Lion lounging during the day Photo by Bob Plunkett

Lions are on the prowl.

By day these kings and queens of the food chain are snoozers lolling in the shade, but when night falls in the hills that Afrikaners in South Africa call the bush, the lions arise. These are huge cats, ferocious carnivores with fangs the size of fingers and as sharp as spikes, and at night they're hungry - and searching for supper.

Through the dark we suddenly find them, their golden coats shining in the glare of a game tracker's spotlight. The lions surround our open-top Land Rover in a hunting party of six gaunt females of various ages plus one adolescent male, his mane sprigged in sporadic tuffs around a thick and muscular neck. We're struck by the size and proximity of the pride - they're as close as an arm's reach from my wife Tanya and me as we huddle on exposed seats in the wagon.

Did I mention it's very dark?

When the tracker's light moves away from each lion, the predator disappears into the blackness, but we know it's still close because of the sound of a panting breath and the swooshy snap of tall grass as enormous claw-packed paws plod through the brush.

I'm feeling like a feline hors d'oeuvre served up on seats of the Rover, just waiting for plucking by one of the powerful females. Yet our guide and driver, a South African wildlife expert named Duard Terreblanche, tells us not to worry about lions leaping into the vehicle.

"They're accustomed to seeing the wagons around them, so they ignore us," Duard whispers. "Besides, they're on the trail of a more interesting meal."

And so they are. They're walking, silently but purposefully, in a line through the bush with perhaps ten yards separating each hunter.

"We say they're on their way to McDonald's for supper," Duard says, explaining that the lions are probably stalking the most common hoofed prey in this game reserve, the Thompson's gazelle, a small but swift and agile antelope. "You can even see McDonald's arches in a black 'M' marking the rump of each gazelle." (CONTINUED...)