History's most brutal killers, the Majingilane Male Lions

[Tshokwane]

@lioncrazy already put the link to the londolozi blog, so I wanted to highlight some of the things that werethe most interesting to me from the post about the encounter between the Majingilane males and the two Matimbas.

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"The next morning (yesterday), reports were that two of the Majingilane and the two Matimba males were found lying up around 500 m from each other. Despite their enormous size, it was reported that the two Matimbas were reluctant to answer the challenging calls of the Majingilane pair. Perhaps they heard the rest of the Majingilane coalition further west and realised the great danger they would face in taking on four male lions.

Would the Matimbas advance, or would the Majingilane? If the Matimbas did advance, would the Majingilane retreat?
As the African dusk descended, the Matimbas ran.

There was no roaring from either side, but the rangers present think that the Matimbas may have heard some contact calling from the Majingilane, thought they were coming, and decided discretion was the better part of valour. The fact that they were looking behind them as they ran indicates that they certainly knew something was coming. Tracks from this morning conclusively showed that the Majingilane tailed the Matimba males all the way through our property, forcing them back east of our boundary and then retreating themselves back west."
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And this is a map that shows the course of action of that encounter. Blue line, Majingilane males, Red line, Matimba males:

*This image is copyright of its original author

There was a nice talk about this in facebook.
Of course, there are some that give the old same idiotic talk, that the Majingilane are "only" brave when they have superiority in numbers, and that is only showed how "cowards" they really are when they are even in numbers.
But this point of view, fueled by their fanatism in the Mapogos agression, ignores an important fact of the lions way of fighting.
 Numbers. Gang fight. People can whine all they want about it, that it's not fair and all that, but it is how it is. Just lion nature.
Size means a lot for the individuals, but at the end of the day, it's superior numbers what really matters, and the ability to apply that advantage to their favor, as well as the knowledge of the terrain, something the Majingilane have since this used to be their territory.
I don't think they want to stake claim of this land again. They have pretty much abandoned it, except for a small bit of the western part(where the blue line returns), but I do think they meant to make a clear statement. They really know the Matimba males, they know how dangerous they could possibly be to their prides and cubs and they don't want the Matimbas anywhere near their land.

Will this happen again? Will the Matimba males return and confront the Majingilane? Will the old rulers continue to make a show of their strenght or will they be satisfied with this statement?
I don't know. We will have to wait and see what happens, but with other young males like the two Matshipiri males and the two Styx males roaming the area, the action is sure to continue. Reply