Lions of Timbavati

[Potato]

Tanda Tula update 

For yet another week, the lions dominated sightings, with the River Pride and all five Vuyela males making the areas just east of Tanda Tula their base for the week.  The youngest lioness of the pride that we had believed had recently given birth to a litter of cubs sadly spent the week mating with the Vuyela males; “sadly” because she would only be mating if the cubs were no longer alive.  As a first-time mother, perhaps some inexperience led to their demise, but there are so many factors that could have worked against her that it is impossible to say what happened.  Hopefully though, this week’s mating will be successful, and she could have cubs again towards the middle of the year.  Due to her readiness to mate, this drew the Vuyela males into the area and all five members were in the general area (although, as usual, they were not all together – we did however have a lovely sighting of three of them on the move).  Their presence meant lots of roaring, and despite having been in the bush all these years, it is a sound that just never gets old!  One downside of their constant presence was that this meant that the Mayambula Pride remained out the area, with only their tracks being seen crossing through the south-eastern corner.  The Giraffe Pride were reported on a few occasions in the west, and Steven headed down to see the majority of the pride one morning, but after that the pride seemed to be in smaller fractions for most of the week.  The Sark Breakaway pride somehow avoided detection this past week – possibly due to the fact that the River Pride were so active, and we didn’t check the south-west as much.  This morning, however, we did see 14 members of the pride make a return, but more on that next week! 

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

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