Lions of Timbavati

[sunless]

(03-08-2025, 07:22 PM)criollo2mil Wrote:

(03-08-2025, 07:13 AM)BA0701 Wrote:

(03-08-2025, 07:01 AM)KM600 Wrote:

(03-08-2025, 05:00 AM)BA0701 Wrote:

(03-08-2025, 02:15 AM)MrLoesoe Wrote: Three videos from this account on the Birmingham pride, filmed on February 22, that I haven't seen posted yet here. The wounded white cub is doing really well, she will survive it most likely. Overall most pride members look rather skinny. Especially the cubs. This has been discussed earlier here; the pride being so big, having too many mouths to feed.

I do wonder about the protection of the pride; if it is true that the Mbiris have abandoned the pride, then it would imply that the huge Birmingham pride currently has no protection from males? Interesting (and a bit concerning, with so many cubs not having reached adulthood yet).

Man, look at the size of that pride, that is truly a Super Pride, wow! On top of that, look at the size of those lionesses, the size of their heads, I know the Xim lioness, as well as several of the Manghenis, are really big lionesses, but I can't think of a pride that has bigger lionesses than the Birmingham Pride.

Isn't the group that the Mbiris took over, which included the white lioness,  even a breakaway, the second Birmingham Breakaway? I may be wrong, but I thought a few of the core members stayed with the Ross Males, and this group was considered a second breakaway. Or, do I have it completely twisted, and the Ross Males went and stayed with the original Breakaway, and the Mbiris took over the whole pride. Who is controlling the original Birmingham Breakaway pride, now, with the Ross Males out of the picture?

I think some of those breakaway lionesses joined the main pride again after all the males left but could be wrong, aside from the few that stayed with Ross males. So now there’s two breakaway prides, the newer one happened under Mbiris which they are focusing on, then the other breakaway of 2 lionesses which were controlled by Ross males but now Lillydale male. They also have two sets of cubs with first ones thought to be sired by Ross males, and the second litter by Lillydale.

So, Ross males first controlled both the main pride and the breakaway, atp there was only one, then Mbiris come along and claimed the main pride, so Ross males stayed with the original breakaway pride. Lillydale is also the 2020 Birmingham male sired by Ross males to avoid confusion.

So, as I thought, the group with the white female, the group that were with the Mbiris, were considered a second breakaway. I knew of the original Breakaway, controlled by the legendary Ross Males, at the same time they controlled the main pride. That original Breakaway Pride, produced those 7 males, who we also have not heard much of recently. But, to be fair, even when we were getting updates on them, those updates were sporadic.

So, essentially, the legendary Birmingham Pride is currently broken into three groups, the main pride, and the two breakaways, with the one being a truly massive pride. As has been discussed recently, regarding lions from Sabi Sands, I do wish we got more updates in the cats from Timbavati. We get regular updates from Manyeleti, it seems when WE left, they left a huge vacuum.

Just for Clarity, the portion of the Birmingham Pride w the white female is the OG and core.   She and some siblings did split away temporarily during the takeover of the Mbiris but all eventually regrouped and reintegrated as one super Pride.  

This original Pride has had three (some say 4) permanent breakaways.  

One of those has never been named and remains called “the Birmingham Breakaway Pride”.   This is the natal pride of the original 7 Birmingham Breakaway Males.  And just to further clarify this Pride has never been under the control of the Mbiris.   It was the Old Avoca Girrafe then Ross and now under the Lone Lilidalle Male aka Nephew.  


And last year another breakaway was named as Mabotel.   Two lionesses that left the core pride.  One is the littermate of Lillydale/Nephew, one is sister of the white lioness.   This pride is under the Mbiris control.  

The other Breakaway is today’s Nharu Pride.  

The possible 4th breakaway that is disputed is today’s Scorro Pride.   I’ve seen some believe it is the earliest breakaway of the core.

To add on that the Mbirhi Pride is also a breakaway of the Birmingham Pride like the Nharhu Pride.

They name it that way as Mbirhi Pride have 2 females that breakaway with the Birmingham Pride and the Tsonga word for 2 is "Mbirhi", while for Nharhu Pride have 3 females that breakawy from the Birmingham Pride and the Tsonga word for 3 is "Nharhu". So that is why other people including me sometime will add letter "h" to Mbiri and Nharu as that would be the correct name and origin of their pride names.

For Skorro Pride being a breakaway of Birmingham Pride I have no information on that, as far as I know Mbirhi Pride and Nharhu Pride is the breakaway pride in Manyeleti not including the Skorro Pride.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Reply