LION ROARING INTERUPTS OBSERVING SESSION IN WORCESTERSHIRE - YES, REALLY !!!

[paulastro]

I stayed with my friend Chris for a few days in Wyre Forest last week, for deer watching and astronomy.  Nothing new in this, we've both shared these interests for over fifty years.  

He lives with Sylve in an old mill cottage  adjacent to a brook in the middle of the forest, the brook being on the  boarder between Worcestershire and Shropshire.

Anyway,  we were observing with Chris's 130mm triplet, when I heard what sounded something like a beast roaring which made my hair stand on end.  To me it sounded as if it was only a few hundred yards away!

Oh, that'll be a lion said Chris, rather casually I thought. A what ?!   At this point I was wandering if there was time for us to run back to the cottage before the lion bounded down the far bank above the brook, leapt the water and landed on top of us!

It turns out it was a lion roaring in the West Midlands Safari park which is about three miles away as the crow flies. Apparently, it can be heard sometimes when the wind is in the right direction during the night.  In all the years I'd been going to the forest I'd never heard it before.

It was a most primeval and haunting sound, no wonder the deer are always so alert!  Next time I observe with Chris, I'll be a bit closer to the cottage - just in case 😊.

 

[Swoop1]

I have shared stories and pictures of our family trips to various parts of South Africa, including spending time as volunteers at a Cheetah rescue sanctuary.

The sanctuary has two lion siblings, Chuck and Norris who were little cubs rescued from a canned hunting farm when we first met them (small and non aggressive enough to have them on your lap for feeding and a bit of TLC).

As time progressed and they got bigger, they grew from cubs, through the young teenage phase where it was safe to put your arm into the enclosure and scritch THE spot behind their ear or on their rump, into proper, full sized, shaggy maned beasts who would recognise your scent and try to welcome you back by pee spraying at you.

As they grew, they developed their vocals from little mewls, to angry wails right through to developing the big cat roar. Going off to sleep whilst listening to nearby practicing was spine tingling.

They develop the deep roar by practice. It starts to come when you hear Hnah Hnah Hnah at quite a bass level. As they get older the Hnah gets a more guttural quality and then once they have it, you get the bejesus scared out of you by an early morning loud, primevally sphincter relaxing holler that we all imagine a lion should sound like.

I love big cats👍

[paulastro]

That's great, thanks for that, at least i know a little more about how lions roar now 🙂.

Edited August 18, 2022 by paulastro

[DaveL59]

only thing you need to make sure of...

that you can run faster than the other guy 😉 

[Ouroboros]

Hey Ho! If the re-wilders get their way we’ll have to look out for wolves, bears and lynx ….. and lions, why not? In for a pound …. 😉

[DaveL59]

2 minutes ago, Ouroboros said:

Hey Ho! If the re-wilders get their way we’ll have to look out for wolves, bears and lynx ….. and lions, why not? In for a pound …. 😉

well I guess one upside might be the adrenaline pumping might tighten the membrane over the cornea and sharpen your vision, giving cleaner sharper views in the eyepiece in the brief moment before fight/flight kicks in, or you get eaten 😉 

[Alan White]

Makes the Badgers snuffling near me when observing feel quite tame now.

Thanks for sharing the story Paul, made me grin.

[Greymouser]

Reminds me of when my wife was giving birth to our son on the maternity ward in Blackpool. I was on the ward with her, 24 hrs/day, to help care for her and every night/morning, we would here the lions roaring, from nearby Blackpool Zoo! The Lion enclosure was only a few hundred yards from the ward. A strange sound, only beaten by some of the strange sounds out of some of the other babies! One sounded barely human!

[DaveL59]

20 minutes ago, Greymouser said:

 A strange sound, only beaten by some of the strange sounds out of some of the other babies! One sounded barely human!

and that post just as a film about exorcism starts on the TV 😮 

Edited August 18, 2022 by DaveL59

[paulastro]

1 hour ago, Alan White said:

Makes the Badgers snuffling near me when observing feel quite tame now.

Thanks for sharing the story Paul, made me grin.

Alan, your experience reminded me of something that happened to me years ago when observing in my mums garden - I think I was about 11/12 years old.  I've never told anyone before, so promise not to tell anyone !

It was very dark in the early hours, and I hadn't taken a torch out with me. I suddenly heard some heavy breathing close behind me, I turned round and I couldn't see anyone or anything - I was terrified.  I turned around again and it happened again.  That was enough for me, I ran indoors and locked the door behind me.

After I had been indoors for a few minutes and had calmed down I just had to check what it was. Out I went with a torch. Again, I heard something breathing behind me.  I steadied myself and wheeled round with the torch - nothing.  That is until I lowered my gaze, and there by my feet was.... a hedgehog!  I'd never been so pleased to see anything in my life.

If I hadn't been curious to go outside to check, I think my astronomy adventures might have ended right there!  😱.

Remember Alan, not a word!

[Alan White]

1 minute ago, paulastro said:

Alan, your experience reminded me of something that happened to me years ago when observing in my mums garden - I think I was about 11/12 years old.  I've never told anyone before, so promise not to tell anyone !

It was very dark in the early hours, and I hadn't taken a torch out with me. I suddenly heard some heavy breathing close behind me, I turned round and I couldn't see anyone or anything - I was terrified.  I turned around again and it happened again.  That was enough for me, I ran indoors and locked the door behind me.

After I had been indoors for a few minutes and had calmed down I just had to check what it was. Out I went with a torch. Again, I heard something breathing behind me.  I steadied myself and wheeled round with the torch - nothing.  That is until I lowered my gaze, and there by my feet was.... a hedgehog!  I'd never been so pleased to see anything in my life.

If I hadn't been curious to go outside to check, I think my astronomy adventures might have ended right there!  😱.

Remember Alan, not a word!

Mum’s the word Paul….

[Astrobits]

Reminded me of observing the total eclipse in 2002. We went to the Kruger National Park in South Africa for the observation, along with hundreds of others. The Park Authorities had selected a large grassy area in the open Park as the site for the viewing, no fences or other barriers just a few armed Park Rangers wandering around. Didn't see or hear any wild animals while we observed the spectacle. Plenty of wildlife later as we drove through the park on the way home.

Nigel

[BRADLEY 1953]

Hi  cat lovers, I am reminded of an incident which occurred many years ago when Paul and myself were doing a Perseid meteor watch one night on Clee Hill, not far from Ludlow. We were surrounded by heather moor and intermittent gorse thickets, which proved useful as a windbreak. Then well into the watch we heard the sound of heavy breathing in conjunction with a continuous rasping like noise from the bushes nearby. Paul was convinced it was nothing more than a sheep with asthma, there are plenty grazing on the hills round about, but I was not so sure. In the winter months that followed I received two seperate reports from friends, of strange happenings in close proximity to this spot.  The first was when a close friend, in company with his wife, were walking near the summit of Titterstone Clee, when they came upon the tracks of a large feline in the freshly fallen snow which then carpeted the hill, apparently they soon made their way back to the car, quite unsettled by the event I would imagine. The second incident involved a friend of my fathers,  who sadly as since passed away. He describes an encounter he witnessed from the comfort of his car, once again it was on a snowy afternoon, when a large cat, he thought it might have been a Lnyx !  was seen pursuing a brown hare on the heather clad moorland just above the main road. Coincidence or what? I will leave this to members of the Astro Lounge to decide.    Keep your eyes peeled,    Chris .  

[paulastro]

6 hours ago, BRADLEY 1953 said:

Hi  cat lovers, I am reminded of an incident which occurred many years ago when Paul and myself were doing a Perseid meteor watch one night on Clee Hill, not far from Ludlow. We were surrounded by heather moor and intermittent gorse thickets, which proved useful as a windbreak. Then well into the watch we heard the sound of heavy breathing in conjunction with a continuous rasping like noise from the bushes nearby. Paul was convinced it was nothing more than a sheep with asthma, there are plenty grazing on the hills round about, but I was not so sure. In the winter months that followed I received two seperate reports from friends, of strange happenings in close proximity to this spot.  The first was when a close friend, in company with his wife, were walking near the summit of Titterstone Clee, when they came upon the tracks of a large feline in the freshly fallen snow which then carpeted the hill, apparently they soon made their way back to the car, quite unsettled by the event I would imagine. The second incident involved a friend of my fathers,  who sadly as since passed away. He describes an encounter he witnessed from the comfort of his car, once again it was on a snowy afternoon, when a large cat, he thought it might have been a Lnyx !  was seen pursuing a brown hare on the heather clad moorland just above the main road. Coincidence or what? I will leave this to members of the Astro Lounge to decide.    Keep your eyes peeled,    Chris .  

I think after reading this Chris, what with the lions as well, I think sone  members of SGL might think it's safer to avoid this part of the Midlands 😅

On 18/08/2022 at 22:19, Alan White said:

Mum’s the word Paul….

Phew, thanks Alan 🙂.