The Mighty Mapogos

[Ngonya]

(09-14-2023, 12:12 AM)Mapokser Wrote: @Ngonya The second photo I think is T, first photo I'm not completely sure.

As for who is the father, it's impossible to tell, any of the 6 can be the father of one or both, and I don't think they resemble any of their fathers strongly, their sisters also didn't.

@BA0701 Mr.T seemed to be more consistently dominant throughout 2011, but dominance changes from day to day, so sometimes the other brothers would get the upper hand. By late 2011 Leopard Hills said Mr.T was the most dominant and PB the least one.

Mr.T didn't "take over" the prides when he returned, Londolozi saw the 5 of them going east when Mr.T returned and noticed he was sidelined and submissive in the feeding frenzy when they caught a buffalo, and Leo Vantage has a video of PB and Dreadlocks asserting their dominance not allowing Mr.T near the cub or carcass:

In the video description Leo says Mr.T respected them and didn't come any closer but later found the cub and killed it when the other males weren't around.

2 cubs were killed this way, and the third one, Super Cub, was fatally injured by Mr.T in a feeding frenzy.

So it's not like Mr.T showed up, forced his brothers into submission and killed their cubs in front of them as the documentary suggests.

Mr.T played it smart, being submissive until he realized he wouldn't get rejected by the coalition, and once the cubs were dead and they were competing for mating rights, he wasn't dominating the competition, sometimes he'd win ( like in the video where he confronts Makhuku and fights PB ) and sometimes lose. There's a even a report of Makhuku and him competing at that time and Makhulu was more dominant:

*This image is copyright of its original author

When Mr.T returns the most dominant was probably Dreadlocks since posters at that time regarded Makhulu and him as the most dominant and a WildEarth ranger in early 2009 watching both groups of Mapogo together in Djuma said the coalition had 2 dominant males, first Makhulu and second "the one with the snipped tail", saying when there were females in estrus, these were the 2 they usually saw competing for the females and during most of the time they were the ones mating, so when Makhulu aged in 2010 Dreadlocks probably climbed to first place.

Though it's like I said, with Mapogos, not even the most consistently dominant will win all the time, dominance changed from day to day, even PB who was the least dominant of the western Mapogos and least dominant at the end of their reign, has been seen dominating Dreadlocks.

I don't think Mr.T and Makhulu had a strained relationship, Rob said they weren't close but this was no surprise, back in the day Makhulu was older and stronger, the others couldn't compete so they even split in 2007, the 5 weren't seen with Makhulu again as Ulusaba reports, they killed his Othawa cubs and would move throughout eastern SS a lot looking for opportunities. Then when they "reformed" the coalition again later in 2007 it didn't take long for Mr.T and KT to split.

When Mr.T returns though, first footage of him is sleeping at Makhulu's side. Rob said they may have become closer in the end, and there are reports saying they were spending a lot of time together in their latest months, while PB would remain alone chilling with the lionesses.

I appreciate this bunch of information. I always thought it was strange in the documentary that that Mr T killed the cubs and the brothers just watched, it always seemed like unnatural behavior from lions, especially for males as dominant and aggressive as the Mapogos of the west Reply