Lions of Timbavati

[Potato]

Tanda Tula update

The lions that have been such a feature of late were suffering the greatest headache and took it very easy this week, making it slightly challenging for us to enjoy their presence. As mentioned, the first drive of the year saw Glen spotting four members of the Mayambula Pride about 30m off the road in some long grass – as it was an area that had been well wetted by the previous rains, we just viewed them from the road until they fell asleep and disappeared from view. Whilst following up on them in the afternoon, Steven from Nkhari Homestead found a single female cheetah resting in the open area where the lions had been in the morning. This hurt me slightly as, based on a report of tracks for the two male cheetahs in the same area, we had spent a good part of the morning driving around looking for cheetahs on the plains in the east. Needless to say, the lions soon picked up on the cheetah and chased her across the open sodic site, but she got away and settled on the other side of the riverbed. The next morning two Vuyela male lions were located in the southwest (quite deep into the Timbavati) with a young giraffe kill that kept them around for a couple of days. The five young members of the River Pride spent the middle of the week in the central regions before returning to the north. It appears as though the two remaining adult lionesses from the pride have hooked up with the Vuyela males and from their behavior, it appears as though one has already given birth to cubs to the north of our concession. Both lionesses keep returning to the same area, so it might be the start of a new chapter for the pride. The three young males and two young lionesses will have a challenging time over the next few months as they find their feet in the area without their mothers. It would be wonderful if the two young females could rejoin their mothers once they are a little older; but with the older of the two just under three years old, they are too young for the new males to be interested in them.

*This image is copyright of its original author

When the rain fell later in the week, it was the Sark Breakaways, and two of the Vuyela males popped up to save the day. Some interesting news is that the single Sark lioness that had been wandering around on her own for the better part of a year has now reunited with the pride, and will hopefully stay as a permanent member. With three lionesses still needing to have cubs, this pride also has the potential to grow into quite a force in the western Timbavati and Klaserie areas. The Giraffe Pride decided that they had given us enough attention over Christmas and were not seen in the area at all this week. Reply