History's most brutal killers, the Majingilane Male Lions

[Fredymrt]

The Majingilane males protect their territory
CyberDiary – 17 January 2012
 January 18, 2012  MalaMala

*This image is copyright of its original author

The Manyelethi brothers walked far and wide in a bid to protect their territory from the Selati males, and on some days we saw as many as three different buffalo herds at different locations around the property.
The  Manyelethi males protect their territory

On Thursday morning we headed off in the direction of the new airstrip in search of the lions we’d heard roaring the night before. It could only have been the Manyelethi males, our resident dominant coalition, letting all the youngsters out there know who is in charge. We came upon the tracks of one of the males from the night before. They were heading south and then east towards West Street bridge, and from there crossed through the Sand River, under the bridge, before continuing east again. At this point the tracks indicated that the male had picked up speed, but what we didn’t realize was just how fast he was actually moving.
We’d seen the four young Selati males all the way down by the windmill the previous afternoon, and watched as they went south and east on the scent trail of a herd of buffalo. As we continued to follow the lone Manyelethi male’s tracks, it dawned on us that he was heading to the same area where we’d seen the Selati males. At this point we were almost 10km from the airstrip. We followed the tracks past the windmill in a southwest direction, and about 6km further along we came across tracks of four males.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Selati Males

We wondered if they perhaps belonged to the Selati youngsters. Was it possible that the Manyelethi male was on their tail the whole time? We worked the area extensively, and from a distance eventualy made out the head of a male lion, then another, until finally all four Manyelethi males raised their heads in unison to see what was going on.

Piecing things together afterwards, we figured out that the Manyelethi males had walked more than 16 km in order to protect their territory. At the point where we found them they’d clearly decided to call it a day and rest up a while. They came, they  might have seen, and there’s no doubt they would have conquered, but whether or not there was in fact an interaction between the two coalitions we’ll never know. Later that evening the Manyelethi males all got up and made their way north back towards the core of their territory

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