There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
The beginning of the end: On the fateful night of Nkorho, the Mapogo Kingdom was split Kinky Tail and Mr T listening to the calls of the 4 remaining Majingilanes, a few hours later the era of the Mlowathis will end in a horrible way and the Mapogos will never be again a force of 6 majestic male lions. Credits: Karin van der Merwe Date: 8th June 2010
The Bad Lion (Mr.T) Credits goes to :T. Bently
NOVEMBER 5, 2009
We saw him on our first game drive. We had left the camp at about 4 PM and it was shortly after that. The vehicle stopped by a clearing between some small trees and Alfie, the ranger, said, “Lion.” We couldn’t see him.
“Where?” Camouflage and jetlag together can be blinding. Alfie pointed again. “There.” Then we saw him. He was right there, fifteen feet from us, lying flat on his left side, feet toward us, the rangy edges of a mane further on. We had arrived at Londolozi, in the Sabi Sands game reserve, 65,000 hectares (160,550 acres) adjacent to Kruger National Park in the northeast of South Africa, only an hour earlier from Paris. Bennett, the tracker, who sat on a seat protruding over the front left of the jeep—he called it his “office”—hopped casually off his perch and climbed into the vehicle with us, so that it would have no visual irregularities that might look unusual to the lion. The jeep is completely open, no roof, exposed on all four sides. There is a rifle perched across the dashboard, but Alfie says he has never had to use it. After decades of seeing Land Rovers, with little, chattering, camera-snapping, hat-wearing humans sitting inside, the animals—lions, leopards, elephants, giraffes, rhinos, hippos, hyenas—not only appear entirely unthreatened but hardly seem to notice us at all. Just don’t get out of the jeep and don’t stand up in the jeep. Then you’re meat. There are a few deaths every year in Kruger, Alfie says: someone taking that all- important, final close-up. The lion’s sandy color matched perfectly the rubble-studded dirt on which he was lying. But once you saw him, you saw nothing else, and immediately felt the joy of safari: one’s shrunken significance, one’s thin shadow. Five hundred pounds, a great mound of lion muscle, napping. He didn’t flick a whisker at the vehicle driving up and stopping. But when Alfie started the motor again he lifted his heavy head slowly and looked our way with drowsy disdain. A mammoth weary warrior, his whole body ticked with scars, his mane many mottled shades from blond to black, punk and jagged on his head. His right nostril appeared bigger and blacker than the left, an old wound. He closed his eyes again, and laid his great head back down. We had been dismissed. One cannot really see animals in a zoo. The safety provided by the cages and enclosures completely distorts perception. Only in the wild, where the animals are free and man is the curious visitor, caged in his jeep, can one feel the power of their dangerous beauty, the enormity of their dignity, and the frailty—and occasional idiocy—of humans. As with the American we saw in another vehicle photographing, with his twelve-inch lens, a…
the Unseen Arathusa Report about Mapogos vs Nakhuma Males.
December 14, 2007
This has been two weeks of the most vivid manifestation of life and death. We were privileged enough to witness both the birth of a new baby wildebeest as well as the death of one of our much-loved Kuhuma male lions.
As stated in our previous report, we have been seeing a lot more of the five big Mapogo male lions. Last week the elusive sixth member of the group finally joined the pride. Bigger, darker and bolder than the rest, he lent a menacing presence. Absolutely mindblowing sightings of all of them together followed. Unfortunately this spectacle was to end in disaster for our lion population.
The two Kuhuma males we see on a regular basis came down to the southern reaches of their territory to mate with two of the Styx pride females (which are in estrus at the moment). The fact that they are territorial also means that the Kuhuma Males are very vocal. A bout of territorial calling eventually brought about the inevitable.
We awoke one morning to an update that the Mapogo Males were in “full swing”. Upon reaching the sighting we found three of them all roaring and very mobile to the east. We followed the leading male - he led us straight to two more of the group moving around the female lion which had been mating with the Kuhuma boys the previous day. A massive fight ensued between the Kahuma and the Mapogo male lions - and the Kuhumas came off second best. We followed four of the Mapogos as they pursued the Styx female. Late in the drive everything calmed down with all four males and the female lying down in the shade.
Upon our return to the sight in the afternoon, we found that the Mapogo males now had two females with them and that two of the males were mating with them, pausing occasionally only to keep the others at bay.
Later on in the drive, the bigger of the two Kuhuma brothers was located. He was in a badly injured state, unable to move. His enemies (the four Mapogo males) were no more than two hundred meters away. What followed was pure proof of “Survival of the Fittest”!
Upon our return the next day we found the badly mauled remains of the once proud Kuhuma male.
Only time will tell what this means for our lion population. The Kuhuma pride and their cubs will from now on be under constant threat from other marauding males with only one brother left to protect the cubs. The Mapogos were last seen heading back from whence they came.
Credits Arathusa Game Reserve
