World Lion Day | Great Plains

It is personal, we know. Beverly and Dereck Joubert were involved in the design of World Lion Day. It also falls on famous wildlife artist and lion lover Keith Joubert’s birthday, someone who introduced Dereck early on in his childhood to the sheer joy of those spine-chilling calls as they rattled the screws in our old beaten-up truck.
 
He grew up looking at pug marks in the sand, trying desperately to test himself and tell just how long ago the cats had moved through the landscape. He later learned under the tutorship of Alfaas Mbongela, Shangaan lion tracker extraordinaire. They worked at the Chobe Lion Research Institute, his first foray into Botswana. They delved deeper through long nights with lions and understood the rivalry between them and hyenas as eternal enemies. 

Each year a new part of the great lion story unveils itself, yet we still don’t really know lions, probably the most well-researched animal in Africa. They are much more than the iconic large-maned rulers of the plains. They are the glue that keeps it all together. Without lions, much of the intact biodiversity in savanna ecosystems unravel.

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