{"id":22305,"date":"2022-09-17T16:00:37","date_gmt":"2022-09-17T20:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=22305"},"modified":"2022-12-02T11:33:14","modified_gmt":"2022-12-02T16:33:14","slug":"the-kill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=22305","title":{"rendered":"The Kill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Linda Lou Burton posting from Amboseli National Park, Kenya<\/em>\u2013\u201cThat\u2019s another one dying \"\"<\/a>of thirst,\u201d Amos said. \u201cThey get so weak they can barely move.\u201d Amos was our new driver; we\u2019d assembled in our vehicle the same way as we did before \u2013 Rick and me third row back, behind Otis and Venita. Abdi was in the other 4×4 with the rest of the gang. Amos was straightforward in his approach, giving us facts about Amboseli in a quietly scientific way. Maybe that\u2019s what it took, seeing what he saw every day. Stay unemotional, stay sane. Record the facts. Report on what\u2019s happening. And what\u2019s happening is — animals are dying of thirst. We\u2019d fallen into a state of shock since leaving the airport twenty minutes ago. All we were seeing was dust. Flat plains, and dust. None of us expected this; only hours before we\u2019d been on the lush plains of the Maasai Mara, where everything was green and animals grazed peacefully side by side. The zebra before us now didn\u2019t fit the pattern in our minds; something was off. It was about to get worse. Amos drove on. \u201cThere\u2019s one that died,\u201d he said, just as I spotted a zebra carcass on the ground. \u201cYou can tell it wasn\u2019t a kill because of how it lays. Every day is like Christmas for the lions these days. They don\u2019t even have to hunt.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>There were bushes by the roadside; Amos suspected a lion sheltering there, and he was right. We watched as the lion stretched, sat up, and stared; bored, it seemed. Thinking of something to do next? He stretched again, then stood, and ambled out, heading for the open field.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Amos backed the 4×4, turned to track the lion. Around another curve lay zebra bones picked clean, a death from other days. Another zebra carcass then, more freshly fallen. Past the bushes to an open space; the 4×4 was in position now. We watched the lion.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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A zebra standing in the dust. The lion approached, a slow-stroll walk across the field. The zebra did not move. \u201cHe can\u2019t,\u201d said Amos. \u201cHe is exhausted.\u201d Venita softly crying then, the rest of us sat mesmerized. The lion struck. The zebra fell. The lion turned, and walked away. The zebra kicked two times, and died.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Note: As you can see, I did not get a photo of the kill itself. I was, in truth, paralyzed, and could not think of my camera at that moment. This was the beginning of our three-hour game drive in Amboseli National Park on the afternoon of September 17. The next two posts are as sharply disturbing as this one; it was an afternoon that shook us all.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The story of the elephants is next.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Amboseli National Park https:\/\/amboseli.com\/<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Linda Lou Burton posting from Amboseli National Park, Kenya\u2013\u201cThat\u2019s another one dying of thirst,\u201d Amos said. \u201cThey get so weak they can barely move.\u201d Amos was our new driver; we\u2019d assembled in our vehicle the same way as we did before \u2013 Rick and me third row back, behind Otis and Venita. Abdi was in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4318,4319],"tags":[4493,4496,4338,4370,4438],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22305"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22305"}],"version-history":[{"count":100,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22552,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22305\/revisions\/22552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}