Lions of Timbavati

[Potato]

Tanda Tula update

The River Pride finished their buffalo kill at the start of the week and moved back to the northern parts of our concession before disappearing further north for a bit, but with the three cubs remaining within our concession, the mother lioness and some of the Vuyela males remained within the concession for most of the week.  By the end of the week, the pride had all reunited and spent the day in the company of three Vuyela males.  I followed one Vuyela male to the west one morning, and he led us to the Sark Breakaway Pride, with their four cubs.  The pride later crossed into Klaserie, but did return for a couple of days later in the week.  We actually had a day without any lion sightings, despite having woken up to loads of roaring to the north of camp; the following morning, after having heard no roaring all night, I headed out East in desperation more than anything.  When the Hercules male lion was found near Plains Camp, along with tracks for the Giraffe Pride, I was tempted to make an early call and turn around and head to the far West.  However, I decided to stick to my guns and stay in the east.  A glorious scene of a dozen or so giraffes with groups of zebras, wildebeest and a hyena on one of the open plains was keeping me entertained when Scotch called to tell me that he had found the River Pride lionesses and three males.  Feeling the pressure lift immediately, I decided to slowly head in that direction, but the radio message had no sooner come through when our tracker spotted a lion…and another, and in fact, another 15 of them!  All seventeen members of the Mayambula pride were lying fat bellied out in one of the open areas.  It was so good to have this pride together again and see that they haven’t forgotten about us.  One of the lionesses even looked to be in the early stages of pregnancy and producing milk; time will tell what 2024 will bring for this pride.

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Reply