Lions of Sabi Sands

[Tonpa]

A while ago I went through and found every reference to the Talamati cubs on FB to try and workout how many litters there are, but the information is all over the place. I'll put it here 

31st January 2019 - Cheetah Plains
We located a couple of Avoca male lions along with 3 Talamati lionesses. It does seem that the one lioness has Cubs, but one seemed to have somehow died & was being fed on by a hyena nearby. 

6th February 2019 - Tintswalo
The Talamati pride have been moving through their regular areas in the south, often in the presence of the young Avoca males. One of the females is lactating, and we are hoping to get a good view of the cubs soon

16th Febryary 2019 - Tintswalo
The Talamati pride are still keeping us in suspense. Even with daily sightings of the females this past week, we still haven’t been fortunate to lay eyes on any cubs.

24th March 2019 - AtCloseQuarters
Some brilliant tracking later and we caught up with the Talamati lioness with the injured eye and her two young cubs. The reason it was bittersweet is because we soon realised that one of the cubs has a badly injured hind leg which was causing it difficulties when walking.

29th March 2019 - Tintswalo
Hot off this mornings safari! The 5 beautiful cubs of the Talamati Pride. Our guests and guides are ecstatic!

30th March 2019 - Cheetah Plains 
The talamati pride of lions has some new cubs . It seems like they’re from 2 lionesses, with a couple being about 3 weeks and a couple being slightly old (probably 5/6 weeks).

31st March 2019 - Tintswalo
We have finally seen the Talamati cubs, and it was worth the wait. 5 new beautiful cubs are with the pride and are in good condition. Another one of the females is pregnant and this pride could soon be back up to the super pride it used to be.

14th April 2019 - AtCloseQuarters
We heard that the Talamati pride had a wildebeest kill and headed there. We found them. Amazingly for us, the 5 small cubs were also at the kill.

15th April 2019 - AtCloseQuarters
We went in search of the small lion cubs in the north and managed to find them in a nice open spot. This was a fantastic photographic opportunity for everyone and everyone got some fantastic shots of the little cubs. Unfortunately, it seems another cub has lost the use of its hind legs. We think some of the cubs may be suffering from white muscle disease. Hopefully it manages to recover.

17th April 2019 - AtCloseQuarters
We decided to look for the lions cubs and to get some more images of them. We headed north and after some tracking we managed to find them. They were playing, suckling and generally interacting, which gave everyone some fabulous photographic opportunities.

21st April 2019 - AtCloseQuarters
We moved further north and then bumped into a Talamati female who we followed for over an hour. She led us to the other females and another Avoca male lion. To our jubilation, we found the cubs all together and managed to spend some time with them before we had to make the journey back to camp.

22nd April 2019 - Tintswalo
The Talamati pride was seen with the third Avoca brother with their four cubs, so it appears they have lost the 5th cub as we haven’t seen it the whole week.

14th May 2019 - Tintswalo
The Talamati pride is being seen almost daily in the south with the 4 cubs and in presence of one of the Avoca males. These cubs are growing every day and have even started testing meat as we saw the pride with the cubs eating on an impala.

19th May 2019 - AtCloseQuarters
This morning we could hear lions roaring from camp and decided to see if we could find them. We headed north and found tracks almost immediately. After 30 minutes we managed to find two Talamati lionesses, an Avoca male and 5 small cubs.

29th May 2019 - Tintswalo
The Talamati Pride has also shown us two new cubs taking the total up to six cubs, with another female also showing new suckle marks. We have identified at least two females and two males within the cubs.

5th June 2019 - Tintswalo
We found two new cubs with the Talalamti Pride, taking the total up to 8 cubs.

22nd June 2019 - Tingswalo
The Talamati Pride is now up to 9 cubs. The females and dark maned Avoca male are doing a fantastic job of keeping them safe in the south of the reserve.

6th July 2019 - Cheetah Plains
The talamati pride was chased off their waterbuck kill by an Avoca male lion. 
They moved off with their 9 cubs in tow! 

25th July 2019 - Tintswalo
The Talamati Pride in the south seem to have lost 1 cub and are down to 8 cubs. 

8th September 2019 - Cheetah Plains
The entire talamati pride & their 9 cubs were drenched following the first rains of the season! They are really looking in fantastic condition, and the pride is now getting large! 

11th October 2019 - Tintswalo
The Talamati pride and Avoca male have been down in the south and the long drive down there is always so worth the view of the 9 cubs. Reply