Lions of Sabi Sands

[KM600]

(10-27-2023, 12:40 AM)Mapokser Wrote: @KM600 They did get proper confrontations with them multiple times.

At the very beginning of the year Mohawk was chasing both of them. Eventually they turned the tables on Mohawk and by February Mohawk was semi-nomadic and after a clash with BDM, Mohawk was seen with a slight limp. First missed opportunity.

Then as fully dominant males they both ran from S8, another opportunity missed. More recently they were able to chase S8 but it happened in BDM territory and they didn't put any pressure ob BDM or his pride.

They caught the bigger Ndhzenga alone and again barely did more damage to him than they did to Mohawk.

Many males would love to get such a good hand, surrounded by solo males and the one big coalition ( Ndhzengas ) lose 2 members very quickly basically making sure BDM don't have anyone outnumbering them. Then there's the NK pride, Tsalala female and Talamati pride that spent months in Londolozi ( and area they spent time in and tried to take over ), still, nothing, they couldn't take over any of the females.

Females under 2 males, under 1, or under no male at all, all available, but they couldn't get them... It's been basically a year since they became dominant and despite being in a very favourable area, they failed to produce results and it doesn't seen things will get better now that they seemingly lost their own fertile female and one of them is injured.

I wouldn't say they are weak, no healthy lion is, but compared to your average lion, they are definitely lacking in strength. Some other duo, even if not particularly strong, would be thriving under the same circumstances. BDM are lucky lions but haven't been able to capitalise on their luck.

I don’t remember hearing Mohawk chasing both of them at the start of the year, infact Mohawk run from S8 when he had the 4 Nkuhuma YMs with him so I doubt he chased both BDMs. Also no clash between Mohawk and the BDMs was witnessed, the guides stated they chased him for about 500m but they never caught him and he was seen within the next day or so limping, presumably from running. Mohawk wasn’t seen with a limp in February, this was in mid December. 

I’ve also never heard of S8 chasing the BDMs, the encounter I think you’re on about, he was challenging one of the BDMs on a kill made by the Talamati breakaways and after the brother appeared, S8 ran off. He later tried to challenge them again but the brothers were still together and S8 gave up once again. 

Them not taking over the females such as the Tsalala or Talamatis imo has nothing to do with their strength, for whatever reason they didn’t want to accept them especially with the Talamatis, Dark Mane Jr was around them start of the year and maybe this was the reason they didn’t accept the BDMs but we’ll never know. Reply