Avoca male lions

[Matimbalani]

(10-07-2020, 07:01 PM)Gijima Wrote: Read something about how the NAvocas just walked into an empty territory on the Lions of SS thread and wanted to clear up that info (moving it to the Avoca thread to not spam the other one). I’m not blaming the poster since this is spread by some uninformed guides on WE all the time but here is a video of the BBoys coming to Djuma for the last time (May 3 2018) to fight for their territory and leaving battered and bruised, never to return again to the north:

[video=youtube]https://https://youtu.be/Q_NbRYXefYk[/video]

Some interesting things to remember:

1) Although BBoys moved to the south, they did often visit the north (nkuhuma and Styx in 2018). No coalition of 4 would limit themselves to one pride or even just Mala Mala. They would have ideally have owned most of the eastern sector as any normal coalition of 4 would, with multiple prides. The N Avocas had everything to do with limiting BBoys to just one pride and yes, BBoys could definitely have fought and ousted the Avocas if they attacked them as a coalition of 4 but they chose not to. 

2) In the video the ranger says one lion was seen running north. This fight happened in May 3 2018 and Mfumo was never seen after this date. This is purely speculation but could Mfumo have been with these two BBoys when they came up north? The last reports of Mfumo are that he was seen “up north”... so he had to have been with Tinyo and Nsuku because clearly they were up north too.. All of this is speculation I know but it always bothered me he just went MIA and this is the only real confrontation I can think of that happened at that time. 

Anyways....just wanted to share.

Well, I happen to think they walked into that territory and I have said it several times on this board that they weren't really challenged for it. A few days earlier, Junior was reported as chasing the Northern Avocas around a waterhole in the north; someone on this board even joked that Junior was avenging his fathers. Lions do abandon prides it happens fairly regularly even if there's no one challenging them for it. As to limiting themselves to one single pride, by the time they established themselves in SS, Mfumo was gone and Nsuku succumbed soon afterwards. Had they stayed four then there may have been pressure to expand beyond the Kambulas. But the Kambulas are a big prideide and one of the BBoys already has cubs with the Tsalala lioness.

A few days after the fight you mentioned the Northern Avocas were separated with Dark Mane on his own searching for his brothers (check the Safari videos). So that lone lion could be him. Two BBoys were definitely seen up north and no one at the time--not on this board, not on Facebook, YouTube, etc--even speculated that Mfumo could have died in that particular fight. Reply