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Lions lay claim at Limpopo-Lipadi
Posted on 5 March, 2015 by Guest Blogger  in Animal Encounters
Posted: March 5, 2015
 
Three wild lions that have been roaming the Tuli area in southern Botswana have entered the Limpopo-Lipadi Private Game Reserve and settled down to claim their territory. The lions (two young males and one thought to be a mature female) are very skittish and keep to themselves, but have now been seen on a few occasions.
Greg Canning, operations manager at Limpopo-Lipadi, says: “We have been planning to introduce lions in any case, so these lions are very welcome. They will assist our existing good populations of leopards, wild dogs and hyenas to maintain sustainable prey species populations.”
The lions entered the reserve after one of the fences was damaged when a drainage line came down in flood. Limpopo-Lipadi has a full time fence maintenance team but the lions got in before the fence was fixed.
The lion tracks were found during a routine anti-poaching patrol but the lions are very shy and avoided contact with our anti-poaching patrol and subsequent tracking teams.

*This image is copyright of its original author

© Simon Espley
Shareholder Simon Espley visited the reserve a few days after the lions arrived and set out on foot with a tracker, to find them.

*This image is copyright of its original author

© Simon Espley
Says Espley: “We spent the better part of two days following the lions of foot, but they always stayed just far enough away to avoid being seen in the thick bush. On a few occasions we were very close, judging by the vocalisations, smell, very fresh tracks and alarm calls from other animals. Eventually we found a very fresh giraffe kill, with signs that we had disturbed the feeding lions. We backed off to let them settle and shareholders monitoring that kill (and other recent kills) have now seen the lions on a few occasions.”

*This image is copyright of its original author

© Simon Espley

*This image is copyright of its original author

© Ted Newton
Shareholders and management at Limpopo-Lipadi hope the lions will settle down and stay in the reserve.

*This image is copyright of its original author

© Bugs van Heerden

*This image is copyright of its original author

© Bugs van Heerden

*This image is copyright of its original author

© Bugs van Heerden
- See more at: http://africageographic.com/blog/lions-l...q7g6t.dpuf

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