Lions of Timbavati

[Potato]

Tanda Tula update

I do suspect that the baby that has been on most people’s minds – and that includes you, Amber – is the fate of the lost Giraffe Pride lion cub. Quite frustratingly, the pride disappeared for an entire week (which just happened to be the seven nights that I was driving some regular return guests that had never seen the Giraffe Pride before). As luck would have it, the pride – ALL 25 members, including the lost cub – were found on the plains near camp the morning after my guests left, and not only did we have a portion of the pride just behind camp this morning, but another several individuals came walking past camp whilst the guests were enjoying their breakfast this morning. The good news though, is that the cub has been found, and all members are looking great. In the absence of the Giraffe Pride, we were fortunate enough to have the Sark Breakaways spending quite a few days in the western sections, and pushing far further south than we have seen before.

*This image is copyright of its original author

By the end of the week, there were two lionesses, the five subadults, and two of the Vuyela males spending time in the area. With the Mayambula Pride also being absent for the entire week (barring one sighting of the two Skorro males in the north-east), the River Pride made a welcome return to the area and spent the majority of the week within the central part of the concession close to Safari Camp. I hadn’t seen the pride for several months, and it was great to see how the young males were maturing. Sadly the pride has lost one lioness since my last sighting of them (although from all accounts she disappeared a few months back), so they are down to two adult lionesses, one almost-adult lioness (the sole survivor from the 2020 litters), one sub-adult lioness and three sub-adult males, giving us seven lions in total. Later in the week, the pride drew the attention of a single Birmingham Breakaway male, but by all accounts, the lionesses were able to keep him at bay and were the bigger aggressors in the two encounters that were witnessed. This was the same single male lion that began the week with his buffalo kill near our northern boundary. Another lone Birmingham Breakaway male was also found near Nkhari Homestead at the end of the week.

Despite seeing some good lions across the reserve, the best lion sighting for me was the surprise finding of the limping Monwana male and young Giraffe male lions found resting on the plains in the morning. In the evening we relocated them in an ‘acacia’ thicket, but at a nearby waterhole, we found a poor impala ewe that had experienced some major complications with giving birth and appeared to have a still-born lamb inside of her that was rendering her completely vulnerable. As it was at the dam where our wild dogs usually come into the property, I suspected she would meet her end with them, and if not them, then the lions. She had moved into a thicket around sunset, and then after our drinks, we swung past the dam and found the two male lions having a drink and sniffing around in the area. It didn’t take long for the Giraffe male to pick up on the impala’s scent, and once he did we soon heard her being put out of her misery in the adjacent thicket as the Monwana male limped hurriedly in that direction to get his share of the spoils. Reply