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LONDOLOZI BLOG - The Week in Pictures #357 by James Tyrrell, October 19, 2018
I finally got a glimpse of the Ottawa male lion, as he was found next to the Sand River, barely 200 metres from where one of the Birmingham males had been seen the night before. This lone male was tentatively following two of the Mhangeni females, who were keeping a watchful eye on a herd of impalas grazing in and amongst the Phragmites thickets.
Being a solitary male lion, flanked west and east by coalitions of older, larger males (Birmingham and Matimba), means that the odds are certainly not in his favour, but stranger things have happened. The lion activity has certainly been keeping us enthralled, with individuals from four different prides and coalitions passing the camp within the last 24hrs.
The Ottawa male lion mentioned in the intro text. He has been seen more and more to the north of the Sand River, trailing the Mhangeni females. They seem fairly tolerant of him, but we have only seen them together when the lionesses aren’t anywhere near their cubs. What will happen should this male encounter one of the litters may well be a different story, but maybe the lionesses have mated with him, in which case he could be placated into accepting the litters.
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Four of the Ntsevu pride brought down a big Nyala bull along the Tugwaan riverbed, which was discovered by tracker Equalizer Ndlovu and ranger Greg Pingo. The lionesses had brought the pride’s two older litters with them (6 cubs of about 3 months old) to share in the feast. Young cubs like this one, although not as accomplished as their spotted counterparts, will often try and climb small trees, as the dreamy look in the cub’s eye suggests, but it gave up the idea.
*This image is copyright of its original author
If a lion cub could be called grumpy, this photograph would show it. The would-be tree climber from the previous photo had just woken its sibling up, and if looks could kill…