Saving Sirga: Journey Into the Heart of a Lion

Establishes the setting, the bond between Val and Sirga and the back story of human/predator conflict. It starts with Sirga as a small cub, Willie the lion hunter’s confession and rogue lions feasting on cattle. It establishes the captive rogue lions, what it takes to feed and look after them. A rogue lion invades a farms and Willie has to capture it with the San, Val, a pickup truck and a net before they can be shot. It shows the problems farmers have with wild dogs, and builds towards Sirga’s first kill at the age of 16 months, and her stalking and chasing game, which opens up new possibilities for her in the future.

Narrows the focus down to Val and Sirga and Grasslands. Val and Sirga go out on a hunt. Sirga chases kudu, plays with a small tortoise and learns about the dangers Oryx horns pose to a young lioness. Val goes with Willie to take an Oryx to an isolated San settlement in the no-man’s-land between the farms and the Central Kalahari game Reserve. Mikkel Legarth, Val’s business partner comes to help make improvements to the small volunteer camp.

Highlights the vulnerability of captive-bred predators in the Kalahari. Val and Sirga go hunting. They swim in a seasonal pan and encounter a puff adder, lizards and a large tortoise, Val gives the orphaned wild dog puppies their first rabies vaccination. Sirga is learning to hunt. She chases wildebeest and takes down a hartebeest. Val visits Two weeks after the hartebeest kill Sirga falls ill.

Explores whether capturing lions is better than shooting them. Large predators are hardwired to live, fight and die on their own terms and it takes constant vigilance to keep them safe in captivity. Captivity might be better than death, but it isn’t a long-term solution either.

The end of the next dry season brings the series strands together. Sirga chases eland. Three male lions are moved into an electrified enclosure. A scientist comes to take samples of maggots that are found in the slaughtered wildebeest’s horns. Val moves a one-eyed lion into another enclosure. On a morning hunt Sirga chases down a wildebeest calf.