Lions Sleep On Road During Lockdown [photos]

A pride of lions was spotted on Wednesday, 15 April 2020 apparently sleeping on the tar road which would normally be busy with tourists, just outside of Orpen Rest Camp which is located centrally on the western border of the Kruger National Park in South Africa.

It seems the pride is taking advantage of South Africa’s national lockdown as the Kruger, which has been closed since 25 March 2020 due to the lockdown.

“This lion pride are usually resident on Kempiana Contractual Park, an area Kruger tourists do not see,” Kruger National Park tweeted. “This afternoon they were lying on the tar road just outside of Orpen Rest Camp.”

Park ranger Richard Sowry was out on patrol on Wednesday when he snapped the pride sleeping on a road. “While driving near Orpen Rest Camp, he spotted the lions on the road ahead and pulled up just five metres away to look at the unusual phenomenon. As he took photos with his mobile phone, the lions did not seem bothered, most of them apparently fast asleep.” It was reported.

“Lions are used to people in vehicles,” he pointed out. “All animals have much more of an instinctive fear of people on foot, so if I had walked up they would never have allowed me to get so close.”

BBC hinted that normally Sowry would only see lions sleeping on the park’s roads on colder nights in the winter, when the tar retains quite a lot of heat.

“Kruger is a very wild place,” he says. “It has been wild and it is still wild.”

In addition, Sowry disclosed that he is excited to disseminate his photos to people who cannot visit the park right now because of the lockdown.
“These are difficult times for everyone and the intention was to bring people joy,” he says.