The Mighty Mapogos

[sanjay]

The short story of Mighty Mapogos Lion Coalition

We all know mapogos coalition of six male lions. They first appear in March 2006. Name of the six lions form Mapogos coalition are-

1. Dreadlocks
2. Makulu
3. Pretty Boy
4. Rasta
5. Mr. T
6. Kinky Tail
   

Below are the some images of this coalition

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

These 6 males coalition of lions split into 2 different groups. 4 of them namely, Dreadlocks, Rasta, Pretty Boy and Makulu formed a coalition and stayed on south of the sand of rivers while other 2 Mr. T and Kinky Tail moved to north of the sand of rivers.

Majingilane 
Originally they were coalition of 5 males and when first come on lime light they were of 4-5 year old. According to eye witness on 7 June 210, they were feeding on carcass of huge buffalo which they have killed 2 days earlier, prior to this they were occasionally seemed by tourist. But today (7 June 2010) they were looking more confident and they were looking different.

The story
On 8 June 2010 at 02:30 morning the majingilane started roaring, it was first time they fully vocalized, there thunderous roars can be heard across the open grassland at miles distance away. That night they were active and moved in almost all possible direction.

From the west of the Nkorho the 2 big and dominant Mapogos, Kinky Tail and Mr. T start moving towards North. It was clear that they have heard the roar of Majingilane at that morning and they had accepted the challenge of these males and ready to answer them. They start moving towards the possible location of the young coalition of these males.
The two dominant males moved Nkorho in a south west direction. They were moving in pace and extremely focused on something.
In a thick bush one of the young male lion from Majingilane coalition was sitting and when he realized the presence of Kinky Tail and Mr. T he tried to sink and flattered in order to hide himself. At this point Kinky Tail and Mr. T had not spotted the younger male but were definitely aware of his presence. Perhaps an earlier contact call, or the detection of the younger male's scent, had brought them within very close to the young rival.

The kinky Tail sniffed the air and slowly moved in the direction of young male lion from Majingliane coalition and Mr. T followed him. And the history written, the two powerful male was on top of young male. The viscous and thunder roar of Lions were in all direction, People can hear the sound of breaking bone and growls from the young lion. That was pure brutal scene for any one, they were tearing and slicing the young male lion. Although the younger lion gave his all he never stood a chance. By the end of the battle both parties were clearly exhausted.

Images of this fight

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Watch the video of this famous fight

One can easily see the damage caused to the young male in above photos. His bone of both hind legs were broken and his pelvis was shattered. Massive tear and deep cut in skin flesh can be seen especially at abdomen. Kinky Tail and Mr. T were also injured and were bleeding at several places. The two Mapogos take shelter under a nearby bush while the young majingilane male remained immobilized and dying minute by minute.

Death of Kinky tail
At the same night, the reaming four young male from Majingilane coalition were laying and resting very near to the place of incident where his 5th brother was killed by kinky tail and Mr. T. It seems that they have got some sense of entire incident. Suddenly the 4 young male lion start roaring and almost instantly The 2 mapogos responded with equally thundering roar.

Kinky Tail who is one of the bravest lion didn’t hesitate to chase the 4 males. He started running slowly towards the direction of four young male lion and with time he increased his pace, though he carry some injury from previous fight but looking on his confidence one can assume there was no sign of pain or injury on his face. What a brave lion. On seeing him The 4 majingilane turned their back and start running at full speed followed by Kinky Tail. After some few minutes of chase 2 of the Majingilane lion disappeared.  Only Kinky tail can be seen behind other 2 lions. Suddenly the 2 disappeared male appeared but this time they were behind the Kinky Tail and following him. So you can imagine like this-
2 majingliane at front, in middle Kinky tail (chasing them) and behind of him the other 2 majingilane. That was a spectacular seen. What a smartness shown by the Majingilane, Incredible.
The 2 leading majigilane lion who were chased by kinky tail realized the presence of their brother in behind of kinky tail, they stopped and turned back towards kinky tail. But kinky tail has no fear, he ran straight toward them and hit with a powerful paw swipe. In between second lion followed by 2 others attacked him from behind.

Kinky tail start growling and roaring in pain, the four lion attacked and start mauling him brutally. The 4 young lion made kinky tail bleeding and caused deep punctured injuries on his neck, head, and hind legs. After 15 minute if this brutal attack, Mr. T appeared first time, he made a heroic entry but got hesitant when he saw four male were mauling the Kinky Tail as he has expected Kinky Tail to be dominating the fight. As soon as he realized that his brother is in danger and losing the confrontation, he jumped in to the fight and immediately attacked on of the lion behind of Kinky Tail. Suddenly one of the lion from attacking group join his brother against Mr. T. The 2 young males tackled Mr. T and remaining 2 keep holding the Kinky tail from behind. 2 vs 1 was too much for Mr. T and he was losing the battle. Understanding the situation Mr. T run for his life, while the 2 younger lion chasing him. After few minutes of chase, the 2 male lion returned and joined their brother and showed no mercy towards Kinky tail who was almost helpless and doomed.

images of this historic fight of kinky tail

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Videos of the fight

They continue to attack with such a brutality that cannot be expressed in words, with bone breaking sounds they had dislocated his 3 legs. They have broken his spinal cord and made severely deep wounds in his back and abdomen. He suffered lacerations to his head and face. By the collapse of the left side of his face it looked as if they had broken the lower section of the orbital socket and there was a puncture wound in the head about as thick as a grown man’s thumb and as deep as the average length of a male lions canine, roughly the length of your thumb. What a brutal seen to witness.

From a distance Mr. T start roaring again. The 4 male lions loose his grip from immobilized Kinky tail and headed towards the direction of Mr. T. After chasing Mr. T for few minutes in thicker bushes they moved back towards dying Kinky tail. Though the Kinky tail was almost breathless they still ran with an intensity towards him and attacked violently from all direction without any mercy.
You can imagine the brutality of this scene as 3 of these 4 majingilane lions start eating Kinky tail from behind (hind legs) while he was still alive and taking his last breath. It took more than 20 minutes to die him and during all this time he was been eaten alive by group of 3 lions.  The reaming 1 was still attacking on his face and neck.

The young lions keep urinating and vocalizing time to time to show their dominance and glory, they declared that this areas is now owned by them and if there is any opponent to challenge him.  Within few hours they eaten up more than 75% of kinky tail and the one of the most glorious and famous lion of his era take his last breath. In the darkness of night Lions were roaring all around, Mr. T from some distance and the 4 young killer in the reply.

In the following morning one can see flattered grass, scattered remains of the mane and head of dead kinky tail and blood all around the scene of incident. Scavenger have already lured by the remains. Whole Mapogos was a legendary coalition and Kinky tail was a special lion who is still remember for his brave heart and aggressive nature. The death of Kinky tail made a history and it forced human to learn and think about lion’s behavior once again.

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Since then, Majingilane have found a new confidence. They tracked Mr. T to Londolozi who has taken shelter here and he was with the Tsalala pride on June 28th/29th 2010. The four Majingilane males launched another attack that scattered the three adult Tsalala lionesses along with their eight youngsters. Two of the youngsters were killed.
Mr. T was slightly injured and ran west to join up with his four coalition brothers. The 5 coalition of Mapogos joined under the leadership of Mr. T.
Again after few days later, the five Mapogo males were seen heading back East towards North Central Sabi Sand. They seem to be on a mission to meet up with the Majingilane males once again.

Death of Rasta.
On July 9 2010, they went for another confrontation against the young brigade of Majigilane coalition. The result of this fight was also disastrous for mapogos as they lost the fight and one of the member name as Rasta got killed in this battle due to severe injuries and the pretty boy also got severe injuries which seemed to include a bent spine.
Unfortunately there is no image of this incident,

This is a videos in which you can hear the roar and growl of Lions and possibly Majingilane killing Rasta. Unfortunately this video also has no clear footage.

Missing Dreadlocks
After losing this battle they never challenge Majigilane again. Seemingly content in a smaller portion of their territory the four remaining Mapogos started to build on their dominance of the Ximhungwe pride until one day one of them aka dreadlocks, decided to go for a walk in a north-easterly direction towards their old territory, and never returned. Probably killed by another lion or hyena group or poachers and even some believe he was killed by Crocodile, but no one know the exact reason.

Death of Mr. T
Down to three, the Mapogo coalition seldom left the western sector of the reserve. They remain dominant males for at least 3-4 year after losing Kinky tail, Rasta and dreadlocks. Mr. T most famous for his dominance behavior and killing many cubs and female. During Mr.T’s absence from the west, the other Mapogo males had taken over a new pride – the Ximhungwe pride. A number of cubs had been born into the pride since the takeover but as Mr.T had not been with the other coalition members at the time he did not recognise the cubs as family and instinctively began to wipe them out. This again enhanced his brutal reputation, yet he was only following his instincts in order to ensure that the next generation of the Ximhungwe pride would have the blood of the Mapogo coalition running through their veins, there was no way for him to be sure that the cubs at the time already were of the Mapogo bloodline.

The three old males seemed to be heading for an easy retirement until the arrival of the four young Southern Males (Selati).  At first these younger male were afraid of the 3 Mapogos and keep their distance whenever they heard the roar of them. It was a lioness from Ximhungwe pride who build the confidence in these young boys to dare to battle. As Mapogos where nowhere present and this lioness come into oestrus on hearing the roar of Selati males she decided to mate with them. Finding a female to mate with brought the younger males closer to Mapogos controlled territory and it was not long before there was a confrontation between the two coalitions.

This first confrontation ended with all seven males walking away, but the Mapogo looked like a beaten trio, one had narrowly avoided serious injury and the three took some time to recuperate.
On 16 march 2012, The 4 Selati younger male caught Mr. T alone and killed him almost in same way as kinky tail was killed by Majingilane but it was less brutal. You can see the image and video of 4 lions killing Mr. T.
images of last battle of Mr. T aka Satan, killed by Selati male lions

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Some of the videos

He was severely wounded and punctured by deep injuries all around his hind legs and abdomen. He dies in 1 hours after sustaining the severe injuries given by Selati.

The last days of Makulu and Pretty Boy
In the year since the death of this magnificent old lion the remaining two members of the once formidable coalition were reduced to living the life of nomads themselves. Moving throughout the Sabi Sand reserve and even into the Kruger National Park the two brothers somehow managed to avoid major conflict with other males for the first few months. There were run-ins with another pair of males known as the Kruger males eventually, one of these confrontations ended with reports of the older male, known as Makulu, being killed in the fight.
Since then pretty boys was seen occasionally and hiding and living a low profile life. In between he was chased by selati males in many occasion.
Until one day when Makulu staged a return from the dead and both old males were reunited, even causing headlines when the pair walked into the Kruger Park through the Paul Kruger entrance gate one morning!
 
In October 2012 the old boys again returned to the Western sector, following the buffalo herd. At this time Pretty Boy looked painfully thin, without a meal soon he would not last much longer.
After that for longer duration of time there was no news of these 2 boys. In January 2013 Makulu sighting alone was reported. It seems that the oldest member of the coalition was the one to have lasted the longest.

No one knows what happened to Pretty boys and how he died, probably due to hunger? Or killed by Selati coalition? Also there is no confirmed news about Makulu death.

This is the end of story. Mapogos story is greatest story of lion history and very fascinating they were true legend of the lion world.
 
Note:  I have taken information form lot of sources while writing this story. I request my members to correct it at places where I am wrong


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