Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey

by Jane Goodall

I turned to find a young male lion about forty feet away. He gazed at us with great interest. Gillian wanted to hide from him in the thick undergrowth at the bottom of the gorge, but I felt that we should climb up onto the plains, keeping in the open. Carefully we backed away from the lion, then turned and walked slowly to the side of the gorge. The lion was about two years old, with a mane starting to sprout in wispy clumps from his shoulders. Lions are intensely curious at this age and almost certainly this one had seen nothing like Gillian and me in his entire life. He followed us for at least a hundred meters, then watched as we climbed up the side of the gorge onto the plains. Later, Louis told us it was lucky we hadn’t run—very likely he would have given chase, unable to resist hunting us in play, like a kitten after a ball of wool.