My friend Pat Cale and I have been to Africa several times for bow hunting adventures. Those trips are so memorable — not only from the standpoint of hunting but also from our exposure to the African people and animals. The first couple of times were spent mostly learning the animals and acquainting ourselves with the land, customs, and critters. We concentrated more on hunting during the later trips. We came back wiser and always happy from those trips.
This past week, my wife and I went to the theater in Kansas City to see “The Lion King.” It was a breath-taking performance — the music by Sir Elton John striking those wide African chant/melodies and the brightly colored costumes were just dazzling. The show opened with a normal-sized fake elephant walking down the aisle from the back of the theater to the stage. It took several people inside that critter to make it walk. Another actor was on huge stilts with his feet and his hands held long front legs with a giraffe head extending well past his own head. There were wart hogs and impala cavorting around the stage. These were all portrayed by humans. Sandra didn’t know many of the animals that my hunting experience made obvious to me. It was fun to share with her what I knew from having been there.
I was awed by the precise depiction of these animals by people in costume. It was almost eerie to see the exact walking posture and gait of the elephant and giraffe. The impala herd was on a bicycle contraption that was built to put them in motion. They moved exactly like the Impala in Africa moved. The wart hogs ran with their tails up as in real life. The female lions and cheetah were very visible.
The main theme of the show centered around the vicious hate that hyenas and lions have for each other. The cruelty in real life between these two species has been exposed in National Geographic and other wildlife presentations. They kill each other’s babies and gang up and kill each other. The lion is king until outweighed by sheer numbers of hyenas. You have to know that information to understand the presentation. It made a great story.
As I sat there enjoying the show, I had several thoughts. The vast majority of people watching and acting in the presentation had no idea about the anatomy and precise depiction of the unique characteristics of these critters. Someone with a background in anatomy and behavior of African animals (like a professional hunter over there) spent some serious time getting that aspect of the show exactly right. Most of the people there don’t understand the mind and life of a hunter — and some high profile errors in judgment have shown a less-than-favorable view of the hunters in Africa. I’m not here to debate those issues. I’m here to say that there is more of a connection between those artists on stage and the precise careful hunters that I was privileged to meet on the dark continent than you would ever imagine. There are some collisions in this world that make magic. This was one of them for me.
Doc

Doctor Dan Witt is a retired physician and nature enthusiast.