Lions of Sabi Sands

[Mapokser]

Interesting reaction by the Kambula females when the Kambula males arrive. You could see that there were no cubs or subs around when the males approached, they were long gone for obvious reasons: they saw 2 unknown adult male lions coming.

But 3 females, of which the last I think was the K5 female, aunt to K5 & K3 males ( and mother of K6 ), were slow to retreat, barely registering the males as a serious threat, almost waiting to see if they would be allowed to feed with them, and once they took the carcass, the females basically walked away, K5 female was in no hurry and basically made no attempt to actually flee, she just walked off believing the males wouldn't attack her.

Could it be coincidence or did these lions, to some degree, recognized one another? While it has been a little over 2 years since the males were ousted by Ndhzengas, there was a more "recent" sighting, once, in Londolozi I believe, of one of the OG Kambulas sleeping with the Breakaways, the 4 males and sister, it was even reported at the time as "Ntsevu males with 2 Ntsevu females", this was way way after the other sister rejoined the pride btw, it wasn't her, but one of the mothers, also we don't see everything that happens with these lions and both the pride and the males spent a lot of time in Londolozi throughout these last 2 years, it could be that they had some smaller interactions here and there, even if just hearing one another, making so they wouldn't forget about each other completely.

I'd be willing to say they may recognize each other to some degree, as "friendly" faces. If after more than a year split, the Ntsevu and Kambula prides were able to share a kill together without aggression, cubs included without being attacked, the Kambula males and their sisters and mothers, if they meet, may not see one another as complete strangers, acting as aggressive as they'd to unknown, unrelated enemy lions. Reply