Lions of Timbavati

[Potato]

Tanda Tula update

In my last blog, I stated that whenever Chad goes on leave the Giraffe Pride of lions comes out and provides us with some entertainment, however it turns out this doesn’t seem to be the case any longer. I believe that they are currently on a neighboring property with a hippo kill. Unfortunately for us when lions make such a large kill they seem to stick around in that area for a while and continue to consume and digest as much food as they can. Unlike us, they don’t know when or where their next meal is coming from, which often reminds me how fortunate some of us are.


Further up on the northeastern side of the Timbavati the Mayambula Pride haven’t shown themselves for quite some time, seems they are residing south of the boundary along the Machaton drainage line. We have also received news that one of the lionesses has broken her leg, but unfortunately, I am unable to give you an update regarding her condition as none of us have seen her. Although injuries like this have the potential to be detrimental to the animal, these animals often can heal if they let themselves. So, who knows, maybe nature will take its course, or maybe we will see her walking amongst the Mayambula’s once more.

We have however been lucky enough to see the six Breakaway males from the Birmingham pride, I followed up on them after they had been found lounging around Rock Fig dam. We could see they had eaten something the night before, their bellies were enormously bloated and they were breathing heavily. Amazingly, they still managed to find the energy to chase a few wondering Dagga boys (buffalo bulls) who were hoping to quench their thirst as the morning started to heat up.

I have always been astonished at the rate of growth of these large cats. When I first started at Tanda Tula I responded to two young male lions that had been found close to Tanda Tula Safari Camp, they were young and had recently separated from their pride. At the beginning of this week, we found the same two again at Marco’s Dam, I was dumbfounded that they were the same two we had seen almost 4 months ago. Then towards the end of the week, we managed to see five out of the six Birmingham breakaway males as they were lounging around and escaping the heat not far from where the two younger males were seen.

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