The Matimba coalition

[Fredymrt]

Friday, 14 September 2012


Lion

There is plenty of lion movement at the moment. It has been a bit quiet in the north, but we’ve had very good sightings of the Sizanani brothers as well as the Matimba coalition. As for the females, the Koppies females have been moving around the Main dam area but the Mphiri girls were nowhere to be found this week.
Matimba males

The Matimba males are a well-known powerful coalition of six males that frequent the central and Southern parts of the reserve and also move in the Northern parts of the Sabi Sands.

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

They were seen at the beginning of the week at Bushbuck dam on the Sabi Sand boundary with five males in attendance. We went the next morning to relocate them, only to hear that they were found on a Wildebeest kill on Bee-eater road. This is about 12 kilometres from the boundary which indicates the size of their territory. There were also some scattered sightings of these males around S8 dam and one male was found on a Zebra kill on S10 road. So a fair amount of movement in core of their territory, the south, with the typical Matimba incursions to the north.

*This image is copyright of its original author

map of the matimba males movements



Saturday, 22 September 2012

Wilderness tracking team on tracking the Matimba lions

A coalition of 6 male lions named the Matimbas has claimed the Manyeleti as their territory. This coalition has grown so strong that they have set up shop “so to speak” over a very large area. This coalition as we have witnessed the past 3 years has been growing vigorously in confidence, strength and mystery. Other coalitions and prides also operate in the reserve however very fleet-footedly!

*This image is copyright of its original author

The Matimbas have been in several fights with other male and female lions and it was reported a while ago that they killed a young female lion and ate her… On several occasions we’ve witnessed them bring down Buffalo with not to much difficulty.

Matimbas feasting on a Buffalo


A tracking team has been set-up to establish this coalitions movements, habits and in general to find out “what they do and where do they go when we're not watching?”

The tracking team consisting of 2 members lead by our talented tracker Mpho “Hercules”Malapane is focused and determined to find them and other predators on a regular basis.

On a recent tracking excursion we picked-up lion tracks. A few females and one large male next to S8 water hole.

The area where we found the tracks were consistent with the Matimbas territory. We took about 10 minutes and scanned the area too decipher where these lions went after they had an early morning drink and brief lye-down. Less than 10 minutes later we were on their trail. We started following their tracks slowly. Firstly, we wanted to get a ”feel” for "how" they were moving through the game paths and surrounding bush. After a fair distance of walking we concurred with silent whisper "They are hunting!"

While tracking for about 40 minutes the tracks disappeared as a big herd of several hundred African buffalo walked right over their tracks.

Mpho then said “We will now keep following the buffalo, they will show us where the lions are...”

Rapidly, another 20 minutes passed and we could hear numerous African Buffalo grunting and mooing several hundred meters in front of us. We were getting close!

Mpho then said “if we chase the buffalo, we will chase the lion”

We then decided to not disturb the buffalo and stay well down wind to avoid being detected. This tactic made lots of sense because if these lions were hunting these buffalo, we didn't want to be a distraction to the event.

We slowly and secretively searched the area making sure we do not get spotted by any animal. We could see no track or sign of these lion.

We decided to back-track on the rout we tracked in and searched again for tracks. We felt confident the lions did not go to far. Luckily we found some barely noticeable spoor and they were heading towards a large open clearing we know about.

At times, open clearings are classic resting areas for lazy lions. We decided to slowly and very carefully approach the clearing as to not make a sound. We took caution to conceal ourselves from possible detection by any animals.

At this moment, our hearts were beating louder than the sound of our footsteps!

As we maneuvered closer I could not help thinking about the awesome environment we are working in. Not to mention the fact that we have to track lions as a job description...

See what we found!

We secretly watched and filmed them, sneaked out, fetched the vehicle and spent a rewarding 5 hours studying their behaviour.

The one Matimba male was constantly flehmen grimacing as he was testing an Nkuhuma females' reproductive status with that classic muzzled smirk. While these Lions tried to sleep-out the rest of the day they were visited by an inquisitive black-backed jackal. A magnificent male kudu also almost became a late afternoon canapé as he strolled unexpectedly into the sleeping Matimbas!

Matimba Flehmen Grimacing


Fritz Breytenbach


Sunday, 23 September 2012

*This image is copyright of its original author

The best news so far was to see one of the Matimba males being seduced by one of the Mbiri females between Ntzaka loop and Manyeleti Main camp. It was very apparent that he was not the predator here. She started the game of seduction like an old pro with the Matimba male only too happy to oblige. A few days later Fritz found another couple mating between S10 and S11. The female was older and we think it might be one of the Nkuhuma females, as it was in the heart of their territory in the Manyeleti Game Reserve. It’s going to be interesting to see how these males settle down. We are noticing the same males further north more often. It might be that there is too much competition for mating further south resulting in the quest for opportunities deeper into the reserve

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Map of Matimba males movements Reply