Lions of Timbavati

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Tanda Tula update

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This week was a good one for our lion viewing, and just yesterday morning I had four separate lion sightings whilst driving from Nkhari Homestead.  The Mayambula pride were particularly active this week, and three of the lionesses even killed a large kudu bull very close to Tanda Tula Field Camp one night.  In the morning a clan of hyena had stolen it from the girls, but the lionesses soon came charging back and reclaimed what was left for themselves…or so they thought!  The commotion soon drew in the two Skorro male lions who came in to claim the scant remains before leaving to follow the girls back to the den site.  We followed behind as the pride marched some 5km to the east before the eight cubs suddenly popped out of a thicket and greeted the pride.  They were located again the next afternoon after another kudu kill, and I decided to try for them the following day.  On the way to the area, we bumped into two of the younger Mayambula lionesses, with one female looking very pregnant, so maybe even more cubs on the way (and yes, we are still waiting to see the newest ones!).  The lionesses headed into a thick area, so we opted to go and check on the other cubs and got lucky and found them in a similar area to where they had been the day before, we got spoilt with a wonderful sighting of some very playful cubs as the pride moved across an open area and back down towards the riverbed for the day.  A little later, we saw one of the Skorro male lions resting near Machaton Dam.  Combine those sightings with an earlier sighting of a single Sark Pride lioness, and it was a good morning of lion viewing.  The guides from Plains Camp also had luck in finding two Giraffe Pride lionesses with the Sumatra and Hercules males, and this group spent the day close to our bush breakfast site and put on a roaring display in the evening. 

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

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