King of the jungle defies nature with new quarryBy Damien Whitworth October 09, 2006 12:00am Article from: Font size: + - Send this article: Print Email THE moon has set over the Kalahari and in the darkness it has become very hard to tell which shadowy lumps are bushes and which are lions. Suddenly, a member of the pride decides to make his whereabouts known. A deep roar rends the African night; a great, bass groan that places the hunter spine-tinglingly close to our open-sided Jeep. We scramble for night-vision goggles. There he is, a brute of a male, not three metres from the vehicle. And he is not alone. We are surrounded by lions. After hours of inaction, the pride is on the move. The hunt is on. "It's just unbelievable," mutters Jonny Keeling, a BBC wildlife producer clinging to the top of the Jeep next to me. "They're trying to kill again." This is said with no satisfaction. Although a kill is what he has come to see, what the BBC is spending a great deal of money trying to record, the horror of what he fears is about to unfold on the plain fills him with dread. A few years ago, stories began to emerge from Botswana that were so extraordinary wildlife experts struggled to believe them. According to guides in a remote area of Chobe National Park, a pride of lions had started attacking elephants. Driven by extreme hunger at the height of the dry season, when their normal prey was scarce, they had started by taking down baby elephants then moved on to adolescents and occasionally fully grown adults. Lions are among the animal kingdom's most brutal and efficient predators but no one had heard of them hunting elephants before. The BBC's Natural History Unit decided to send a film crew to try to capture a hunt on film. The lions hunt elephants because they have discovered that they can. The dry season has always been a desperate time for wildlife in northern Botswana. One year, perhaps, water, and therefore prey, was scarcer than ever and a small or weak elephant was killed in a moment of bold opportunism. Then there was no turning back. When the roaring begins, it comes as such a surprise that we are surrounded by lions. The noise is intended to intimidate the herds passing through. The lionesses check out the elephants as they pass, looking for vulnerable targets. There is quiet again. The pride appears to have gone back to sleep. But as a mother and an adolescent come through, slightly detached from the rest of a herd, two of the lionesses are instantly awake, on their feet and moving in. Pandemonium ensues. The elephants trumpet with panic as they crash through the undergrowth. One of the lionesses jumps on the young elephant's back and another grabs its haunches. The hind-leg tendons are severed and the animal crashes to the ground. The rest of the lions pile in. The mother thunders off into the bush. "Oh Christ, they've got one," murmurs Keeling as we catch up. The hunt, from the moment the lionesses spotted their victim until they felled it, lasted just 30 seconds. The elephant takes a further 30 minutes to expire. The death agony is not pretty. The lions chew through tough hide and clamp their jaws around the elephant's trunk in an attempt to stop it breathing. The sound of the animal's gargling, wheezing and hissing is sickening and the lions provide a chilling accompaniment of low, contented growling. It is a hellish scene, all the more so for the faint red glow cast by the infra-red cameras. There are scuffles as members of the pride jostle for position on the carcass. When they eventually can feast no more they pull away, their faces covered in blood, gore-stained up to their haunches. Panting with the exertion of gorging themselves, they lick each other's faces and flop down, exhausted. "It seems irreverent watching a noble beast being killed. Elephants are such honourable animals," Keeling says grimly. "It's just unbelievable. The lions are trying to kill every night, even though their bellies are full. They are just machines." He is already worrying about the graphic nature of the footage. "We will have to be judicious about how we use it, so it's not too gory." A year later, back in Britain, the lions and elephants sequence for the Planet Earth program Great Plains has been created from weeks of filming. The footage has been carefully edited but is nevertheless an uncompromising piece of film, possibly the most shocking natural history footage you will have seen, up there with the film of killer whales hunting sea lions that jolted viewers out of their armchairs back in 1990. David Attenborough, who narrates, says the filmmaker's job is "to make it tolerable" for a television audience. "People accuse us of the pornography of violence. But if they saw it (in real life), as you have done, they would see the difference between how we produced it and how it was shot." Once again, a BBC film crew, working under incredibly challenging conditions, has succeeded in capturing the brutal realities of the natural world in a way we haven't seen before. If you retain any sentimental feelings about lions, prepare to lose them. The Times

Things You Actually Really Want to Know About Me by onmyown2723
Height::	5'9" or 175cm
Weight::	Hehe...I don't think so...
Right or left-handed::	Right
Heritage::	English/French Canadian
Are you in love?::	Only with my car
How do you alleviate stress?::	Play my drums
Do you swear?::	Fucken Oath
If you could have any job, what would it be?::	Airline Pilot
What are your favorite sports to watch?::	Rugby League (hey,I'm an Aussie)
What was your first car?::	A bomb
What kind of car do you have now?::	VB V8 Commodore
Were you popular in high school?::	Did home schooling so yea..liked myself..lol
Do you like thunderstorms?::	Love them..
Is the glass half empty or half full?::	Half full
Best places you have ever been?::	Hervey Bay
Favorite food?::	Steak..blood rare
Least favorite food?::	McDonalds or KFC
What type of music do you dislike most?::	Rap/Hip-Hop
Do you take illegal drugs?::	No
Do you believe in love at first sight?::	No
If you're not in love now, have you ever been?::	No
Are you a risk taker?::	Yes
What do you think about most?::	My kids
Ever cheated on a b/f or g/f? Be honest!::	No
Have you ever been to jail?::	No
Do you wear contacts or glasses?::	No
Hugs or kisses?::	Depends on who I am hugging or kissing
Living arrangements?::	In house with family
What is your bedtime?::	When I am tired
Boxers, briefs, or boxer briefs?::	Boxers
Piercings/tattoos?::	6 Piercings
Biggest pet peeve?::	Gossip
I have low tolerance for people who::	Don't wanna work
Do you sleep with the T.V. on?::	Yes
Do you have a T.V. in your bedroom?::	Yes
Can you handle the truth?::	Yes
Hair color?::	Auburn/Red
What are you afraid of?::	Nothing..well Heights..
Will you have sex with any pretty little thing or does it actually mean something?::	Depends on my mood
Friend you've had the longest?::	Suzzie (friend for 24 years)
Early bird or night owl?::	Night Owl
Best advice you've ever received?::	Believe Half of what you see and none of what you hear!
Favorite quote?::
Favorite type of music?::	Heavy Metal
Biggest weakness?::	My compassion
Biggest fear?::	Heights
Are you close to your parents?::	They are dead
Any brothers or sisters?::	1 brother 1 sister
Have a religion?::	No
Views on politics?::	A good politician is a dead one!
Worst habits?::
What's one thing you'd like to do but haven't done yet?::	Bungee Jump
Where do you picture yourself in five years?::	No idea...probably here..
Are you laid back or high strung?::	Laid back
Do you like to try new things?::	Yessum
Is family important to you?::	Very
Are you optimistic or pessimistic?::	Optimistic
Have you ever been engaged?::	Yes
Favorite places you've been?::	Didn't we do this already question 15
Are you a procrastinator?::	No
Fly or drive?::	Drive
Favorite pasttime?::	Horse Riding
Longest relationship?::	12 Years
Biggest mistake?::	Marriage
Craziest thing you've ever done?::	Kicked and spit on a cop car with cop inside..lol
Like to party?::	Yes
Drink a lot (of alcohol)?::	Sometimes
Set your own path or follow the crowd?::	My own path
Like kids?::	My own...tolerate others
*In a boyfriend/girlfriend*
Hair color?::	Don't care
Body type?::	Average I guess
Personality?::	Yes...he has to have one...Hehe
Style of clothing?::	casual / trendy
Do they have to be popular?::	no
Turn-on?::	Tattoos and piercings
Long hair or short?::	Short
Take this survey | Find surveys Pimp My Profile