Just like humans, animals in the wild have their own best friends and favorite companions. After spending time apart, animals are often happy to see each other again, and in the case of these lions, greet each other like old friends.
Gerhard Hildebrand sighted these two lions near Letaba, and sent the footage of their reunion in to Latest Sightings. These two male lions made a majestic and emotional pair as they greeted each other after an unknown amount of time apart.
A Grizzled Old Boy
This footage began with one of the lions emerging from the grass at the side of the road. Although the exact age of the lion was unknown, this was clearly an animal that had lived through a significant portion of its life.
It carried itself with a kind of savage aspect which suggested that it had plenty of experience surviving in the harsh conditions of the wild, and it spared no more than a glance at the vehicle which Gerhard was using.
The driver threw the vehicle into reverse to follow the majestic lion as it made its way up the road until, after only travelling a short distance, the lion broke off and moved back into the grass.
An Expected Meeting
The other lion did not immediately react to the appearance of the first at the side of the road, and the long grass camouflaged it so well that it wasn’t even clear it was there at first.
The first lion stood with its head raised sniffing the air, potentially unsure of the second lion in the moments before recognition, and warily waiting to see what the other predator’s reaction would be to its presence.
The moments passed in a tense standoff before the second lion climbed up to its feet, and walked over to greet the first. Despite their warm greeting of each other, neither lion seemed to be particularly in a hurry, each of them completely secure in themselves.
Two Dutiful Lions
The two lions must have been from the same pride, and perhaps they were both patrolling different areas of their pride’s territory and happened to meet in the middle.
Although all lions are prepared to pick up the slack when duties need to be done such as hunting and territorial defense, lionesses are typically the primary hunters of the pride, while males take up the task of maintaining the integrity of their borders.
Hyenas and wild dogs are both competitors that source their meals from the same pool of prey as lions, which means making sure these other animals don’t enter into the pride’s territory is an important duty.
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The Best Of Friends
Both of these lions appeared to be travelling solo, without the rest of their pride with them. This would suggest that they were undertaking overlapping patrols to ensure that they weren’t under any threat from any rival predators.
Exactly how long they’d been on these patrols is unknown, but once they’d recognized each other they were clearly happy to see one another, and they acted as if this was a long awaited reunion.