Lions of Timbavati

[Potato]

Tanda Tula update

So, a little over a week has passed since the unexpected arrival of the two new Skorro male lions into the central Timabvati.  And while a dark cloud is still hanging over the future of the River Pride, the past week has been a comparatively peaceful one, but I still fear that this is just the calm before the inevitable storm.

As mentioned, the lion dynamics remained fairly calm this week even with the new Skorro males hanging around.  Their tracks were seen criss-crossing the Tanda Tula concession most days as they explore their new surrounds.  Early in the week, this wandering brought them into contact with the Mayambula lionesses, and we found three lionesses throwing themselves at one of the Skorro males after a day’s worth of tracking.  Interestingly, they were found mating in the very same place that we saw the Mayambula’s mating with Nharhu males only two weeks ago!

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

At first, I thought that this was the first meeting between these males and the Mayambula Pride.  Reflecting on the situation, I began to suspect that they had met up before to the East of our concession where we had been hearing reports of the Mayambula Pride moving around before their return.  Either way, the lionesses seemed only too happy to have these males in the area, and the next day a mating pair was again found in the area, but this time with two other interested parties.  The first was a collection of six Mayambula lionesses, including the younger females born at the end of 2018.  More surprisingly was a report of the limping Nharhu male being seen near to the mating lions.  I however have yet to see images of this and do suspect that it was merely a case of mistaken identity.  It would be particularly unusual for an injured male lion to be hanging around so close to the lions that are out to get him.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Later in the week the roars of the limping male close to Tanda Tula Field Camp brought the Skorro males into the area, at which point the Nharhu male seemed to move out of the area as the roars of the Skorro males got closer.  The Mayambula Pride spent some time in the area but proved themselves to be quite elusive; towards the end of the week, we heard that they killed a buffalo just North of our concession in an area that they have not been known to frequent before. Perhaps they will start pushing deeper into our concession as the roars of the Nharhu males fade into a distant memory.

The River Pride managed to stay out of trouble this past week, although a report of one of the lionesses limping very badly led to some specualtion that the Skorro males had already begun their pursuit of the pride.  It appears to be a paw injury more-likely originating from a hunting incident, but by the end of the week the lioness was able to at least put some pressure on her paw.  The pride had a wildebeest kill early in the week, but then disappeared to the North before returning a couple of days later.  We were able to catch up with the lionesses and cubs not too far from Nkhari Homestead, all looking in good shape.  With the Skorro males being distracted by the Mayambula Pride, perhaps there may be a glimmer of hope for the River Pride to avoid trouble, but at this point, it is a very, very faint light.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Three of the Giraffe lionesses and the young Giraffe male were seen on a few occasions in the West this week and provided for the best lion sighting of late.  It appeared that the lionesses had caught a wildebeest but after a lot of persistence they were pushed off by a large clan of hyenas.  The commotion brought the young male to the scene, and he succeeded in claiming back the scant remains of the wildebeest as no fewer than 18 hyenas did their best to push him off, but it was all to no avail.  The sounds accompanying this deadly game of chess were quite something to witness. Reply