I spent a few days in Botswana last month with lion experts and filmmakers, Beverly and Dereck Joubert.

One thing that the Jouberts said to me that really stuck was, “Hunting a lion is the most cowardly thing you can do.”

So when Melissa Bachman or Kendall Jones or anyone who safari hunts posts pictures of their kills, I’m not impressed.

First off, “stalking” lions means you have a guide. That guide takes you out in a big van.

You find buffalo.

It’s not always buffalo, but generally the lions stay close to animals they’re hunting.

And BOOM. There’s a lion sitting in the shade. Relaxing.

Now for the lions themselves.
Here were three things I learned:

1. Lions are big cats (duh). They act like them too.
2. They just sleep and sit around all day, like cats.
3. Lions do not give a shit about you. They see you as that big van. They don’t mess with you.

There was one instance when we were out with the lions and they sat next to our truck and used it as shade. They were literally three feet away from us.

Here a male lion is walking right next to the car I’m in.

Still just sitting there. They aren’t moving.

Just to show you how incredibly difficult it is to hunt a lion…here’s a selfie I took next to one.

As you can see, the lion tried to run away from us.

JK, he fell asleep…

…and tried to block the light from his eyes.

To sum things up:

Hunting a lion isn’t very hard. To kill a lion you have to be a coward.

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