Injured Warrior

This old lion was called Birmingham by the Ulusaba Park rangers. He is one of South Africa's most famous lions. When he came to the park and took over the pride, which had previously been ruled by another male, he - unlike what lions usually do in such cases - did not kill the lion cubs born to the Pride lionesses from the previous alpha male. That's what they called him - South Africa's most noble lion. We met Birmingham almost at sunset, during an evening game drive. Ranger, who was looking for him, told us that he hadn't seen this lion for a couple of days and wondered what could have happened to him. It turned out that there had been a lot of trouble - a pair of young lion brothers (they are in the photos in this album) had taken Birmingham into the hunting grounds of the pride and had attacked Birmingham and seriously maimed him. When we met him, Birmingham had already been lying in the bushes for over 24 hours, licking deep lacerations, his back leg was broken. He was very unwell, had not eaten for a long time and was close to death. We watched the defeated noble warrior for half an hour, and he finally got up and waddled to a small stream nearby to drink water. Peter, our ranger, suggested we leave quietly so as not to disturb the lion. He shook his head sadly and said we might be the last people to see Birmingham alive. When I posted Birmingham's photo on instagram I got over a dozen questions from other safari enthusiasts - what's up with Birmingham, why is he missing? Apparently this guy really was a star in the big cat fan community.

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