http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...safari-tourists.html

Harrassment , abuse ,whatever you want to call it . it's shameful .

Who would want to watch that shit for 20 minutes? "Terrified"? BS. They were getting off on this. I would have had the driver move on. I know this is how nature works but I don't enjoy watching an animal die a slow agonizing death.

Mark

In my experience, anytime the people in the van want to move on, all they have to do is tell the driver and they'll be outathere!

Last month we went to South Africa on a photo safari.

We got our own guide and truck, and went where we wanted.

We met many tourists, some were actually lying down ASLEEP on the back of their truck, while others were viewing game.

Another amazing thing was the number of them using their iphones to take photos of animals??

The lions did what they do to feed themselves, it was not a vicious attack on a helpless Buffalo. Terrified tourist, , look at picture 1 8-12. The writing style is disgusting, since when are animals human like, Nature have its own ways and it is in working for thousands of years.

With regards to the guides, why don't they keep their distance and watch. I think it is a very bad practise to interfere in such a way in nature. They should know better and keep a proper distance. The Lions need to kill to survive, it is sad for the Buff but it is a victory for the Lions, sad in one sense but this is the circle of life, there is no reason to turn this happening in a circus. Guides should learn to keep their distance to let nature continue uninterrupted.

In the park we were in, Madikwe, they had a policy that no more than 3 cars to be present at any one time by lions or leopards.

The tour operators who own the vehicles should be fined or suspended.

If this had happened in any Indian National Park, that would have been the outcome.

Crowding an animal at a kill is total "No, No".

In most Indian National Parks, there is also a time limit of how long you can stop a vehicle to view an animal. Last year we were watching a leopard on a tree at about 40 yards. After 20 minutes we were forced to leave, though it was approaching dusk and the leopard was sure to come down soon. The tour guide was very adamant that we could not break the rule. This was even before we tipped him!

In that last photo it almost looks as though the animals are going to pass the hat round for donations and say "Come back at 6 - the next show's on then".

That newspaper is really not worth using to line parrot cages - everything is so sensationalised.

Since they couldn't have buff for dinner, they should have tried the tourist on the hoof.
Might not be as tasty, but surely more tender meat for chewing.

That is a group of mostly long yearling to 2 year old male cubs with one old female...not a pride.

If that old female would have had any good help...they whould have eaten well that night.

I disagree with Mark though...the more that people see what goes on in the bush for real...the better off we are as hunters.

But...those G. D. guides should NOT have crowded in on that. It may have distracted the lions and Lord knows...they needed a good feed. They should have just watched for a distance and let nature have its best chance to take place naturally.

The writer...he is as ignornat and stupid as a box of rocks.

"I would have drove my car at the lions , heartless ghouls."


Classic comment

Lane,

I agree with you that more folks need to realize how the natural world really works. Having said that I personally have a hard time understand why anyone would want to watch the lions slowly kill the buffalo and start eating it while it was still breathing. This is what would have happened if all the idiots were not crowding around the scene and interfering which they should not have.

As I write this and think about it I guess the fascination with this gruesome scene might come from the complete separation that a lot of these folks probably have from the natural world. Watching something die might be so foreign that they can't help but be riveted by it.

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
Lane,

I agree with you that more folks need to realize how the natural world really works. Having said that I personally have a hard time understand why anyone would want to watch the lions slowly kill the buffalo and start eating it while it was still breathing. This is what would have happened if all the idiots were not crowding around the scene and interfering which they should not have.

As I write this and think about it I guess the fascination with this gruesome scene might come from the complete separation that a lot of these folks probably have from the natural world. Watching something die might be so foreign that they can't help but be riveted by it.

Mark

As well as anthropomorphizing the animals by calling them "heartless" or "ghouls". Then those same people will go home and donate to Lionaid to save the "ghouls" from the "savage sport hunters".

Why couldn't the lions have just bought their meat at the grocery store like the rest of us, instead of attacking the "helpless" buffalo?

quote:

Originally posted by Pulicords:
Why couldn't the lions have just bought their meat at the grocery store like the rest of us, instead of attacking the "helpless" buffalo?

Isn't this reminisent of the blood thirsty days of the Roman Empire?

quote:

Originally posted by 376 steyr:
Isn't this reminisent of the blood thirsty days of the Roman Empire?

How can you make that comparison? This scene with the buffalo was simply nature at work.

There was nothing "natural" about placing slaves in mortal combat for the pleasure of the observers.

If I watch a nature show and it shows a predator killing to feed itself am I "bloodthirsty" because I choose to watch?

quote:

Originally posted by JBrown:

quote:

Originally posted by 376 steyr:
Isn't this reminisent of the blood thirsty days of the Roman Empire?

How can you make that comparison? This scene with the buffalo was simply nature at work.

There was nothing "natural" about placing slaves in mortal combat for the pleasure of the observers.

If I watch a nature show and it shows a predator killing to feed itself am I "bloodthirsty" because I choose to watch?

I think the comparison is the members of a decadent culture (Romans, modern tourists) watching a bloody life & death struggle (lions, slaves) in an artificial setting (Coliseum, national park) for amusement. Put these tourists on foot near a pride of lions that aren't in a park and see how much they enjoy that.

JBrown, Dan is right. It's like a mobile coliseum surrounding the action. That same kind of scene probably happened many times in the great coliseum of Rome.

I won't totally disagree with your analogy. There are some troubling aspects if you look at it from one vantage point.

OTOH, the slaves/gladiators/animals were in the coliseum BECAUSE the spectators were in the seats.

The lion and buffalo would have been doing that wheather the spectators were there or not.

So, my point is the spectators were taking part in the killing in Rome. The spectators on a photo safari are just watching nature as nature does it thing(more or less).