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Lions of Sabi Sands
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Or more likely, she never was pregnant at all and this is just her going into estrus after a while.
Without an urine sample its pretty much impossible to tell if a lioness is pregnant, and even that is concidered unreliable. Even zoos with near are struggling with this, so safari guides can do little more than speculate. Once everyone is hoping for cubs, its easy to confuse normal behavoir for pregnancies.
 (04-21-2024, 05:22 AM)Mwk85 Wrote: By the way, for those of you still slightly wondering, Tiyelele is technically their aunt. I asked one of the guides outright, and the answer was not doubtful. He didn't even say he wasn't quite sure. I guess spending so much time following these lions in person, he would recognize the mothers and their cubs. Another super aunt helping keep the pride alive. What a lovely thing to see. She didn't abandon them, she took them on as her own. (04-20-2024, 09:22 PM)Ttimemarti Wrote:(04-20-2024, 06:03 PM)Cath2020 Wrote: Back in March 5th, there was a sighting of 3 of the young Sand River Males....two of which hardly had any mane, so thought they could be lionesses, but when they passed the vehicle, all 3 were clearly males. Yes, I believe so too. There were at least two much older ones before the 6 were born to the Mantemahle daughters. The oldest 4 belong to the oldest females, and now the last one seems to be missing. There also seems to be one older S. Avoca daughter missing.... however the good news is that 3 of the others seem to be accepted by the Nkhulus, including one between 2-3 years old. Not sure what happened to oldest lioness as she didn't look too old to die yet... and one of the missing younger females. I remember her watching Snip Tail take out her youngest cub, then she went to the spot after he carried the cub away, sniffing and whining. (04-21-2024, 10:29 PM)T_Ferguson Wrote: I really thought she'd be denning by this time. She was never seen denning even recently as she never conceived the Young Skorro Male's cubs. She is only starting to show darkening suckle marks, but since they don't hang down yet enough, she clearly has not given birth, in my opinion. She could be pregnant or it was a false estrous she went through with the PCMs. If she was pregnant with the YS Male's cubs, they would have been born before April for sure. Someone also mentioned that she is not yet due to give birth to the PCM cubs.... I need to recheck when she mated with the latter, to see how far along any pregnancy should last 
@Cath2020 would it be possible to ask for more details, like if it is confirmed or just the guide's hunch? To my knowledge it was impossible to know who's the mother of the Talamati cubs.
While I like Matimbas more, they have a huge legacy already with tons of grandcubs, while Selatis have no confirmed grandcubs at all and their only legacy is the old Ximhungwe and Tiyelele so I was hoping the subs or at least one of them was Tiyelele's cub. Ximhungwe is getting older and doesn't seem interested in mating for now so it might be too late for her 1,5-2 years from now when the current cubs reach independence. And as for Tieylele, she's in a tough spot, especially if the female sub don't make it to help her rebuild the pride, putting the Selati males' legacy at risk of disappearing.  (04-22-2024, 06:01 AM)Cath2020 Wrote:(04-20-2024, 09:22 PM)Ttimemarti Wrote:(04-20-2024, 06:03 PM)Cath2020 Wrote: Back in March 5th, there was a sighting of 3 of the young Sand River Males....two of which hardly had any mane, so thought they could be lionesses, but when they passed the vehicle, all 3 were clearly males. Yeah I would love to see the entire pride but sadly they don’t come to sabi sands often all we know is recent video 3 young males and then 5 females with 1 nkhulu (04-22-2024, 06:44 AM)Mapokser Wrote: @Cath2020 would it be possible to ask for more details, like if it is confirmed or just the guide's hunch? To my knowledge it was impossible to know who's the mother of the Talamati cubs. Aren’t one or two of the msutlu females daughters of one or two of selati girls potentially all I’ve heard was the matimba daughter gave birth first the male everyone calls khanya his mother was silver eyes sister and darkmane jr was silver eyes son but all of that is unconfirmed but yeah selatis have no grandsons potentially 
It seems that the larger Plains Camp male has mated with one of the Ntsevu lionesses... according to this report by Londolozi:
https://blog.londolozi.com/2024/04/22/the-plains-camp-males-and-one-ntsevu-lioness-meet/ 
The larger of the two Plans Camp Males gaze towards our vehicle. This particular male’s mane and muscular body make him possibly the largest male lion in the Sabi Sand at the moment. A gene that any lioness would be happy to pass on through her bloodline.
Londolozi Game Reserve Phot credit: Dan Hirschowitz  *This image is copyright of its original author
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