Other male lion coalitions from Masai Mara

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The Secret Death of Short-Tail

One of the best looking and strongest Male Lions of the Maasai Mara vanished without trace. He went missing beginning of September this year and has never been seen again. But what happened to Short-Tail?
Short-Tail and his partner Fang, known as the Kichwa Males, were seen in the Musiara Marsh in August this year, quite obviously being interested in taking over the Marsh Pride. Their Pride Males had left them for good already beginning of 2020 and since then this Pride is up for grips. There was no serious competition for Short-Tail & Fang with only two of their 3-3.5 years old sons were sneaking around as well as a few Nomads like Splitnose or Longface, none of them being strong enough to challenge Short-Tail. For some odd reason Short-Tail left his partner Fang alone and crossed back onto the Kichwa Plains, the territory of the Kichwa Males, and he joined members of the River Pride. Then he vanished for unknown reasons.
There was no report about new Male Lions invading the territory of the Kichwa Males, no report about a takeover of the River Pride. Owino Pride Male Olalashe and his young stepson had started courting members of the Oloololo Pride, but these 2 would have never challenged Short-Tail. Over a month after Short-Tail went missing there was a rumour that he had been killed by a Buffalo. Well, there was no information about the death of a Male Lion in the Mara Triangle Monthly Report for September and none of the Guides had heard about this story. I don’t think Short Tail has been killed by a Buffalo. And I also don’t think he moved further south without Fang to take over another Pride in the Triangle and got into conflict with other Males. It is not unusual during the low-season that herders come down to the Kichwa Plains to graze their cattle and after the Corona-Lookdown tourism never catched-up this year. There is a fair chance that the Mara has lost another lion through human error, either to herders or to poachers.
Short-Tail & Fang were most likely born into the Moniko Pride in the OMC in 2010, so Short-Tail was only around 10 years old. These 2 along with a 3rd Male took over the Oloololo Pride in the course of 2015, the Marsh Breakaway Pride end of 2016 and the River Pride end of 2017. The Kichwa Males did a great job as Pride Males defending their territory for 5 years against countless intruders & trespassers, they sired many cubs and successfully protected them, at least 16 made it to independence. The 3rd Male of the Coalition vanished in the first half of 2018 for unknown reasons, now Short-Tail is gone. The era of the Kichwa Males is over with Fang being the now nomadic survivor of the Coalition.
Over the last 4 years it was the sound of the territorial roars of Short-Tail & Fang that sent me to sleep in my tent at Little Governors Camp, located at the edge of the Kichwa Plains. Sometimes they were just a few hundred meters away when they started their patrolling. I was hoping they would take over the Marsh Pride. Sadly this didn’t happen.
I will miss these Males!
Photo credits: Peter Rettig

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