictures we took over the entire trip.