Lions of Timbavati

[Potato]

Tanda Tula update

I usually like to start with my highlight of the week, but there were just so many magical moments during my week of driving that it will be difficult to choose a favorite. So, I guess I will start the way I usually do with the lions, and the fact that the Giraffe Pride continued to spend time within our concession was no doubt a highlight. By the time they eventually moved off the property, they had spent almost two full weeks in our concession. Considering that they usually only pop in for a few hours at a time, it was an absolute treat to have them as a daily presence on the game drive. What has undoubtedly led to this behavior was that the seven little cubs of the pride are now getting more mobile and moving with the pride, and being taken to kill. Following these kills, the pride usually returns to a nearby waterhole and spends time around there, leaving the cubs in the vicinity when they go off hunting again, only to return to the cubs to fetch them for a kill, or to give them milk. With the addition of the seven cubs, the pride is now standing at 25 members – two males, six females, ten sub-adults, and seven cubs – and an absolute treat to spend time with, as there are lions everywhere. The wildebeest and zebra herds are probably less excited about their presence, and the pride was found with the remains of one of each of them during the week, as well as other occasions when they simply had full bellies, but no kill was found. Towards the end of the week, the pride did leave the seven cubs on our side and move off but returned to fetch them and take them to a zebra kill they had made.

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It was just as well that the Giraffe Pride was so cooperative, as the Mayambula Pride in the east was far less so. Reports were received that one of the adult lionesses has a seriously injured – possibly broken – leg and is very immobile about a kilometer to the south of our boundary. With her in this state, the pride has been spending its time outside of our concession, and we can only hope that she makes a recovery and the pride begin moving within our area again. The Skorro males did make a few trips north and deeper into our area of the Timbavati, and it is a good idea that they do, as both the Vuyela (three males) and Birmingham Breakaways (six males) were seen walking around in the western part of their territory. The Vuyela males were found finishing off the remains of a kill that they had possibly stolen from the Birmingham Breakaways. The River Pride also spent two days in the area to round off a great week of lion viewing in central Timbavati.

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