National Geographic: African Odyssey Page #2

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doesn't it?

Oh, it looks great. It looks great.

It really does.

I mean how could you

have a better kitchen?

Oh, I tell you.

With great relief they find

their camp still intact.

They can begin their work immediately.

The dry season is beginning,

and as grasses on the riverbed

have started to wither,

antelope will disperse

and lions will follow

making it much harder for

Delia and Mark to find them.

I was saying

that after the initial reaction,

it feels great to get back.

But then you look out.

It really looks so bleak. I was just...

We've got to start looking for

lions right away and hyenas.

Yeah, because the lions

are going to be here and gone.

I mean, very quickly.

Yeah.

A last storm sweeps the dry river

and distant shrub-covered dunes.

Dawn brings the zoologists

a welcome sound.

Mark will try to locate

the lion from the air

as Delia pursues him on the ground.

It's amazing that

even year after year

the same lions use the

same trees to lie up in,

and even new lions

that take over from old lions

use the same trees again.

Mark, do you see him?

Negative, love.

Mark searches a tree island

where he knows from previous experience

Kalahari lions are likely to lie up

in the shade for the day.

Did you see him?

It looks thick from the ground,

but up there, I don't know.

I may be wrong

but I think that may be what

the springbok were running from

when we were up there trying

to find him.

I think he came out on the opposite

side of the island... outfoxed us.

We'll have to take another

drive up there.

Tracking the lion takes

them far from camp,

so they spend the night

near their last sighting.

I love this Swiss army knife.

You can't open it unless you split it.

Here, you want me to do it?

Yeah, you open it.

Which one? This one?

That one...

The woman's a genius.

Brute force.

Mark is up before dawn.

He and Delia reason

that male lions in the vicinity

may feel challenged by the sound of

another lion and come to investigate.

I don't believe this.

There's a bloody lion out here.

It's actually worked.

We ought to sit down

and make very little commotion

because he's looking at us.

Yeah, we know we don't want to

frighten him away,

now that he's here.

Yeah, let's just sit down and not move.

Male lions roar to establish claim

to a pride

and sometimes fight to the death

to defend territory.

This lion searches for the intruder.

Now Delia and Mark will try to get

close enough to dart him

and collar him with

a radio transmitter.

Then he can be tracked systematically

to determine his range size,

social contacts, and prey selection.

The lion has left the river plain.

They follow his tracks called spoor.

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