Goodbye to Snyggve, aka Bob Jr
The Serengeti loses one of its most amazing male Lions
I was in the Serengeti in March of 2023 with my guests when I received the news that Bob Jr, probably the most magnificent male Lion I have ever seen and photographed, had just been killed by three younger males, part of a powerful coalition of seven. It was a cold and gloomy day, fitting for the sadness of the moment. Surely it was a natural death and part of the relentless circle of life on the African plains. However, the thought of the violence and brutality that must have been unleashed in those moments still unsettles me. I think it had a strong impact on me because it involved an individual I have seen so many times in all his majesty and in the prime of his life. I purposefully stayed away from the footage of the event that has circulated online. Instead I went back to my archive to dig out all my pictures of Bob Jr through the years, to relive the moments and the emotions of each encounter. Ever since my first sighting of him in February 2016 I was mesmerized by his enormous black mane and his unique and humane expression. Along with his brother, he was busy chasing females up and down the kopjes. As he has been doing for most of his life. By 2017 the two had moved further northeast from where I first saw them and that’s where they basically settled for the rest of their lives.
Below is a collection of images of him through the years. He looked stunning in portraits and whenever I was with him I just couldn’t resist taking more and more. But having made his home in the magnificent kopjes of the Central Serengeti, he often posed majestically on the rocks, overlooking his kingdom. I loved waiting for him to wake up from his siesta as the breeze blew through his mane, and grab my wider lenses to convey the eternal connection between him and the land he lived in, the mighty Serengeti.
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