Edward R. Ricciuti

When people humanize animals they ascribe rational motives to acts triggered by instinct. If such acts are deemed unfriendly or nasty, the animals committing them quickly assume the role of villains and thus become objects of persecution... Depending on the circumstances, an animal can be “good” one moment and “bad” the next, like a dog which fends off a burglar and then bites the postman.

The call of lions in the darkness is the sound of the primeval, guaranteed to raise the hackles and send chills over the spine. The sound is not really a roar, but a series of coughing grunts which begin in staccato fashion, but mount in intensity, gradually merging into a thunderous wave that rolls over the darkened landscape, permeating the night and, I suspect, one’s soul.