It was one of those golden evenings, which linger forever in memory. We had spent a day on the go in our corner of the Okavongo Delta in Botswana. We decided to park the vehicle on the game-trampled plain and watch the sun go down. We were there for at least two hours quietly letting the world go by. It was a passing parade of nature at its best. A herd of greater kudu came down for a drink. Elephants rumbled by. Flocks of birds passed to and fro and pied kingfisher hovered over the open water.
The enchantment was complete when a lioness softly padded past us followed by a small, anxious group of female lechwe. The lechwe are swamp antelopes. They were following the lioness, which was not in hunting mode, in order to keep her in sight. If she changed her body language or darted for cover they would be have been gone with great alacrity. This is quite common in predator/prey relationships. Predators virtually never succeed if the prey has seen them well in advance of the charge.