Lions of Sabi Sands

[KM600]

(09-08-2024, 10:57 AM)Vengeous Wrote:

(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.

Just a clarification - PCMs were seen mating with RN daughter the day after they killed Chela (Chela was killed on 28 April). They were seen consistently mating with her for the next couple of weeks or so. If that is the case, I would argue that they are most likely the fathers of RN's daughter, as we are well past the 120-day gestation period from the last possible time K4 mated with RN's daughter (I believe the last sighting of him mating was 26 April, if not earlier than that). I actually think if the cubs are not the PCM's, the most likely candidate after that would be Khanya.

I knew they were with the Nkuhumas end of April but didn’t know they started mating that early. Anyways, I didn’t mention it in the above message as it’s also not confirmation but K4 was also seen with some Nkuhuma females even once PCMs had split the pride, problem is I don’t think it’s known who he was with or if he was for sure mating. 

Khanya actually has a great chance of them being his too, as he was spotted several times with Little Amber, with two confirmed videos of mating for around a few days while the PCMs weren’t around so he had no reason to stop. Reply