Laikipia’s wide plateau stretches beneath the shadow of the Great Rift Valley, home to one of Kenya’s most resilient lion populations. Through the sea of grass, I watched this old male emerge, his eyes fixed on something just beyond my sightline—ears forward, mouth parted, every sense tuned to the possibility of prey. His face bore the map of past battles, and his thick, dark mane suggested a lion in his twilight years. I could only imagine the story behind him from a life earned on the savannah.