I heard a lion roar in the distance in Botswana, across the Duba plain, just before sunrise, lying in my tent, late July, 2001.

Late December, 2006, I am walking at 4 mph, around a 4.5 mile perimeter of a square that includes Sedgwick County Zoo, Sedgwick County Park, and some Wichita, Kansas city landscape: bike path and sidewalks.

The zoo is in the northeast corner of this square plot which I am trodding around the outside of. I am at the southwest corner of the square, over a mile from the lion in the zoo, as the crow flies along the diagonal of the square.

I hear the lion roar and it is 4 times louder than it was in Botswana.

The wind is blowing at 10 mph from the zoo straight to me.

How far away was that lion in Botswana? Over 2 miles by the inverse-square law?

How far can the roar of a lion be heard on the Duba Plain, in the stillness of pre-dawn?

Here is the lion that roared at sunset in Kansas:


If you hear a lion roaring upwind, is there hope of hoofing it to within range of a stalk, assuming your San Bushman trackers are available?

I don't know! Some say you can hear them at times 5 miles away. How fast can you run?

One night in Tanz I thought there was one so close he could have been in my tent. I mean it was LOUD.

The next morning I asked if anyone had heard that lion. Not a one. Lion roars apparently would not make good alarm clock buzzers.

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Reg maximum distance I was told by the PH's 3-5 miles plus depending on conditions. I can say that at 20 yards you can FEEL their deafening roar quite well.

It was around 8pm in the Caprivi camp, along the Kwando River, and we had just finished dinner and were heading from the dinning tent to our quarters. I was unzipping the screen on our tent to let my oldest son in when a lion roar erupted from down by the dining tent, followed by a metallic crash. We got in the tent and Fred, the PH, yelled "Stay in your tent", to which I replied "Not a problem". Fred later said that the crash was the waiter dropping the tray of pots, at the sound his eyes got big and his hands just opened, and he tore off for their tented area, every man for himself.

A few minutes later I hear the Cruiser start up and chug it's way up the path, Fred was driving to his tent! Funny thing was I never heard the door open/close, and when I asked him the next morning if he slept in the truck he just grinned. All the time the roaring continued from within and around the compound. One of the three lions setup outside our tent, per the tracks just on the other side of the cleared dirt in some grass. One of the three would roar every 5-10 minutes for about an hour, which was absolutely amazing and terrifying at the same time. Each roar and subsequent "grunt" could literally be felt in the pit of my stomach. I slept with the .416 that night.

Clearly the three lion were showing us who was boss, and had zero fear of man once darkness fell. Two years prior a local was killed and eaten by several lion as he stumbled home from the pub (a shack selling beer, called a "cuko" I think) late one night. All that they found of the man was his sneaker and a foot inside which the lions had evidently played with. The huts, which were at the end of the dirt track leading to our camp and right along the tarmac road that runs through the Strip in the West Caprivi, were immediately abandoned. Leopard and hyena were also regular visitors to the camp at night, and each morning we would examine the tracks before the paths (and evidence!) were swept clear.

Ah the joys of a bush camp along a river in Africa!

Thanks for the story Bill. That has to be a night to remember!! We heard lions most every night in Zambia but never that close. We figured they were one to two miles away.

The only night we had no animals in camp (usually elephants, sometimes hippos) was the night Scott's dead lion lay in camp. I found that very interesting!!

John

When doing lion capture and research, we would locate them with telemetry and then call them with a a sqealing pig or 'dying wildebees' on a bull horn.

We often use to bring them is very easily from about 2km and from that distance we could hear them issuing low roars. Often we would locate the pride and the after calling would hear a further off male.

As Alf says, at some pretty good distances, where our telemetry was weak due to geography, so yes, easily 5km. We did some roar recording of males one night (thats a patience game!) and when they go full belly roaring, its defening, the land cruiser vibrates like a bass drum...awesome!

Hey Alf, if your place is 15km from the Sussens, and you have DG are you in Balule conservancy?

I heard the old boy again today, about the same time and location, same breeze plus a little drizzle of rain.

Thanks for all the interesting, informative and entertaining posts.

Apparently even the deaf can hear/feel a lion roar.

Even old farts with shotgun ears can hear the rumble for several miles, it would seem. And maybe an elevated amphitheater of the hills and perfect conditions can stretch that out to 15 Km.

Bill C:
"A few minutes later I hear the Cruiser start up and chug it's way up the path, Fred was driving to his tent! Funny thing was I never heard the door open/close, and when I asked him the next morning if he slept in the truck he just grinned. All the time the roaring continued from within and around the compound. One of the three lions setup outside our tent, per the tracks just on the other side of the cleared dirt in some grass. One of the three would roar every 5-10 minutes for about an hour, which was absolutely amazing and terrifying at the same time. Each roar and subsequent "grunt" could literally be felt in the pit of my stomach. I slept with the .416 that night."


That's why you should always give your rifle a woman's name - you never know when you might need to sleep with "her"!!!

There is a good argument that when a man is in the bush, even in camp, his rifle should always be loaded and never out of reach.

quote:

Originally posted by mrlexma:
There is a good argument that when a man is in the bush, even in camp, his rifle should always be loaded and never out of reach.

Yes, that is what I came away with, although it is hard to make the effort to grab the rifle for each and every jaunt.

Is it not 458Win who keeps a loaded rifle (slug gun?) in the sh*thouse at his camp in Alaska? Excellent idea...

/

RIP, I have seen that same lion in the "Pride of the Plains" exhibit multiple times. Glad to know that he does something other than lie back and sun his balls.

Alf,

Must be some "genetic memories" in canines and humans.

cable68,
Yep, I'm lucky he got up from his ball sunning long enough to get a few pics without that display. At least the sun's rays haven't lowered his sperm count too badly, as Momma was nursing his cubs in the hideaway on video display for the kiddies.

When I lived in Southern Wisconsin we could hear the lions on many nights. There was a used cat "sanctuary" about 5 miles from the house. The landscape was very flat and we lived on the edge of a small town. Who would have thought you could hear lions in the evening on the plains of Wisconsin. We didn't know what the sound was untill one of the guys at work said he used to haul all the road kill deer in the county to the cat prison. We had to check it out. Pretty much disgusted me. First, some hippy liberal telling people visiting that most hunting involves shooting critters in a cage. Then seeing all those awesome big cats, lions tigers cougars panthers jaguars and goofy crossbreeds, in little chain link prisons knowing they'll never ever get released. And NEVER EVER get to kill their dinner again.