Lions of Sabi Sands

[KM600]

(09-08-2024, 02:30 AM)NLAL11 Wrote:

(09-08-2024, 02:16 AM)KM600 Wrote: Sending Nkuhuma Pride news in here as it doesn’t solely consist of these lionesses and it follows onto the above conversation. Anyways, for a while I’ve heard rumours about some Nkuhuma Pride females starting to show possible pregnancy, and in the latest WildEarth livestream 3 females are looking quite big. 

Note, there have been 3 females who have always separated themselves to mate with different males and I believe those are Amber Eyes 2, Little Amber and Ridge Nose daughter. The question is who fathered these litters, the longer it takes for the cubs to be born, the more chance they were sired by PCMs.

 However, being as big as some of the females are right now, if cubs were to be dropped anytime now, K4 is most likely the father being that his last mating is the one that mathematically makes the most sense. He was mating up until the end of April, K5 was mating during this time too but nowhere near as long as he returned back South for the rest of his brothers. PCMs started mating mid May and Khanya was only seen mating with Little Amber in mid May, but was with the Nkuhumas for months so easily could have mated with other females, he’s the dark horse in this. Ndzengas also mated around this time but it wasn’t anywhere near as frequent as these other males. Female gestation period is 110 - 120 days, just so u all are able to put together how likely it is for each male / coalition to have sired these litters.

Liam mentioned that the absent lioness could have been looking for a den site. If you're right about PC males not mating until mid May then it's too early to be them, so as you said the father is most likely K4. Could the Black Dam males also potentially be fathers? I'm not sure on the gap between when they last mated with the Nkuhuma girls and when K4 came in and started mating with them.

Either way, would be interesting to see the PC males accepting cubs that we are (almost) certain were sired by other males. But to be honest I don't have high hopes for any cubs that are born, as things are too unstable for them to have a good chance. A bit like the Mbiri cubs in the Manyeleti.

I, too, don’t have much hope in the survival of these cubs. BDMs were last seen mating when some Nkuhuma females also split off to mate with the Kambulas, and I wanna say that was around late March / early April. Then they dissapeared for a while and K4 was doing most the mating, so based off what we know, it’s unlikely they fathered these litters. Reply