Lions of Timbavati

[Potato]

Tanda Tula update

The Giraffe Pride spent the majority of the week in the area, no doubt drawn to the plains by the abundance of available prey. Despite the short grassy habitat, the pride did manage to catch a wildebeest near the bottom of the plains one evening before moving off to one of the drainage lines to rest off their full bellies (in the same place they had been resting a couple of days before). That afternoon whilst watching wildebeest, impalas, elephants, zebras, and giraffes, one of the male giraffes was drawn to an approaching competitor on the other side of the drainage line and almost walked smack bang into the middle of the pride, but he was lucky that it was only the sub-adults that paid any attention to him and he managed to escape with ease. The next evening the distress calls of an animal drew us out shortly after dinner to go and investigate and we found that the pride had managed to catch another wildebeest in the woodlands to the east of camp.

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Earlier in the week we also saw one of the lionesses stalk and catch a baby impala when a herd caught her attention as the pride was resting at Sunset Dam. She didn’t hang around once she caught it and not even her pride mates could find her to get their share of her efforts. Despite the positive hunting results this week, the pride did fail in one major area, and that was when they somehow left one of the small cubs behind and it spent three days milling around Plains Camp waiting for the pride to return. By the end of the week, the pride had passed the area in which the cub had been lost, but we were unable to ascertain whether or not the cub was reunited with the pride.

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In other lion news, the Mayambula Pride made only one appearance in the east this week having spent their time to the south of the concession. The Sark Breakaway Pride also spent a couple of days at one of the waterholes in the west towards the end of the week, whilst the mating pair that had been around last week began the week with a continuation of their honeymoon in the central regions. There was also a visit from a small pride of three young lionesses and a young male on Nkhari, and it appears as though this may have been a portion of the Avoca Pride making an exploratory trip into a new region. The four Birmingham Breakaway males spent most of the week north of our concession on a buffalo kill but did return south once they had finished. A fifth member was found wandering around on his own, and he came very close to reuniting with his brothers, but somehow missed the opportunity – this didn’t bother him much and he was found with a buffalo kill of his own the next day. To round off a great week of lion viewing, we also bumped into three of the Vuyela males resting on our main access road on the way back to camp one evening; this after already having seen the Giraffe Pride close to camp, as well as the lone Sark lioness. Reply