| Heart
of a Lioness
 Samburu
Reserve is unashamedly red in tooth and claw - the dominion
of predators, it’s a dangerous place for the vulnerable.
At night the hills reverberate with roars as lions claim their
territory – it’s the wildest part of Kenya’s
northern frontier.
But when a lioness has a change of heart, for one small antelope
- a baby oryx - this land of predators becomes a land of miracles.
Astonishing the scientific world, a young lioness, adopts
a baby oryx and mothers it with infinite tenderness for 16
days. Foregoing her most basic needs she proves both a tender
and fierce protector. The Samburu people call her Kamunyak
– the blessed one.
Saba Douglas-Hamilton, a wildlife expert born and raised
in East Africa, documents this extraordinary story as it unfolds
before her eyes. Drawing upon her expert knowledge of lions,
Saba unearths clues explaining Kamunyak’s extraordinary
behaviour and tries to unravel the mystery behind this natural
wonder. But first she has to find Kamunyak. Facing dangerous
buffalo, defensive elephants, Saba tracks Kamunyak down with
help from both the people and animals of Samburu. Relying
on the Park Wardens lion identification photos, her friendship
with the local Samburu people, and her bush tracking skills,
Saba searches for Kamunyak and introduces us to Samburu reserve
in all its vibrancy and colour.
But seeing Kamunyak for the first time is nothing short
of witnessing a miracle. Appearing out of nowhere, the lion
and the lamb curl up side by side. Fascinated, Saba follows
them for days. She’s not alone in her astonishment,
gawping gazelles bark out their alarm, not quite believing
their eyes.
Back at camp, Saba taps into all her contacts, but the scientists
she’s writing too are just as puzzled, for what Kamunyak
has done is unprecedented. It can get lonely in the bush,
but Saba’s blessed by a nightly visitation, a genet
cat comes to eat the moths attracted to Saba’s paraffin
lamps.
Exploring oryx natural history and the nature of big cats,
Saba sets out to understand Kamunyak’s history and what
might have stimulated her bizarre fixation. Her motives are
a mystery, especially when she plays a dangerous game of cat
and mouse with the calf. But it’s not until Saba meets
lion expert, Dr. Laurence Frank, that the pennies start to
drop. He reveals that lion prides on the park boundary come
into frequent conflict with people, too often fatal for the
lions. There’s a great temptation for lions living near
human settlement to hunt livestock. But when core members
of a pride are killed the effects on lion society are devastating.
Whole lion prides can be shattered and the survivors isolated.
Unable to defend a territory, these lone lions become outcasts
in their own land and must to eke out an existence as a vagrant.
Laurence suggests that if Kamunyak lost her pride and suffered
from a deeply traumatic event, the bad experience coupled
with her immaturity might well have sparked off her aberrant
mothering.
Saba maps out what she knows of the resident Samburu lions
and discovers that Kamunyak does indeed seem to be solitary.
Without a pride and lacking female relatives to help her hunt
or in defence, her future looks bleak. She’s also in
danger from hostile lions that don’t want her around
trespassing. In the two days that Saba’s been away visiting
Laurence, Kamunyak’s condition has deteriorated considerably.
With a shock Saba begins to realise the full significance
of Kamunyak’s misplaced obsession. Both Kamunyak and
the calf are starving.
But it seems help is at hand. Kamunyak’s fame has spread
throughout the land and hundreds of people come to see the
Miracle Lioness for themselves. Everyone’s touched by
her state and the Park Warden is pressurised to intervene
and feed the lioness. At night he throws her a chunk of meat.
Saba keeps watch for hours, but the lioness won’t take
the food.
Next day, Saba’s more hopeful. Kamunyak and the calf
come down to the river to drink. It’s the first time
Saba’s seen them doing something sensible. Here their
fond attachment to one another confirms what Laurence Frank
suggested, that trauma from losing her pride probably fuelled
Kamunyak’s quirky obsession. But hidden along the river
bank danger is lurking. Here predators lie in wait for unwary
prey. Kamunyak’s inverted nature, but will nature now
strike back.
On the 15th day, both Kamunyak and the calf are much worse
for wear. Kamunyak rests in thick bush, her energy spent.
For a moment she lets down her guard and the calf wanders
out of sight. A shocking snarl springs both Kamunyak and Saba
into action – horrified they see a massive lion has
caught the calf in a killing grip. Kamunyak is desperate,
but too frightened to get any closer to the male. Saba watches
in horror as the calf is killed and Kamunyak reacts with all
the passion and fear of a lioness who’s lost her cub.
But all that’s left of the calf is the red blood that
the male licks off his lips.
The next day, Kamunyak kills a warthog and eats for the first
time in 16 days. One month later she adopts another oryx.
Over the next year, Kamunyak adopts 5 more oryx calves, but
none last as long as the first. One dies of starvation, some
escape, the last she abandons after just a few hours and it’s
found by its mother. Then Kamunyak disappears and no-one’s
seen her again.
As Saba leaves Samburu she reflects on what she’s seen.
Kamunyak has turned nature on its head and mystified the world.
She’s moved off into the vast wilderness of Samburu
and who knows if she’ll be seen again. But while she
remains an enigma to the scientific world, she has become
a legend of the people of Samburu. They way they tell the
story is that she was barren and that god gave her a child.
That one day, she will rise up in front of them as surely
as the African sun. But what remains with Saba is the poignancy
of her tale. Saba hopes that Kamunyak will beat the odds of
a solitary lioness and raise cubs of her own, to return at
last to the company of lions.
Saba and Dudu Douglas-Hamilton
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