Zawadi, the male of the lions at the Predators of the Serengeti exhibit at the Oregon zoo, stands proudly atop his very own "Pride Rock" and surveys his realm with the colors of Autumn as a backdrop.

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A funny story...

Although it wasn't too funny at the time. In the early a.m. when I was virtually the only person in the Predators exhibit on this rainy Halloween day, I was inside the "cave" looking portion of the exhibit. Zawadi and one of the females were in their den but the other female was lying outside in a spot that afforded me a great view for shooting her. I was squatting to get at her level and was backed into the corner of the viewing glass and one of the rock walls with my left shoulder pressed firmly to the glass to allow me the angle I needed to shoot her. Suddenly, she raised her head and went on alert and was looking over my shoulder, past me at something. Without moving, I turned my head to see what she might be looking at but could see nothing.

Now, try to picture in your head...it was very early on a gray rainy day and I was totally alone in the exhibit, inside the even darker man-made cave area of the viewing area. When I had turned my head to see what she was looking at, the two other lions were in their den, apparently napping and directly out the window I was squatting against was only gray morning sky and some grass.

But, when I turned my head back to continue shooting the lioness, I was greeted by the sight of Zawadi, on his back legs, rising above me in my squatting position and in mid-lunge at the window with his eyes locked on me and a snarl on his lips. Just as my attention turned back to the window and I saw his body blocking out the light over me, he hit the window and raked his claws down it rapidly 3 or 4 times trying to get at me!

Now, the logical part of my brain knows I was against glass a couple of inches thick and there was no way he could get at me, but my instincts weren't listening to the logical side of my brain and all I knew was I was about to be eaten. You have no idea how large a male African lion really is until you are so low to the ground and have one on it's hind legs rearing over you with claws swatting at you in a dark cave. I'm embarrassed to say that I think I let out a small scream before pushing away from the glass and falling over my camera bag.

After I recovered, and looked around carefully to make sure no one had seen me making a fool of myself I had a really good laugh at myself. My heart continued pounding for probably another 10 minutes, even though I know I was never in any real danger. One though kept flashing through my mind....what if the glass had been slightly flawed!

Like I said, it's hilarious now, but in that instant, time actually did slow down to a crawl and my mind registered every second of that encounter that I can still remember too vividly as if it only happened seconds ago. Yep, funny as hell now, but in that moment, it was not funny at all.

It's definitely one of those memories I will be able to recall for the rest of my life.


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