TORONTO -- A pride of lounging lions in South Africa’s vast Kruger National Park took advantage of the lack of tourists due to the COVID-19 pandemic to stretch out for a nap in the middle of a road.
Park section ranger Richard Sowry photographed the rare moment during a patrol on Wednesday afternoon.
In photos shared on the park’s Twitter account, at least a dozen big cats can be seen sprawled out in the middle of a tarred road in the afternoon sunshine.
According to the tweet, the lions are usually resident on Kempiana Contractual Park, an area of the park tourists don’t see. On that day, however, the animals were out in the open on a road outside of Orpen Rest Camp, located on the western border of the park.
Ike Phaahla, the general manager of communications and marketing for the park, said lions usually sleep during the day because they are nocturnal.
“What is unusual is for them to use the tarred road because normally they would be in the bush,” he told CTVNews.ca in an email on Friday.
Kruger National Park has been closed to the public since March 25, in accordance with a countrywide lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Because there are fewer people around and less traffic on the roads, Phaahla said animals in the park are more active during the day in areas they would typically avoid.
Phaahla said it’s unclear when the park will be allowed to reopen as they are following the government’s guidance on the matter.
Last week, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa extended the country’s lockdown until the end of April to combat the spread of the virus.
South Africa, with 57 million people, has the highest number of cases of COVID-19 in Africa with more than 2,600 infections and 48 deaths.
