The Mighty Mapogos

[Leo Aslan]

Mapogo Lions - The Battles of Africa
Ranger report: Makhulu vs. Ravenscourt (2007)
...On our last evening at Londolozi, our guide followed a lion that was looking for his pride. We followed him into the bush, at one point in time. I left that footage in, even though it's jerky, so you can get a sense of what it's like to be on safari.The safari drive was spent following two lions (Makhulu Mapogo & Ravenscourt male) who were having a territorial encounter. Ravenscourt /Castleton Male was chased off by Makhulu Mapogo.
Ravenscourt/Castleton male grew up in the Castleton pride before joining up with 4 Rollercoaster Males (Shaws males) for a while. Ravenscourt male was also known as the Castleton male, he was the brother of Kokwana. 
He eventually joined the Ravenscourt pride and seemed to accept the Sand River males cubs as his own. The Ravenscourt pride succumbed to the pressure of the Mapogos and disease with both the Castleton male and one of the youngsters being absorbed into the Ximhungwe pride in 2008. 
When the Ravenscourt pride disintegrated the Castleton/Ravenscourt male rejoined the Ximhungwe pride, he teamed up with the young Ximhungwe male. The Castleton male and young Ximhungwe male formed a bond and moved away from Mapogo controlled territory in late 2008/early 2009 but both had to be put down after killing and eating a Rabies infected domestic dog (a week or two later and they would have been inoculated against the disease as the authorities were busy with all the large predators at the time). Late 2008/early 2009 was when the Ravenscourt & young Ximhungwe male died. by Silent Sensei

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