{"id":24463,"date":"2023-02-08T14:38:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T13:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=24463"},"modified":"2023-02-13T10:17:53","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T09:17:53","slug":"survivor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/2023\/02\/08\/survivor\/","title":{"rendered":"Survivor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Tripod the lioness gets by with the help of her pride, but her future is far from certain <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Survivor<\/span><\/h2>\n\n

Six years ago, a poacher\u2019s snare <\/strong>robbed a lioness of her leg. Against the odds, she lives on in Kafue National Park, Zambia.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Words and images by <\/em>MIKE DEXTER <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

T<\/span>HE SHRILL CALLS OF CICADAS RESONATE through the heavy air as the woodland behind me shimmers in the rising heat of the day. A ring-necked dove, unseen in the canopy, urges me to \u201cwork harder, work harder, work harder,\u201d but my damp shirt and red skin argue that I already am. The dove wins and I continue searching the long, yellow grass that has thwarted my efforts for hours.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Somewhere in that grassland is the legendary lioness that has brought me to this remote corner of Zambia. She is an indomitable survivor, a warrior who is a testament to the resilience and fortitude of wild animals and the people who make it their duty to protect them. <\/p>\n\n

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Despite a history of poaching, wildlife \u2013 including hippos \u2013 is flourishing in Kafue <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Her name is Tripod, and her home is a veritable Eden. She lives in Kafue National Park, a wilderness of 22,400km\u00b2 (a similar size to Wales) blanketed in vast swathes of woodland interspersed with a mosaic of grasslands, wetlands and floodplains and cleaved in two by the lazy oxbows of the Kafue River. Her pride\u2019s territory lies to the east of the river, where hippos, crocodiles, water birds and a rich bounty of antelope are attracted to an expansive lagoon that holds water throughout the year. Taking in such beauty and abundance, it\u2019s difficult to conceive that below the surface lies a problem, malignant and widespread, that nearly cost Tripod her life. <\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

In 2016, Tripod was caught in a poacher\u2019s snare. This one was a particularly brutal trap in which a tree is bent and secured to the ground with a winch cable. When an animal steps on the trigger, the tree is released, tightening a wire noose around the victim\u2019s leg and hoisting it into the air where it hangs upside-down and eventually dies. <\/p>\n\n

AN ANIMAL AS POWERFUL AS a lion may break free, but the resulting injuries can be horrific. For Tripod, the snaring led to the loss of the lower part of her right hindleg. Robbed of her speed and stealth, she is today forced to hop; a slow, unsteady and exhausting gait that announces her presence with an audible thud, thud, thud. Gone is her ability to silently slink through long grass or chase down fleet-footed prey. Even keeping up with her pride is difficult.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

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The characteristic woodland and wetland of Kafue \u2013 one of Africa\u2019s largest national parks <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

THE QUESTION OF HOW TRIPOD has managed to survive in a wilderness where the law of nature dictates that only the strongest and fittest can has been doing laps in my mind for months. It is why I am spending weeks sweating in the Zambian sun, looking for answers. <\/p>\n\n

There is movement in the long grass. I glimpse a tawny coat and the twitch of a black-tipped tail and all at once Tripod strides forward, head and shoulders visible, into the clearing. She stands proud, regal and defiant, eyeing me warily from only 10m away. In this moment, there is no sign of her injury. She is just a wild lion living in a wild place, as lions have done for millennia, but the paradigm shifts as she walks onwards. Her front legs move with confidence and grace, but her back leg has to hop, catching the full weight of her hindquarters with every step. My heart goes out to her as she flops in the shade of an ebony tree. She seems so vulnerable, so alone in this vast wilderness. Where is her support, her safety, her pride? <\/p>\n\n

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Wire snares can easily be hidden in the bush, trapping animals for the illegal bushmeat trade <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
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So far, three lions have lost their legs to a snare in Kafue <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The answers are close at hand. Sitting beside me in the four-wheel drive is Phil Jeffery, safari guide and co-founder of Musekese Conservation. Set up in 2017, the organisation partners with the Zambian Carnivore Programme, in collaboration with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife, to protect Kafue through a combination of habitat management, engagement with local communities, research projects and law enforcement, including anti-poaching measures.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\u201cHer small but loyal pride are an efficient unit and make regular kills, sharing the spoils with Tripod\u201d <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

PHIL EXPLAINS THAT VETERINARY intervention can be possible when a lion is discovered in a snare \u2013 as was the case in 2017 with a lioness from the same pride, now sadly presumed dead. That Tripod has survived without such treatment makes her story all the more remarkable. <\/p>\n\n

Key to her success has been her adaptability. \u201cShe has altered her hunting techniques \u2013 she ambushes prey more like a leopard,\u201d says Phil. \u201cShe also does a lot of scavenging \u2013 there\u2019s an abundance of leopards here so she scavenges their kills.\u201d <\/p>\n\n