Lions of Timbavati

[Potato]

Tanda Tula update

The best Easter treat was our first proper view of the River Pride cubs!  After last week’s zebra kill, Glen and I checked to see if we could find the pride, but with no tracks emerging from the block, we knew that they had spent the day sleeping off their fat bellies. The next morning, with the help of Scotch and Jack, we headed to the area again, and this time the pride had emerged from their slumber and Scotch radioed to tell me that they had found the whole pride out in the open. We joined a little while later to the joyous sight of the three new cubs looking much more confident than a couple of days ago, and the slightly older cub having a blast now that she had three new play mates with as much energy as her!  The cubs look to be around 7-8 weeks old, and while we didn’t get to sex them, there do appear to be at least a couple of females.  The only pride member that wasn’t present was the sickly Nharhu male.  The evening before, Glen had tracked a male lion down near Tortillis Plains, and it was this very male – even though we couldn’t see him properly, we could see he was in a bad way, with ribs, vertebral processes and hip bones sticking out.  It was a sad sight to see, and his struggle was brought home later in the week when we found him resting at a pan in the east with porcupine quills in his face.  He is in a very bad way, and I think we have to face the realisation that he is unlikely to overcome this ailment.  The fact that the coalition is weakened may already be showing in how far west the Sark pride have started pushing.  The weekend started with the Balule females occupying the central areas around Safari Camp, but as the days pushed on, the Sark pride (now with a third female having joined them) started pushing deeper into the Timbavati, and they were found every day this week in our central regions.  A third pride of unknown lionesses (also numbering three) were reported close to our Field Camp, but I sadly didn’t get down to see them, and try and identify which lions they might be.  Regardless, with the Nharhu males having moved east, we now have three new prides moving in to fill the void, and this will no doubt make for some interesting lion dynamics over the coming months.

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

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