This happened last Wednesday, January 20, at the offices of Mariri, a concessionaire for Block L5S of the Special Reserve of Niassa, just after the arrival of Sofia Nhalungo and Tânia Zeferino, interns of the National Administration of Conservation Areas (ANAC) and beneficiaries of the Mozambique Program for Conservation Leadership (PLCM).

And if the relationship between this feline and humans is often frightening, this time the meeting was friendly. The lion family, made up of a male and two females, not only decided to take a photo break, but also remained calm when they realized the human presence. After a few minutes, the family decided to continue their tour of the reserve.

Seeing the lion family was a remarkable experience for our future conservation leaders. After all it is not every day that we have the chance to come face to face with the “king of the jungle”.

“It was exciting to see the lions peacefully in their habitat, seeming not to mind our presence. At that moment, I could see that it was actually us humans who made them our enemies, because we invaded their space and they show aggressive behavior to defend themselves. ” Sofia Nhalungo said

In turn, Tânia Zeferino said that when she saw the lions so close and without showing any aggressive behavior, she realized that coexistence between humans and wildlife is possible, if the space of each one is respected.

The felines’ peaceful and harmonious visit to the interns highlighted the possibility of good coexistence between human beings and nature and the mutual gains that conservation offers to man as well as nature. Likewise, the potential that Conservation Areas have for the practice of nature-based tourism was highlighted.

Sofia Nhalungo and Tânia Zeferino are recent graduates in Ecology and Conservation of Terrestrial Biodiversity and in Marine, Aquatic and Coastal Biology, respectively and are in the Niassa Special Reserve to develop practical fieldwork skills for a period of seventeen days, within the scope of the PLCM Internship Program.