Coalitions of Kruger National Park

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(10-14-2021, 03:00 AM)Potato Wrote: 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.

Who is this Xirombe male?

I remember Shishangaans fighting young Xirombe male in 2013, is it him? 

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