Lions of Sabi Sands

[Wyld@Heart]

(12-24-2023, 10:43 PM)Duco Ndona Wrote: Its the same for a pride. A pride large enough to chase of the Mhangeni, Nkuhumas and Talamiti etc would have to be big.

It's always about the pride. Male lions will always include a pride territory within their own, that's why we have takeovers as such. As for a big pride coming in and assuming that is the only way for a pride to carve out a territory from a big pre existing is again a misconception. Pride numbers, how many female cubs can be raised to maturity, prey density and the ability to keep a pride fed play a massive role in the shifting boundaries of pride territories. The growing numbers of these prides should the female cubs be successfully raised to adulthood, will inevitably result in breakaway/sister prides. We are already seeing that around the Sabi Sands and as those breakaways raise cubs of their own the split becomes pretty much set and thus existing pride territories shift and interchange. 

These processes can play out over years and even decades. We are simply looking at a snapshot in time right as it is. We only have to look back at the last three decades of the history of the Sabi Sands alone to see how prides can come and go, some to fade into the past and others to grow and thrive. To speak in absolutes because of how we perceive things to be just in this moment is strange to me, especially as we've literally just seen the Talamati pride come of age and set up shop in and around that area before our very eyes. Change in the bush, and everywhere I suppose, is the only constant even though those changes can take years in manifesting and is rarely predictable. I personally don't think it out of the realms of possibility for a breakaway/sister pride to find a niche in Londolozi or even Tsalala to raise a litter to adulthood and pride male/s to folloe

*sorry, I've edited this post a few times. Having a few issues on my phone. Reply