Two white lion cubs were spotted in the Kruger National Park this week. A lucky Park visitor, Jennie Nel Hill was incredibly lucky with an undisturbed sighting of these magnificent cats on 28 October.
Having spent two nights at the Orpen Rest Camp, Hill came across a pride of lions and their two white cubs on the road. The undisturbed sighting is a rare, proving that timing is everything in the Kruger National Park.
Image: Jennie Nel Hill
According to Thomas Ngobeni, a freelance guide in Kruger National Park, who also spotted the cubs, the pride roams around the Orpen camp and Nghala camp and is not seen very frequently. Ngobeni also said that the two cubs are different ages ‘ranging from four to six months’.
Lion cubs are born white due to a rare colour mutation and not albinism.
Image: Jennie Nel Hill
Image: Jennie Nel Hill
Image: Jennie Nel Hill
Speaking on her experience, Hill said: ‘A great part of my excitement for any trip is in the planning – because we live in Cape Town we don’t often get the chance to just pop in to Kruger so I am an avid web-cam watcher and I have always noticed the huge variety of animals that visit the Orpen waterhole.
‘The Ellie mom with twin babies, wild dogs,the resident leopard and of course in the last few weeks such great excitement.. a pride of lions with two white cubs!
‘We saw the pride at the waterhole when we were there, but they had a quick drink and were gone, early the next morning as we left to go back down to Hazyview we were ecstatic to see some of the pride walking down the road towards us! They seemed to be on a mission to get somewhere because they didn’t stick around but it was worth every breathtaking minute.’
