Avoca male lions

[WildLeonis]

(03-11-2023, 11:03 PM)GhostCatP-22 Wrote: The two of them had just “made up” like a week before dark mane died. They were seen on a Nkuhuma buffalo kill and Mohawk chased the others off except for Dark Mane. After Mohawk had gone off on patrol Dark Mane stayed with the pride an the males hung out with him even after his buffalo attack they stayed with him for a few hours before leaving to find their mothers/lionesses.

My opinion but I felt that when Mohawk went back to the area of the buffalo kill he was looking for Dark Mane (once again my opinion based on their movements but we really don’t know what happens for what reason but we can take educated guesses)

Dark Mane and Blondie did have TB…horrible disease that slowly destroys the body. They could’ve done decent with constant food and rest but the stress of new male lions in the area and constantly patrolling was just too hard for his body. What an amazing lions they all are! He basically was an amazing Prpde male all the way to the end. So glad the Avocas are so successful!

It was obvious Blondie, sadly, had TB and likely would’ve lived much longer had he not succumbed to it. But he’d been fighting it for at least a year maybe two before it finally overtook him. He fought a good fight. 

To my knowledge, DM has never been suspected of having TB. He had a bum foot/ankle from an injury he suffered while taking down a Buffalo with the Nkuhumas back in Aug 2019. And it never properly healed. Hence his ongoing issues with walking on that right foot. Despite that injury he still put in a lot of mileage on that foot and it didn’t stop him from patrolling when he was in his prime. 

He lost a lot of his mane in his last year of life but I think it was speculated that it was due to him losing his territory, several lionesses to S8 and going nomadic. He was likely severely stressed being mostly away from the pride and thus a steady supply of food and then roaming unfamiliar areas that were controlled by other males and/or coalitions. Crazy enough before the unfortunate incident with the Buffalo that resulted in his death, he’d started to look a lot better. He was hanging out in Djuma again, most of the time looking well fed and his mane had started to fill back out. Had he lived I think he would’ve continued to do okay and there is a possibility that he and Mohawk may have reformed their coalition. Reply