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Felids Interactions - Intraspecific Conflicts
Felids Interactions - Intraspecific Conflicts
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Felids Interactions - Intraspecific Conflicts
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 (08-10-2016, 05:44 PM)Majingilane Wrote:(08-10-2016, 02:25 AM)Spalea Wrote: @Majingilane: @Majingilane: Quite agree with you, my friend when you say their bond is much stronger than a mere fight. In fact the lions are romantic animals (i.e the true romantism is tragic, stormy and tempestuous, nothing to do with the sweeten view we can sometimes have about it). Because they are a very extrovert temperament, their bonds are inflamed with the most ardent friendship and brotherhood till the death from time to time interrupted by fiery assaults ones against the others motivated by the passionate love towards a female. A few minute later, no more rancor, wrath and bad feelings at all... They are purring, head against head. Their lives are made of passion, the savannah is their theater scene. They are marvelous ! 
She's mine...!!! Credits to Leonardus Van Rooyen.
 *This image is copyright of its original author
From Ngala Private Game Reserve:
"Two young male leopards got into a bit of a brawl but walked away relatively unscathed after they sorted out their differences. Andrew Nicholson"  *This image is copyright of its original author
Photo and information credits: Luiz Claudio Marigo
 *This image is copyright of its original author
Nirmalya Banerjee: Olare Motorogi Conservancy.
Watching two male lions fight is a fearsome experience. The noise, the dust, indeed the sheer kinetic energy of the two big cats is awesome- even when as in this case it's a fight between two males of the same pride and so nothing like a fight to the finish. Lolparpit and Orbanoti are seen fighting to establish dominance while two lionesses of the Enkoyanai pride look on, concerned for the little cub you can see in the grass to the right of the frame. Lolparpit won this round and left leaving Orbanoti -flat on his back in this picture- to lick his wounds. And then we were witness to another of those co-operative pride interactions that make lion watching so special. One of the lionesses came forward to calm down Orbanoti- seething with humiliation at having been bested and so perhaps unpredictable and liable to hit out. She kept licking him till he calmed down. Meanwhile her sister, the cub's mother- took advantage of the diversion to pick up her cub and carry it away to safety in the ravine behind her.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author
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The sight above (#68), is not an image but a video. Click it on play. (09-06-2016, 05:19 PM)Ngala Wrote: @ Ok, cool didn't realize it was a video, the speed of these cats is amazing. The heads and necks look pretty powerful for their size. I wish we could find a jaguar fight, but Ive never seen one. (03-17-2016, 01:30 AM)Majingilane Wrote: Leopardess fight, credits to Londolozi. Whoa that is sick, they actually fell out of the tree, while fighting! (10-07-2015, 12:15 AM)Majingilane Wrote: Lion Fight, from 2011: That's a pretty stunning account, the two males fought for more than 10 minutes, that seems like a pretty long time for a Bigcat. I wish they had gotten actual footage of this. This seems to indicate the extent to which these animals are willing to fight, perhaps the most of any cat species. You'd think they'd have to monitor their stamina in an extended fight like that.
From Wild Eye, Catfight: Two Leopards and a Lioness: By Morkel Erasmus.
If you read my Great Migration safari TRIP REPORT you would have noted that I mentioned a properly epic sighting we enjoyed, but didn’t go into too much detail, hinting that I would make a separate blog post out of it. Well, you are at the right place, cause this post is it! To paraphrase how I described the lead-in to this sighting: “We had gotten word that one of the Mara Triangle’s iconic male lions, “Scar”, was lounging around close to the Serena Hotel (the only permanent lodging in the Triangle). As we move towards that position, I saw a herd of impala being very alert and alarmed. Was it because of the lions? NO! We see two feline shapes flit cross the road in front of us…leopards! Male leopards! In a territorial dispute!”  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author It would have been easy to assume at this point that the sighting was over – luckily we were interested enough in what just happened to stick around a few more minutes…here’s what went down… The leopards lie down on the hillside and glare and growl at each other. I figure they have probably been fighting on-and-off for the better part of the morning, given the blood on the grass and the wounds on them…it’s about 09h30AM after all by now. Suddenly there is movement from the bushes on our right, where the leopards were brawling moments before: a lioness had heard the commotion, and is coming closer to investigate! She slowly stalks across the road and up the hillside – straight towards where the leopards are lying. They do not notice her, for now!  *This image is copyright of its original author She keeps inching closer and closer to them. The darker of the two male leopards is first on her route – and he’s lying with his back to her!  *This image is copyright of its original author With extreme stealth she inches forward, and the leopard still doesn’t catch a whiff of her presence…  *This image is copyright of its original author …closer and closer and closer…!  *This image is copyright of its original author At this point, the leopard’s cat instincts kick in and he realises that all is not as it seems – he jerks around, both cats seem to jolt with a fright, and the two stare at each other for a few breathless moments (we were all holding our breath too!)…  *This image is copyright of its original author Perhaps they know each other? He is the resident male leopard of this area (we’ve seen him on previous years’ safaris too)… She leaves him be, moves around him, and focuses her attention on the other male, lying further up the incline…  *This image is copyright of its original author She promptly cranks up the pace and the intruding leopard sees her coming, fleeing well before she gets within reach!  *This image is copyright of its original author As soon as she realises that this leopard is gone and out of reach, she turns back around and heads back down. Will she now confront the other leopard? He’s still there, keeping a close eye on her.  *This image is copyright of its original author The lioness inches closer, unsure of how to proceed. The leopard, having been caught off guard minutes before, does not let her out of his sight.  *This image is copyright of its original author Suddenly, as randomly as this whole sighting had been up to now, she takes off and starts chasing the male leopard!!  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author The lioness gains on the leopard with every stride…and we hold our breath…  *This image is copyright of its original author A quick turn of the tail, a change of direction, and the male leopard gains some precious yards from under the huffing breath of the lioness…and finds a hole in a shrub to duck into and disappear as leopards do…  *This image is copyright of its original author Breathing a sigh of relief, we realise that the tense situation has been resolved without further bloodshed – and the lioness has even scattered the leopards and possibly ended their blood feud for the day. She walks down the hill, plonks down on a termite mound, and proceeds to roar out her victory to the valley below.  *This image is copyright of its original author We just sat there for a few minutes, taking in and reflecting on what we saw. Perhaps she was nursing cubs in the thicket where she emerged from? She was still a fair distance away from where Scar and the rest of the pride were camped out. Upon closer inspection of the photos it does look like she might have had some swollen teats (certainly not at the stage where she would be intensely nursing for most of the day, so perhaps the cubs were a bit bigger?) Perhaps the noise of the brawling leopards just alerted her to possible danger and intrusion of competing predators in her space and she wanted to get rid of them? Whatever her reason was, we knew we had witnessed something special – a rare sighting indeed. I made sure that all the guests who were with us (2 of the Wild Eye vehicles were together for this brief sighting) understood how rare and special this was. In my 30 odd years of regular safari all over Southern African (and for the last 4 years also East Africa), this was a first for me. The setting against the hillside was perhaps not ideal for award-winning photography, but what it did provide was a front-row seat to the action, a vantage point and angle of view from which we could see the whole episode play out in all its glory. You see, it’s not always about getting the best photos. In cases like this, it really is about having a rare quality sighting and being able to see the whole tale unfold. So often we have to guess and assume what happens when sightings like this happen in dense bush or too far away from us. From here we could still go on and enjoy all that the Mara Triangle had on offer – it was the Great Migration season after all! I hope you enjoyed this tale! Remember, you have to be out there as much as possible to improve your chances of seeing things like this play out. Get out there… Morkel Erasmus
Maxabeni male and Kashane male, credits to Matthew Dyson, from A WEEK IN THE BUSH VOL. 121 from Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve.
 *This image is copyright of its original author
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