Mama Tau - White Lions Breeding Project

We are entering through the iron gate on a fenced private property in the South African Waterberg. The staff is trying to close the gate fast behind us. We are on the lion territory. The morning air is filled with the scent of wet ground, fresh grass and young leaves. At night it was raining steadily. In the rainy season the bush is like a green wall. Get a glimpse of an animal in the maze of leaves is almost impossible. Nevertheless after a while I can notice some movement on my side of the jeep. A big and almost white animal is approaching fast. "That´s Sebaka," whispers Dirk standing next to me. The magnificent lion male is like from another world. He is coming very close to vehicle. In the open jeep it is only tens of centimetres of air separating me from the lion. I am looking intently in his blue grey eyes and feel like hypnotized. It is the first white male born in Mama Tau. In that time, when he was found by the staff he had hardly six pounds. He was named  "Sebaka" which in the native language of the Northern Sotho means a chance. In the evening, when I had a four month old cub on my lap left by his too young mother and it intensely sucked my finger, I was convinced that it will not waste its chance to survive.

In Mama Tau I could stay only for two days, because during my short stay in South Africa I had to visit yet another places. The gallery you can browse is a result of hardly three hours of photographing. It is a short declaration of my admiration to big cats and expression of thanks to Bev and Dirk Strydom who made me for a while a member of Mama Tau and their family and gave me a chance to find new friends at the other end of the world.

For more information on Mama Tau and White Lions Breeding Project see www.mamatau.com