Here is an essay i wrote about lions dying in Kenya. Hope you enjoy :)

The air stood still. The silence rang loud through the savannah. The tour guide and I looked down on the rotting carcass. The pungent smell pervaded our senses. The eye sockets were hollow and tiny insects were walking in warping rows all over its face. Its skin clung tightly to the bone, separated neither by a single inch of flesh nor fat. The entire skeleton was clearly defined. Every contour and depression bespoke of the starvation he had faced. 

Tears stung my eyes. I bit down hard on my lower lip as one threatened to roll down my cheeks. He did not deserve such a death. He was a king and deserved dignity. This lion, the king of the jungle did not deserve dying of starvation. Not like this.

The actual carcass was grotesque. It looked nothing like the pictures I had seen the previous day on the newspapers. ?Death on the Mara? the headlines had screamed, ?Is the king facing extinction?? another headline queried. The photos showed bodies of lions in varying stages of decay strewn all over the game reserve. It was shocking to say the very least.  

It all started when my family decided to go on a family tour. How thrilled I was to finally get to see the famed Mara, and in time for the great wildebeest migration which may soon gain status as on of the wonders of the world. Our little group composed of my mother, father, my brother and I packed up camping gear and armed with our itinerary, we set off for our four day adventure. We arrived and were assigned a tour guide who to our delight was an original Masai Moran. Even his hair was skillfully braided and red ochre was applied on it that it shimmered in the sunlight whenever he moved. 

I was exhilarated. I could not wait to go out in the wild and see the long green grass sashaying to a gentle breeze, the graceful gerenuk and bold topi prancing alongside the striped zebras and tall giraffes The hyena and the jackal skulking stealthily in the thick brush, herds of the ugly warthog, the pigmy hippopotamuses and the majestic elephant trumpeting away as it blundered through the grassland all these magnificent animals and more, teeming in their numbers as they grazed the Mara. Topping the list was my secret hope to see a live lion hunt. To watch as the huge cats went after their prey and eventually getting their prize and of course to watch millions of wildebeest crossing the Mara River to the great Serengeti plains. These imaginations ran free in my head up to the moment I read the damning paper.

I found that day?s paper while we were settling in trying to get cozy in our tents out in the bush. The headlines caught my eye as we were in the Mara at that very moment, the very same Mara where there was death? I read in stunned silence. I read of the reduction by twenty five percent of the lion population and speculations as to what may have caused such massive death. The minute I reached the final full stop I folded it neatly in half and hid it under my inflatable mattress. 

That night I was plagued by nightmares of skeletons chasing me through the infinite savannah. They almost reached me as I struggled to escape their deathly claws??..never was the morning more welcome. My mother noticed I was a bit pale at the breakfast table and quickly attributed it to the arduous journey we travelled the day before.

We were armed with binoculars as we drove through with our delightful guide. The grass was light brown in color and the shrubs looked thorny. Dust billowed in every direction and the few animals we saw were either weak or emaciated. The guide explained to us that there are usually dry seasons but this year it had lasted too long. The wild animals had no water to quench their overwhelming thirst and no food for their empty bellies. The wildebeest had long migrated to Tanzania as they did annually but had not come back until now. The worst hit by the unending drought were the lions. Once they started to starve they lacked energy to chase after even the weakest of prey. They had to eat fresh prey unlike the hyenas, jackals and vultures. They lay down quietly and waited to die. 

Our tour guide looked at the horizon pensively and asked my father to follow him. They alighted and walked into a nearby bush. I ran after them and that is when I saw him, lying there.

We somberly walked back to the truck and drove back to our campsite. A barrage of questions entered my mind and all of them amounting to the grand question which was: Why? Then I remembered the tour guide had said that the dry season had lasted longer than usual. At the beginning of the year the rainy season had extended by an entire month leading to deluges that ruined crops that lead to famine within the entire country. Something was surely askew with the climate.

I had heard of sudden extreme weather events all over the world: heat waves, droughts, flooding, hurricanes. The weather patterns going completely amok leaving death and destruction in their wake. Scientists report that it is due to global warming. 

 The ice at earth?s poles is melting leading to a massive increase in the volume of the worlds seas and oceans hence water is slowly encroaching on dry land in many low lying coastal areas. Islands are slowly being swallowed up in the water. Most species are facing the reality of extinction especially since these changes are taking place rapidly hardly giving any time for adaptation. 

Human beings are affected by these climatic changes as they affect agricultural systems leading to malnourishment. A hungry man is an angry man. Hunger leads to all sorts of strife, political upheaval, social stress and economical distress. The world as we know it is changing into a scary, desolate place.I now realize that I too have played a role in killing the lions in the Mara. I am a part of the human race which is involved in the slow but sure destruction of the ecosystem.

As I retired to bed after sitting outside in the warm bonfire, hearing the chirping of crickets and the hooting of a distant owl I felt at peace. I knew that somehow everything would turn out okay. All we had to do as a whole is to take steps, however small, towards going green. That is to say we need to take measures to safeguard our ecosystem. I decided to plant a new tree every month to reduce the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide. I vowed to use my bicycle more often to travel for short distances. This exercise is great for my environment and great for my lungs too! I will join a green club and participate in the dissemination of ecofriendly information to my peers.

That night I dreamt I was sitting under the cool shade of a green acacia tree, looking at the plump zebras grazing in the green grass just nearby, as they drank water from a cool still pond. The stout lion lying next to me stretched, yawned and purred into my ear saying, ?care for some lunch partner??