The Birmingham Males

[Sideliner]

First in our series on "Lion Prides of Africa" - The Birmingham Lion Pride.
BIRMINGHAM LION PRIDE – Londolozi, Sabi Sand
Article and Images by Cheetah Plains Field Guide, Craig Hamilton
http://cheetahplains.com/…/field-guide-favourites-birmingh…/ - visit site for pictures
Field Guide Favourites – Birmingham Male Lion Coalition Takeover.
The Birmingham coalition of 5 brothers first started entering the northern sands around October/November 2015. They come from the Timbavati area and were pushed out by their fathers to avoid competition.
It is always very exciting to find a new pride or coalition as this leads to better gene diversification and it was just a matter of time before they would start putting pressure on the dominant males in our area.
At first they B-boys would just pop in and out of the Matimba’s territory up in Buffelshoek, they soon realized that there didn’t seem to be too much reply to their vocalizations and scent markings.
After a few months they explored deeper and deeper into Matimba territory. These boys looked mean and rather large for their age at the time. Now in the first 6 months, or so, they did venture into the western sector controlled by the Majingilane males, another coalition of 4 males that have ruled their area for a good number of years. As with any new comers the threat is never taken lightly as is the life of a dominant male lion. The B-boys didn’t last long and soon realized that a takeover in the western sector would prove to be dangerous and far too difficult so they set their attention to the Matimba’s territory. The Matimba’s were only 2 males and the odds seemed tipped in the Birmingham’s favour.
The 5 males went on a killing spree, successfully hunting many buffalo and leaving them almost intact as a sign or warning to the Matimba’s that they meant business.
In this time the Matimba’s had moved further south, almost out of Buffelshoek allowing the B-boys free reign in the north.
Early July 2015, the Styx breakaway pride had 3 cubs fathered by the Matimba’s and were occupying the southern end of their territory. Cubs are always at high risk in the event of new males taking over.
August 2015 we located 8 of the Nkhuma pride battling with a buffalo bull they had managed to separate from the herd. In all of this commotion we learnt that a lioness had been found dead in Torchwood, this so happened to be the missing lioness from the Nkuhuma pride.
The death bellows from the struggling buffalo bull had attracted the attention of the Birmingham’s, and soon 4 of them rushed the Nkuhuma pride and chased them off their potential kill and finished what they had started.
A few days later we were making our way to a sighting of the Styx breakaways with their cubs and the Matimba’s.
They had killed a buffalo to the west of the lodge and out of nowhere we heard that the Birmingham’s were headed straight for the Matimba’s and Styx pride. We could hear the aggressive nature in the calls from the B-boys almost setting the challenge for the Matimba’s to reply. In strong fashion the Matimba’s replied to the challenge and chased the B-boys back north into Djuma, were they came back vocalizing as to reinstate their dominance.
It wasn’t very long after that, that the Matimba’s had almost vanished from the area giving way to the B-boys takeover and moving much further south to avoid a possible physical confrontation that could almost possibly lead to death.
In their wake the new males killed off the cubs from the previous males and also killed off another 2 lionesses from the Nkuhuma pride, probably due to them not willing to give in to the new males.
Since the take over the brothers have been mating with the Styx breakaways and now with one of the Nkuhuma lionesses. They haven’t sired cubs yet weather this is due to their inexperience or the lionesses being in a pseudo type of oestrous, we will just have to wait and see.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Reply