History's most brutal killers, the Majingilane Male Lions

[peter]

(01-15-2017, 02:06 AM)fursan syed Wrote: @Tshokwane  sorry my question is off topic. But is tshokwane is the name of some lion ?

In his great book 'Wildlife in South Africa' (first published in 1947 - I have the Panther edition published in 1957), Lt.Col. J. Stevenson-Hamilton, a former Warden of the Kruger National Park, wrote about the extreme cunning and caution often displayed by old male lions accustomed to being hunted:

" ... The most outstanding instance of this ... was that of a lion known to the natives as 'Tshokwane', because they all believed he was the incarnation, or at any rate directed by the spirit of an old headman of that name, who had some reputation during his life as a tagati or wizard.

His beat was always within an area of some fifty square miles in the neighbourhood of the camp which I annually occupied for three months every year for the sole purpose of hunting lions, and a great deal of my time was occupied, during three or four seasons, in the endeavour to get to terms with him. The natives said he was as big and black as a Buffalo, and on the few occasions in which I had a glimpse of him, he certainly appeared to me to be much the largest lion I had ever seen. His spoor measured eight inches in diameter, which is something out of the common. However, in spite of the best of trackers, an intimate knowledge of the country, a fair amount of personal experience, and a keen desire to add his splendid trophy to my collection, he beat me first, last, and all the time.

He was usually accompanied by some full-grown, but younger lion, and when his companion was killed, as happened several times, he always seemed able to collect another almost immediately. No doubt his great sagacity and experience were invaluable in hunting, and there was a fair division of labour; 'Tshokwane' doing the planning both in aggression against game and in avoidance of danger, while the younger animal undertook the more strenuous part of the actual hunting.

His selection of day lairs was always characterized by foresight. He never chose a place where surprise would be easy, and his scout was usually stationed at an outpost. His favourite spot was at the top of a high flat-topped hill, covered with large boulders and loose stones, but with rather steep sides, from which a perfect view could be got all over the surrounding country and over which it was impossible to make a quiet approach ... " (pp. 208-209).

Stevenson-Hamilton never got an opportunity to fire a shot at 'Tshokwane'. He didn't regret it: 

" ... Although these were the only occasions on which I ever caught sight of this great lion, I actually had followed him without result on dozens of hunts and had shot a succession of his assistants. The natives, of course, said that as he was a tagati, I would never get him, and this made me ... all the more keen to do so; but had I succeeded, I think I would have been rather sorry on the whole, for so much cleverness and reasoning power deserved the success it actually achieved ... (pp. 211).

A year after his last attempt, the bones of a very large lion were found in the Lebombo Hills. Steven-Hamilton thought that they were of old 'Tshokwane':

" ... Whether he had died of old age or whether he had met his end otherwise I was never able to determine; but am inclined to think that he met with some accident ... " (pp. 211). Reply