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The Birmingham Males
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In my opinion, females decide when, and males decide who.
I've seen a few videos where the female will try to seduce a certain male, but another one will fight him off and take the lioness. She'll have no choice but to mate with him, but she can choose when. As for the 'ungrateful' part, it's the females' only chance to get the upper hand after two years of the males killing their cubs and stealing their kills. I'd say the opposite sexes just don't have a nice relationship in the lion world.
Looks like Northern Avocas (Likely) ran into 2 BBoys
Nsuku and Tinyo They are looking Little rough now  (05-04-2018, 02:42 AM)vinodkumarn Wrote: Looks like Northern Avocas (Likely) ran into 2 BBoysYeah seems like it, let's see how things evolve if they give up on the north and move south as four or if they keep the coalition "split" Nsuku and Tynio up North and Mfumo and Nhenha always south between Malamala and Londolozi interesting times ahead. (05-04-2018, 04:40 AM)Michael Wrote:(05-04-2018, 02:42 AM)vinodkumarn Wrote: Looks like Northern Avocas (Likely) ran into 2 BBoysYeah seems like it, let's see how things evolve if they give up on the north and move south as four or if they keep the coalition "split" Nsuku and Tynio up North and Mfumo and Nhenha always south between Malamala and Londolozi interesting times ahead. I dont think they will give up North so soon. Nsuku is scent marking territory. I hope they will leave north after an year or so. By that time Nkuhuma sub-adults will be safe.
Bboys are in their prime. The avocas have no chance against them. Two bboys is enough to keep the north.
(05-04-2018, 05:17 AM)vinodkumarn Wrote:Yeah in a year the Nkuhumas would be more then safe considering there is only one male, but I would like to see the Styx and Torchwood sub adults reach maturity but it seems not likely, if they all die that would mean the BB's haven't managed to create and sustain any male offspring. Still "sad" about those first Nkuhuma cubs all dying and now if they leave the North it's once again lost offspring which would be really unfortunate.(05-04-2018, 04:40 AM)Michael Wrote:(05-04-2018, 02:42 AM)vinodkumarn Wrote: Looks like Northern Avocas (Likely) ran into 2 BBoysYeah seems like it, let's see how things evolve if they give up on the north and move south as four or if they keep the coalition "split" Nsuku and Tynio up North and Mfumo and Nhenha always south between Malamala and Londolozi interesting times ahead. Females count but it is the male offspring that will ensure their genetic code gets spread around, the Mapogos and the Majingilane didn't manage to generate any succesful male offspring, would be cool if the BB's managed to generate males that would be able to dominate within the Sabi Sands or at least that we could track them. (05-04-2018, 05:41 AM)T Rabbit Wrote: Bboys are in their prime. The avocas have no chance against them. Two bboys is enough to keep the north.In theory of course they are but it's still a 3 vs 2 situation, a coalition of four spliting up only gives the young guns a small chance where otherwhise they would have none. In a 3 vs 2 they can manage to isolate one of them and that would not me great  (05-04-2018, 06:32 AM)Michael Wrote: Females count but it is the male offspring that will ensure their genetic code gets spread around, the Mapogos and the Majingilane didn't manage to generate any succesful male offspring, would be cool if the BB's managed to generate males that would be able to dominate within the Sabi Sands or at least that we could track them. The Majingilane sired plenty of sons to carry on their genes. That they went off elsewhere doesn't make them "unsuccesful". In fact, it's for the best, considering the amount of time they dominated, offspring they sired (counting bothb males and females), which means they would be inbreeding, had they stayed( their potential mates would be either sisters, half sisters, aunts and even mothers). Now with the Birmingham males, it's the perfect time for them and any other new males to bring in new blood that can strenghten the gene pool.
The safarilive guide said that the two bboys chased the avocas until the north. A fight was heard through the night and nsuku has fresh bites over his head.
Credits to James Tyrrell - Londolozi.
Lion Update: An Evening with the Ntsevu Pride: A big coalition like the Birmingham males (four-strong) will invariably be split up a lot of the time. Breaking off as individuals or pairs allows them to cover more ground and secure their territory more effectively. One tends to see this with all successful large coalitions. The Majingilane for instance were only seldom encountered as a full unit of four, and only once have I seen the Birmingham males all together, although if they stick around for the next few years I’m sure we’ll see them together more. Although the traditional view of lion prides is of females all living and hunting together, the reality is that just like the males, female groups also split up fairly often. A lot of their splitting up revolves around their oestrus cycles and birthing; when ready to mate they will necessarily have to split away to find a male, assuming there isn’t one accompanying the pride at the time. Also, when raising cubs, it’s imperative that the mother returns to them often in order to nurse them, and if the pride happens to be far away, that just means that the mother will be living in an enforced isolation for awhile, hunting for herself (which she is more than capable of doing). Lionesses split from their prides fairly regularly.  *This image is copyright of its original author The fun for us is that with all this splitting up of the two main groups of lions that are currently dominant over Londolozi’s Eastern sections (Birmingham & Ntsevu), most mornings – and therefore usually the evenings as well – present a smorgasbord of lion activity, with multiple sightings often being the norm. One male will be with two females, another two males with 3 females, and the 6th female will be off by herself somewhere. Come nightfall and they all have to try and find each other again. Males start roaring from their respective positions, and the evening chorus is filled with their deep bellows as they all try to establish where the others are calling from. The current state of the six-strong Ntsevu pride (one lioness with cubs, another possibly pregnant) means that there is still a substantial amount of mating going on between the various members of the coalition and the females. A few nights we were sitting with four of the Ntsevu females as the sun set. With skinny bellies, we knew they would want to hunt, and the almost constant calling of the male impalas in full rut might as well have been dinner bells sounding all around us. The Ntsevu pride on the hunt; black ear backs serving as a follow-me sign, ears all pointed forwards to help pinpoint the positions of the rutting impalas that were up ahead.  *This image is copyright of its original author We followed the lionesses for about 45 minutes as they weaved in and out of the thickets. Although they passed a number of rutting impala rams, it was still quite light – not yet ideal hunting conditions – and they were spotted before they could commit to a final rush. As darkness fell properly, the roars of a male began issuing up into the night sky from a waterhole only a few hundred metres away, and it was interesting to note that only one of the lionesses trotted off to actively seek out the male. Scampering through the darkness, she found him within a minute, and immediately began initiating copulation. The male, although seemingly interested at first, ended up doing little to commit to the mating, and as it turned out, the female seemed to lose interest as well after a few minutes, particularly once the rest of the pride had caught up. The first lioness to join the male was weaving in and out of the spotlight, presenting herself to him.  *This image is copyright of its original author A second female that approached didn’t take too kindly to the male’s advances on her.  *This image is copyright of its original author Could it be that when mating with a big coalition, lionesses, once having mated with one or two of the males, are only properly interested in then mating with the other males of the group? I know that in bigger coalitions, males sometimes kill each other’s cubs, more often than not because they themselves haven’t mated with the female in question, and are therefore less likely to be able to recognise their genetic investment in her offspring. Maybe the first female to rush off to find the male had already mated with one or more of the Birmingham males, but soon after uniting with the individual in question, realised he was one of them and was therefore not worth as much from a mating point of view. This female, one of the last to join the male, wasn’t interested in mating at all, and lashed out at him more than once.  *This image is copyright of its original author Possibly. But with six different females mating with four different males and all switching partners over the last few months, it quickly becomes hard to keep track of who has mated with who and there’s no way that we can say for sure. The male, after having roared and to all intents and purposes summoned the four lionesses to him, had the good sense to keep quiet after that, as the females returned to their hunting attempts on the ever-rutting impalas, whose nasal grunts and roars formed a constant ambient noise. Eventually emerging onto a large clearing, the lions had their work cut out for them with the sudden lack of cover, so we left them to the hunt. These fluctuating dynamics are deja vu in many ways from late 2010 and early 2011 when the Majingilane were still establishing themselves, although not as disruptive. I seriously doubt the Birmingham males will be able to rival the 8-year hold that the Majingilane had on large portions of the Sabi Sand Reserve, but they’re certainly off to a good start. 
The Cat Report: 28 April - 4 May Posted on May 5, 2018
Two of the Birmingham Boys, Tinyo and Nsuku, duly appeared a few days later. On Thursday it was clear they’d been in a scrap, Nsuku limping and sporting boxer’s closed left eye. A fight with the Avocas? We don’t know. But we do know that the coming war of nature and legend’s most revered species will keep us on the edge of our seats. We think that Mfumu and Nhena are still down south on the Sand River establishing their reign there and it looks like the Birmingham Coalition may well have spread themselves too thin over the Sabi Sands and perhaps they are not long for the northern reaches."
Credits to James Tyrrell - Londolozi.
An Ntsevu lioness presents herself to one of the Birmingham males for mating. 5 females were together on this morning, withe the 6th nowhere to be found; we are hoping the missing lioness is still secreting cubs somewhere, but as there has not been a confirmed sighting since Alex Jordan’s of a little over a week ago, our hopes aren’t high.  *This image is copyright of its original author
Credits to Daniel Bailey - MalaMala.
A male lion from the Gowrie Coalition roars to assert his dominance within the area. His mighty roars resonate through the crisp morning air informing his brothers and the resident Kambula Pride of his whereabouts. His roars are followed in sync by the rest of the coalition in order to advertise to any of the young rouge males in the surrounds that Mala Mala Game Reserve is rightfully theirs. ———————————————————— It’s the golden moments like these that I live for. Could there be a better possible way to start your day?
Credits to Tanya Salomon - Umkumbe Safari Lodge.
Kings of the Sabi Sand ! The Birmingham males move through their kingdom with a definite swagger.  *This image is copyright of its original author
Credits to Matthew Murray - MalaMala.
There are few things as exciting as following a coalition of male lions on the move. We were lucky enough to follow these big males recently, patrolling a territory on game drive at Mala Mala. |
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