Chapter 41 41: Documentary (2)

[3rd POV] (Documentary : Episode 1) [Name : Dr. T. Soma Tonson Role : Lead researcher and ethologist Nationality : Indian (from Nagaland, Northeast India) Age : 62] "You know, science demands patience. And for us, in those early days of documenting Leo, patience was a strange mixture of dread and fascination," the aged man said with light chuckles that sounded incredibly graceful. "After the first encounter, we made a unanimous decision to observe him more closely. Not to interfere, not to tag, not to tranquillise. Just observe. We did not get permission from the higher-ups, we did not have funding to document another male lion, but the whole prospect of a thriving lone lion with no tail was just too interesting to simply ignore. Leo's whole existence was seemingly built to intrigue us scientists," he said and carefully folded his arms. "And we observed him from the sky. Our drone operator, Ramirez, was the sole person responsible for documenting Leo in the early days," he said. The scene changed to show footage of the crew launching a drone in the sky. Ramirez, the young Mexican, was controlling the drone and flying it in the sky with obvious expertise. "We outfitted a silent drone with long-range optics and thermal imaging, keeping it high enough so that it wouldn't disturb Leo and hopefully he wouldn't even notice it." The scene changed again to show from the drone's camera. The aerial shots of Leo as he wandered around the Serengeti played one after the other. Some showed him stalking through the grass like a shadow, while others showed him walking along the riverbanks. The scene showed days passing, the sun rising and falling on the horizon. The drone kept its trail on Leo as it observed the lion and everything he did with great detail. "As you can see, he wandered endlessly," Dr. Tonson said, "He had no pride, no siblings, no prey, no destination. He seemed to be wandering aimlessly around the Serengeti region. Even when he came across other animals, he never hunts them. The only thing he did was watch and observe," The camera showed Leo walking through the Serengeti and stopping to watch a family of warthogs pass him. He did not charge at them, simply raised his nose to remember their scent before moving on. The footage changed to show a montage of Leo doing god knows what all around the Serengeti. He would sit down and gaze at a cluster of zebras grazing and then disappearing into the horizon. There was a scene of him tracking prey, smelling animal dung and digging at rabbit holes. He watched crocodiles in the rivers, watched jackals scavenge and fight for food. He followed groups of birds flying in the sky and would often pick high elevated places to sit down and relax instead of going under a tree. "Of course, after a few days of watching him do the most mundane of things, we finally came to realise what he was doing," Dr. Tonson said and took a small pause. There was a brief tension in the air, and then the doctor revealed it rather dramatically. "Leo was studying the land and mapping it." The screen split: on one side was the drone paths tracking Leo's movement over the course of four days, and on the other was a clean visual of Serengeti terrain. "A field team used GPS overlays to track his movement over four days. The result was baffling." The screen showed a glowing line that traced Leo's movement like a spiderweb, starting from his first known location and spreading outward. A heatmap began to form, revealing the slow emergence of a wide-ranging mental map. "If you look at the map, we have highlighted the paths Leo had taken in the duration of four days. One thing you would notice immediately is that he never took the same path twice. He carved a new terrain each day and never repeated his steps. He was learning the land," he said as if revealing a big secret. Cutting to a new clip, Leo stops by a hollowed log. He sniffed it and tapped a paw inside, then continued walking. Another clip showed him drinking briefly from a small stream. He looked around and then simply walked off again. He never lingered in one location for too long. "It was almost like he was logging landmarks," he said, The screen finally cuts to Leo standing still in the open plan. His head was facing up to the sky with closed eyes. His fur danced at the tune of the breeze, his nose twitching lightly. His tongue would come out now and then, as if he were licking the air. "You can see here that Leo is observing the wind direction at certain times of the day. It is impossible to predict wind currents, but you can get used to it. He was learning the pattern of the wind of this land," he said. "That goes beyond just instinct. What we are witnessing is an advanced cognition from a wild animal." "As someone who had studied animal behaviour for decades, I could tell you that lions do not behave like that. If you imagine a lion, you would instantly imagine them sleeping or cuddling with the pride in their free time. They only made such big moves when they were on a hunt or looking for prey." "But we recorded Leo watching animals he didn't intend to hunt. He wasn't interested in the prey. He was watching their behaviour. Their timing. Their escape routes," he said, and the recording he mentioned played on the screen. "To be completely honest with you, Leo is showing behaviours more similar to tigers than lions. Tigers are solitary and are known to map out their surroundings similarly to what he is doing now," Dr. Tonson said, and gave a thoughtful look at the empty space before he burst out laughing. "It's always a pleasure to be working with Leo. You never know with him, and that's what makes him so unique," he said. There was a pause as different clips of Leo wandering the Serengeti in his youth played on screen. It allowed the doctor's words to settle in the mind of the viewer. But soon after that came the most puzzling footage yet. "By the third evening," Tonson said slowly, "We noticed something even more peculiar about our subject of observation." A wide shot revealed a large kopje, rugged, isolated, and elevated. It was like a small island in a sea of green grass. Leo arrived at its base, climbed to a familiar ledge, and lay down. Three different clips of Leo staying in one of the caves in the afternoon were shown. The timestamps read Day 2, 18:42, then again on Day 3, 19:03 and finally on Day 4, 18:37. "Three nights in a row, he came back to this spot and always slept in the same place as if he were returning to his home," he said. The scene showed other lions roaming around before crashing in random shades and sprawling under different trees. "Most lions rest wherever they collapse. They don't care where they sleep, as they are the apex predator. They did not need shelter to protect them from anything. They will sleep under trees, in ditches, behind termite mounds etc. A pride of lions may have a specific spot to hang out, but it's never truly a permanent home," he said. "But Leo decided to make this his home and he stayed here for a long time, He was even willing to fight to the death to protect it," he said and then chuckled. The screen showed Leo hanging around the kopje. How he would jump from boulder to boulder, stretch peacefully on the rocks and even climb on one of the trees and sleep on the branches. "At this point, we were invested in Leo. A few days of observing him made us discover more things than our original project did in a year. It was no longer just a curious observation, we were hell-bent on studying him and understanding him," he said. "And then on the fifth day came the moment we have all been waiting for. Leo left his home early in the morning, but this time, there was something different about him. He walked out with his head hanging low, a contrast to him constantly looking around and observing his surroundings when he went anywhere else. Unlike other days, this time he had only one purpose," he said and then showed a smile. "On the fifth day, Leo went out to hunt. And on this day many of our questions were answered, but we end the day with more questions than ever," ... ... ... [IMAGE] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Double Chapte