Coalitions of Kruger National Park

[Timbavati]

(10-14-2021, 03:00 AM)Potato Wrote: Singita KNP update

• The story of the Kumana and Maputo males is an amazing one. The Kumana male, when he first arrived in the concession, was one of a coalition of three males. Unfortunately, two of these males have since departed this world. The Kumana male continued to control the territory and even sired youngsters with the Shishangaan lionesses. A few months later a different male – the Maputo male, arrived in the area. It was obvious that he was intent on taking the territory from the older Kumana male. They were seen fighting on a few occasions and we all wondered who was going to be successful. The Maputo male was even seen mating with one of the Shish lionesses. It looked like a bad situation for the Kumana male. Then, at the end of August both of the males were seen feeding on a Cape buffalo together. Most coalitions of male lions consist of brothers and it is unusual for unrelated males to get together peacefully and form a bond. This month, however, it appears that exactly this has happened. The Kumana and Maputo males have seemed to have made a truce and throughout this last month they have been seen together. There are no more signs of aggression between the two. Towards the latter half of the month these two males managed to kill a Cape buffalo on the bank of the N’wanetsi River, near an area that we know as Euphorbia Crossing, and shared the meat between them.
• The two Shish males have been seen quite a bit this last month. They have mainly been seen in the company of the Mananga Pride. Since they have a much larger territory than that of the pride, and since these two males are also the males that cover the Mountain Pride lionesses, they cannot always be with the Mananga lionesses. They have therefore been seen away from the lionesses on a few occasions this last month. At the beginning of the month these two lions were seen feeding on a young giraffe in the far northern plains. We are not sure if they killed it or whether the lionesses from the Mananga Pride did the deed and were then robbed of it by the males.
• The Xhirombe male is a male that used to belong to a pride known as the Xhirombe Pride. It was a small pride consisting of an old lioness and two youngsters, one being the Xhirombe male and the other being his sister. When his sister came into heat/oestrous she left her mother and brother and we never saw her again. The mother was really old and was starting to struggle to hunt. Both her and her son were often seen along the Mozambique border, where they utilised the fence by chasing animals towards it, and trapping them so that they could kill them. This strategy proved to be quite successful. Eventually, however, the old lioness finally disappeared and we assumed that she had died. The Xhirombe male continued to move around in the area near the Mozambique border and was, on occasion seen closer to the lodges. Eventually he too disappeared. The last time we saw him in the area was in May 2019. One evening, this last month, one of our guides was headed towards the Poort (a set of cliffs on the Mozambique border overlooking the N’wanetsi River as it flows out of South Africa on its way east towards the ocean), to watch the sunset, when he came across a male lion. This lion was very relaxed with the vehicle. Towards the end of the month this same male lion was once again seen near the Mozambique border, much further north than where he was seen before. One of our guests managed to get some decent photos of him and we were able to compare them to the lions in our identity kits at the lodge, and we were extremely surprised to find out that this male is in fact the Xhirombe male. Prior to these sightings we had not seen the Xhirombe male in over two years. He is looking great (although he does have a few scratches on his nose). It is great to have him back and we are hoping that we will have regular sightings of him again.
• We have had a few sightings of a coalition of five young male lions on the H6 public road that leads to the concession. They have been seen moving closer to the concession and were, on one occasion, seen feeding on a giraffe with a large pride of lionesses on the road leading to the Shishangaan staff quarters. It is possible that this large coalition might eventually make their way into the concession, particularly when the standing water dries up in the plains outside the concession. This will put pressure on the new coalition of the Kumana and Maputo males.
• We have not seen the members of the Shishangaan Pride this month. During the period that the Maputo and Kumana male lions were fighting this pride moved away from the concession. This was a prudent move as it is well-known that when a new male lion takes over a territory, he kills all the youngsters from the previous dominant male. Since the Shishangaan Pride did have youngsters that would be vulnerable to such infanticide, and not knowing who the successor would be, they seemed to have made the decision to move from the danger.
• We have not seen much of the Mountain Pride this last month. We have seen their tracks going into Mozambique a few times (where we cannot follow). When they did return, they tended to remain in the hills where they are very difficult to track. Towards the beginning of the month, we did see them on at least two occasions. They were looking healthy and the young male is growing strong.
• Other than the Kumana and Maputo males, the Mananga Pride are the lions that we have been seeing the most of this last month. They are seen mainly in the western half of the concession, near Gudzani Dam. At the beginning of the month, we counted six adult and subadult females, one young male and seven cubs (of two different ages). Unfortunately, one of the younger cubs disappeared and we believe that it died. Towards the end of the month some of our guides were lucky enough to see four new cubs. Since they are still very young (we estimate that they are less than six weeks old) and are still hiding them in den-sites we have decided not to put pressure on them and have zoned the area where they are denning as a “no-go zone” until they are at least eight weeks old. We will then see if we can allow one vehicle at a time to view them. This month the Mananga Pride were seen feeding on buffalos at least twice and on a wildebeest on one occasion.
  

Great update @Potato Reply