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Lions of Sabi Sands
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Savanna Lodge update
It was with great excitement that we entered into 2021, after an extremely testing, frustrating and scary 2020. When we look back, it still seems completely unbelievable that anything of this magnitude could happen. The world effectively shut down and the safari industry was no different. Savanna shut its doors towards the end of March and only started a slow reopening in September, when some of the restrictions started to be lifted. Savanna had to reinvent itself to allow the safari operations to continue within the Covid-19 regulations, and it was a very tough and weird way for us to do business. But we managed to get a ‘Covid Model’ working and cannot wait for international travel to open up once again! During lockdown, however, we managed to branch out into more videos through our Stay@Home Safari series (click here to look back at all our videos) and to bring some of Savanna back to you, our guests, stuck in your various countries without the chance to travel. We were able to keep everyone up to date on all the various animals, as they carried on with their lives, oblivious to the chaos around them, and we hope you all enjoyed the videos. Logistically, this meant that our monthly blogs had to take a back seat, as we were focusing mainly on videos, and ended up taking much fewer photographs. But as the restrictions lifted, and we started welcoming guests back, it became increasingly difficult to maintain our daily video updates. It seems that now, at the end of January 2021, is a good time for us to resume our monthly updates through our blogs, although we will obviously continue the video updates and try to bring them out as weekly highlights. In this blog, I will attempt to give a brief history of what has happened during the past twelve months for the various animals, and how the bush has been coping in your absence. Some of the biggest developments we have seen have been in the lion population. Those of you who have been following our video updates will have noticed the arrival and settlement of the three young Thumbela males. They are now approaching five years old, but first came into our area in mid-2020. Having been nomadic for some time, they were initially a little nervous, lacking in confidence and skinny.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author By September, however, they had settled in quite comfortably and, with almost no pressure from the one remaining Matimba male, soon started mating with the Ottawa females.  *This image is copyright of its original author Incredibly, the Matimba male has managed to hang on and survive for a lot longer than any of us expected. He is now over 15 and a half years old, and it has been at least a year and a half since his brother died. This is partly due to the fact that he has had no real challengers vying for his territory, and the Thumbela males that came in last year were too young to have any confidence in challenging the old King.  *This image is copyright of its original author On a few occasions, when he got wind of the new upstarts, he would head towards them, roaring continuously, reminding them that he is still in charge! In the new year, however, he has lost contact with the Ottawa pride, who have seemed to accept the Thumbela males, and he now needs to fend for himself.  *This image is copyright of its original author The new year has also brought a new dynamic, with the short stay of the young Styx and Nkuhuma males. These two males have been together for about a year and are also looking for a vacant territory. They are about half a year younger than the Thumbela males, and being only two brothers, are unlikely to challenge them for the Western Sector.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author Before the arrival of the new males, the Ottawa pride was thriving. They had a large giraffe kill in the middle of the year which was not stolen by other lions or hyena, and they managed to stay on it for nearly a week. This seemed to really boost their condition, and the four sub-adults grew quickly.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author This could not have come at a better time, as the arrival of the Thumbela males has meant that the sub-adults had to leave the pride a little earlier than expected. The older male is three years old, while the younger three are two and a half, but seem to be coping well for now on their own. It is going to be interesting to see if they survive and if the young female will rejoin her pride when the dust settles.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author The Mhungene pride and the Ottawa male are also doing exceptionally well and we have seen them quite often over the past year. With no competition at all, the Ottawa male has developed a fantastic mane, and shows very few battle scars.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author The five adult females are also in excellent condition and currently have three young cubs, which are now 8 and 5 months old. It has been interesting to see how patient and tender the Ottawa male has been with them. Being the only adult male in the pride probably means that his testosterone levels do not need to be as high as normal, giving him a much calmer demeanour.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author
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