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That's the problem. In the areas they do the major photography safaris you can just drive up to them. A little known fact is that the photography outfits actively arrange for bait (carcasses) to be placed near the more open areas to hold the cats in place. Cats, being pretty lazy, won't go far if food is readily available. The idiots with the fake leopard skin hatbands riding in the jeeps don't even know they are being played like fools. They actually think this is the natural way lions, the top predator, acts. Think about that for a minute.

Most people don't know it but most the National Parks in Africa have some sort of hunting (mostly culling done by professionals at night) to keep populations stable. So keeping fresh carcasses at certain spots is pretty easy to do. Go out at night, pop 3 or 4 wildebeest with headshots from a rifle with a silencer and simply drop them just out of sight in the brush by the clearings. Lions aren't picky, meat is meat and as long as it is there, they won't go far from it. I personally know a PH that has permits for 20 elephant a year in Kruger National Park. He is allowed to take them, as long as he is away from the more "touristy areas" so nobody gets offended by watching Dumbo getting shot. He splits the profit from the meat, skins and ivory with the park. Half is his fee for doing the culling (he pays his hunting crew out of his share) and half goes to support the park.

As someone who has seen both the photography areas and the hunting areas I can speak with complete certainty that lions act different in the hunting areas. They do not just lay around waiting for a vehicle full of idiots to pull up. They are spooky sneaky. I've gone on stalks for wildebeest and zebra and found lion tracks over our tracks when we returned to the vehicle and we never saw them. But the general public only knows what the TV shows them and that is a distorted view. Ask anyone that has been there.