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“Lion cubs photographed in the wild in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.

“After our return from Kalagadi I read Hunters of the dunes, an account of Prof Fritz Eloff’s research on the lions in the Kalahari Gemsbok Park, the present day Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Among others he found that mortality among lion cubs in the Kalahari is very high. Prof Eloff writes that of the 17 cubs he followed over a period of three years, only one lived longer than 12 months. Starvation is a major cause of death among cubs, largely due to the Kalahari lion’s dependence on small mammals as a source of food. Other important mortality factors are neglect or abandonment of the cubs by the mother - they often leave their cubs for days while they go in search of food and cubs are entirely dependent on their mother’s milk for the first three months, diseases, attacks by other predators and the harsh desert environment. In other parts of Africa between two-thirds and three-quarters of all lion cubs do not survive the first year of their lives.”