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01-11-2017, 08:24 PM( This post was last modified: 01-11-2017, 08:44 PM by Georgel )
Mapogo Lions chased towards Earth Lodge – by Brett Thomson
Posted By Brett Thomson on Jul 10, 2012
Richard de Gouveia from Sabi Sabi reports this morning that one of the Mapogo was seen running at high speed past Earth Lodge, and in hot pursuit were the Kruger Males. The sighting was accompanied by lots of roaring and aggression! It was before game drive, so they were not able to follow immediately. On subsequent follow ups it seems that it was a small altercation with minor injuries.
The fact that the Mapogo lions have now been chased back towards Earth Lodge seems to indicate that they really have nowhere to go anymore, and it is only a matter of time before they face their demise. After being chased today they are now hanging out very close to the edge of the border of the Sabi Sand Private Game Reserve.
Although we all love the Mapogo I was chatting to a friend of mine, Courteney Blunden (who used to guide at Lion Sands and who is now the owner of Africa on Foot), and he witnessed the Mapogo establishing their territories in the early days. He mentioned that they were the most vicious, violent lion coalition he has ever seen, and slowly but surely it seems that you reap what you sow! The life of a male lion is not easy!
I was lucky enough to see the Mapogo when I visited Savanna Private Game Reserve, and we came across five of them resting. To come across five males lions lying in the bush, on an open safari 4×4 is intimidating enough and the sighting remains with me today! As a memento I bought the below picture of them drinking at a waterhole and the photo was taken by Paddy Hagelthorn. It is now framed and takes pride of place in my home office!
Long live the Mighty Mapogo!
News flash! Just heard from Mele Andru that apparently the one Mapogo’s testicles have been badly damaged in the fighting this morning. Not good news at all.
Richard De Gouveia: "It must have been Mak that was injured in the fight as I saw PB and all his 'tackle' seemed to be perfect!!"
*This image is copyright of its original author
Ben Coley (Bush Lodge Ranger) says July 12, 2012 at 8:42 am
"Thanks for all the comments everyone. I hope it was a fitting article for such an influential coalition! News from the fight yesterday morning is that one was seen briefly with quite bad injuries to his testicles amongst other areas…but we don’t know the extent of the injuries just yet. We did find tracks for one deep in south of the reserve this morning but couldn’t locate him. It seems I underestimated the Kruger males. Although the remaining Mapogo are larger, I can only posit that their desire has left them and they merely seek to live out the rest of their days in relative peace.
They have graced the Sabi Sands with great memories and we are honoured to share what seems to be the end of their days here at Sabi Sabi. We will keep you posted on events as they happen."
Ranger Rich (Richard de Gouveia) says July 27, 2012 at 9:57 am
"We found PB but no sign of Mak… PB was looking skinny and in my opinion didn’t seem very happy! We will keep u as informed as we can!"