Lion tales

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http://tintswaloguides.blogspot.com/2012/06/sizanani-coalition-manyeleti-game.html

Year 2012

Matimba males conquest of northen Manyeleti Part 1

Enter the Sizanani, the dominant coalition of that arena

The Manyeleti Game Reserve has been experiencing an extremely special period in its recent history with exploding populations of large male lion coalitions. With two new young males, called the Sizanani Coalition (meaning “working together”), looking to settle in the central parts of the northern end of the concession, it is starting to look like a battlefield. They are surrounded by a coalition of 5 males (known as the “Matimbas”) to their south and a reported coalition of 12 males (known as the “Skybeds Coalition”, confirmed at least 9) to their north.


The scenario doesn’t look great for the young males, as besides the high lion competition, one of the males has an injured rear left leg. The injury seems to have been picked up many months ago, yet this young male manages to keep pushing on with the help of his brother. It has been well documented that nomadic male lions are superb hunters as they do not have the support of a pride. On many occasions scavenging seems to be the solution for minimal effort and maximum reward. This method certainly seems to be the answer to countless unsuccessful hunts, due to the disability of an injured leg.

On two occasions within the last week this behaviour has been observed. Firstly when the young coalition managed to pick up the signal of diving vultures, they found the experienced Koppies pride feeding on a Zebra carcass. The stronger of the males managed to push the pride away from what was now there food, as a limping lion came in to reap the rewards.

*This image is copyright of its original author

On the second occasion, on an evening game drive, we heard the bellowing of a helpless buffalo 300 metres away. We knew we were in luck, as earlier in the day we had left the two young males trailing a herd of buffalo. This was something, as a ranger or a tourist, you would always dream of witnessing, so the race was on to get to the scene before the events unfolded. Upon arrival we were shocked to find two hyenas trying to pull a juvenile buffalo to the ground. The tug of war went on for several minutes until the buffalo had no fight left to fight. Suddenly the Sizanani brothers came rushing to the scene and chased the hyenas away, one of which nearly ran into our game viewer as he got such a fright!


The following events unfolded in the video clip below. The hyenas where out of sight but could be heard calling for support in the background:

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