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Coalitions of Kruger National Park
Coalitions of Kruger National Park
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Coalitions of Kruger National Park
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Photos taken by LT.Proud.Foot
Shish Male lions  *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
Singita Kruger National Park
KRUGER NATIONAL PARK | SEPTEMBER 2017 Articles by Brian Rode & Margaux Le Roux Photos by Brian Rode, Sean Bissett & Margaux Le Roux Singita Kruger National Park, South Africa September, 2017 Lions: We have had regular sightings of lions during the month of September. The central area of the Kruger Park, and in particular the Singita Lebombo concession is well-known to have great lion sightings. This last month we had 85 reported sightings of these majestic large cats. We have not seen much of the larger portion of the Shishangaan Pride this last month. At the beginning of the month we saw them resting just north of the Gumba Drainage. The young white male was with them. While we were watching them we saw a male waterbuck approaching. The antelope was not aware of the lions that were lying flat in the grass and some of the lionesses suddenly became interested. We watched as they started stalking towards the waterbuck, utilizing the bushes and thick grass as cover. The remaining lions all sat up to watch the progress of the hunt. One of the lionesses circled around to the other side of the antelope and two other lionesses headed to the west to block off any escape route. Unfortunately, or fortunately for the waterbuck, the lions were spotted before they could get close enough to launch an attack and the antelope managed to evade the cats. The lions then mock-stalked each other and went back to lie down in the grass. Approximately 800 meters to the north (not visible to the lions) there was a herd of approximately one hundred buffalos that were resting in the grassland, busy ruminating. Shortly after the sun had set the lions woke up and started heading north. They soon realised that there were buffalos ahead of them and the pride then spread out and started stalking the bovids. It was already dark and the guides turned off the spotlights as the lions started to approach the buffalos (if they carried on spotlighting the lions the buffalos would have seen the cats approaching, which would have been unfair for the lions, and if the guides had spotlighted the buffalos it would have temporarily blinded the herbivores, and would thus have been unfair on the buffalos. It is Singita policy not to spotlight hunting predators or their prey at night). The guides then sat in the dark waiting for the sounds of hooves running across the grassland or the death cries of a buffalo, if the lions were successful. The stars were bright in the sky as the guides waited for any sign that the lions were going for the buffalos. In the past, it has sometimes happened that we have seen predators starting to hunt and have therefore turned off the lights and waited only to find that after quite a while, when we turned the lights back on, both the predators and prey had moved off totally and neither were in the area any more. The guides, therefore, sat in the dark wondering whether the lions were still stalking the buffalos or whether the cats had decided not to go for them and had instead circled around carried on walking away from the area. Then suddenly all chaos erupted and the noise of the hooves running through the grass and the bellowing of the buffalos, interspersed with the death cries of an unfortunate individual echoed through the night. The guides immediately turned the spotlights back on and soon found the lions in the process of killing one of the buffalos. One of the cats had the buffalo by the throat while the others were all over its back. It was not long before the buffalo succumbed and the lions started to feed, arguing amongst each other and jostling for a position around the carcass.  *This image is copyright of its original author Two of the Shish Males with two of the cubs from the Smaller Portion of the Shish Pride Photo by Brian RodeThe Smaller Portion of the Shishangaan Pride (3 lionesses with six cubs) have been outside of the concession for the last few months and this last month was no exception. One morning, however, the staff bus driver reported that he had seen lions feeding on a buffalo on the entrance road to the staff quarters. The guides responded to the sighting and when we arrived there we found the lions approximately 50 metres from the road, busy feeding. We could see one lioness, three adult Shish Males and a few cubs feasting on the remains of the buffalo. They had already almost finished the carcass. It was a great sighting. We have seen the dominant Shishangaan Males fairly regularly this last month. Usually, when we see them, three of the males are together and the fourth is often separate from them, and frequently seen in the company of the Mountain Pride. The Mountain Pride: presently consist of three adult lionesses and one cub of approximately one-year-old. This pride is often accompanied by one of the Shish Males, and has been seen frequently this last month. On the morning of the 8th the Mountain Pride were located on Leadwood Road, near the Central Depression. They were busy hunting, but were not successful. They then went to Pony Pan, where they were eyeing out the general game that wanted to come down to drink. We headed back there in the afternoon to see if they had managed to catch anything, but the lions were not there. Glass (our Head-tracker) found the tracks of the lions heading in a north-easterly direction away from the pan, towards the ridges. After following the tracks for a while he found the lions on the side of the hill. They were busy feeding on something in the long grass. When we brought the vehicle closer we saw that it appeared that they had caught and were feeding on an adult bushpig. Bushpigs are very seldom seen in the Lebombo Concession. The next day we found the Mountain Pride following a herd of buffalos near the Sticky Thorn thickets. They were accompanied by the Shish Male. The buffalos were headed towards the western border of the concession. The lions did not seem committed to the hunt and soon disappeared into the thickets, where we assume they rested for the rest of the day. On the morning of the 18th we found the Mountain Pride in an open area to the east of Gudzani Dam. They were obviously waiting for animals to come down to the water to drink. Unfortunately, the young cub was far too enthusiastic and started moving towards the herd of zebras that were following the game path past where the lionesses were hiding. The cub obviously has not yet learned about using cover when hunting and she strolled right out into the open area, giving away the location of the lions!  *This image is copyright of its original author Mountain Pride lioness and cub. Photo by Brian RodeXhirombe Pride We have also seen the Xhirombe Pride on a handful of occasions this month. At the moment this pride consists of only one female and her son (the Xhirombe Male). We have not seen his sister for quite few months now and are not sure if she is still alive or whether she is hiding out in the hills where she might have new cubs. The two remaining Xhirombe members are generally active in the hills close to the border of Mozambique, although this month we have seen them a few times just north of camp, nearby the N’wanetsi River. The name of this Pride comes from Shangaan name for a tree (Large-leaf Rock Fig – Ficus abutifolia), that grows on the rocky cliffs and in the hills. This pride was given this name because they tend to favour the hilly habitats on the south-eastern side of the concession. One evening a few of the guides had stopped for sundowners at the Poort (we were all driving a large group of guests that had booked out the entire Lebombo Lodge). The sundowner spot that we refer to as “the Poort” is right at the top of the cliffs overlooking the N’wanetsi, where the river exits South Africa and flows into Mozambique. It is a place of particular beauty and a great place to watch the sun setting over Kruger Park. While we were having drinks and snacks with the guests at the top of the ridge, Lawrence (one of our trackers), saw some movement in the gorge below us. Looking through binoculars, we could see that it was the two members of the Xhirombe Pride. It was an unbelievable spot by Lawrence. Even with binoculars it was difficult to see them.  *This image is copyright of its original author The Xhirombe Male Photo by Brian RodeThe Southern Pride is a pride that we do not see very often. Their territory is mainly to the south of our concession and it is only when they go to the far northern area of their territory that we have a chance of finding them. Since we do not see them very often we do not know the exact composition of the pride. This month we saw the Southern Pride on at least three different occasions. On the morning of the 7th of September we saw them and one of the Southern Males on the H6 road, not far from camp. We counted ten lions (including the male). They were busy stalking giraffes, but were not successful. On the morning of the 10th some of the staff were at the main area of Lebombo Lodge when they saw movement on the ridge between the Villa and the Boutique & Gallery. They soon realised that it was a pride of lions that were resting in the camp. There were at least six lions resting on the rocks (including a large male). It was the Southern Pride. They remained in the camp for the rest of the day and when the sun set in the late afternoon they got up and headed west, out of the concession.
Jock Male Coalition – Lions of The Kruger
November 3, 2017 Posted by mica1993 "On the 23 of December 2015 we had the most eventful day that we had ever had in all of the years we have been visiting the Kruger. We decided that morning to travel down the S21 close to Lower Sabie, it was the first time that we drove down that particular sand road. As we took the first turn of the windy road we saw 5 males lions together, it was a day full of firsts because it was the first time we saw a coalition of males! They walked along the road marking the territory for over a kilometer and later disappeared down a river bank. We were running on adrenaline for the rest of the day because we started off the day so well that we were not worried if we didn’t see anything else for the day. But nonetheless we carried on driving on the S21 and managed to see a leopard feeding on an impala in a tree, while at the sighting another car told us that there 4 male lions by Renosterkoppies, we later learned that these were the Eastern Bank Males, so we left the leopard in order to go see another coalitions of males. Christmas had really come early for us, because when we went back and were watching the leopard in a tree, out of nowhere lions decided to climb up the same tree to steal the impala kill, we will do another post focusing on that, but for now you can watch the video of what transpired here. Today we will focus on the huge male lions whom we saw first, they are the Jock males  *This image is copyright of its original author The Jock males consists of 5 males, they were born in 2009, and they get their name because they spent most of their younger years in the Jock concessions area. They are the off springs of the Jock lionesses, they were ousted away from the Jock concession area a few years ago by the 4 Mlambane Males. The jock males like the Skybed males are branded for research purposes and you can find their marking on their back leg.  *This image is copyright of its original author The first time we saw them in 2015 they had a territory on the S21 and on H3 and they were the pride males of the Kwagga Pan pride and the N’watamhri pride.  *This image is copyright of its original author The second time we saw them was on the S21 again and we only saw 2 out of the 5 males, and one of the males was mating with a lioness. The third time we saw them was on H4-1 at the end of a January in 2017, we were driving along the road when we saw a few cars stopped, we at first could not see what they were looking at until we saw male lions coming out of the bushes, 4 male lions in total came onto the road, they were marking their territory but we couldn’t stay long as it was already past the time which the gates closed and we had to head back to camp. In this past year the Jock males started occupying the area around Lubyelubye and were often seen mating with the Lubyelubye females and they eventually drove out the 3 Lubyelubye males and took over the pride, the female lionesses previously had cubs with the Lubyelubye males, thus the Jock males probably killed the cubs and sent the females into estrous so they could mate with them because the last time we saw them their lionesses had small cubs with them. The new territory of the Jock males is a 10-20km radius around Lower Sabie (see map above).  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author The last time we saw the Jock coalition was in June of 2017 and we saw them on the H10, they were seen the day before in the same area so we decided to go looking for them, at first we could only see the one because he was sneezing and later in the afternoon when it started raining, the 4 males decided to come out onto the road but quickly moved off into the bush. On both occasions we saw 4 out of the 5. The average life span of wild lions ranges between 10-14 years, I’m sure the Jock males still have a few more years and more territory for them to invade. Them being part of a coalition also plays a role in their survival because they wouldn’t make it easy for other lions to overpower them."  *This image is copyright of its original author Next time you are in the Lower Sabie area do not forget to look out for huge male lions. Resources & Information found on: Jock male coalition • http://www.krugerpark.com • Lions of Kruger National Park group on Facebook *All Images & videos belong to Big on Wild
From jock safari lodge
Lion dynamics change often in the Kruger National Park. 3 males from an area called Stolsnek, moved into our Concession area and it looks like they want to dominate. We refer to them as the Josekhulu males named after a stream where we first s tarted seeing them. It will be interesting to see how the Eastern Banks males react to them overlapping on their territory. Watch the video by Ranger Laz Mkhonto here: 
From Discoverkruger, Oct 2017 Sightings Album 1:
Shishangeni males (Series 1)  *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  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author
From Discoverkruger, Oct 2017 Sightings Album 1:
Shishangeni males (Series 2)  *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  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author
 
Jock males and Mantimahles are in the same league but to me the Shishangeni are genetically superior specimens. These guys are huge frame-wise but with the DM like muscular physical build. The Mantimahles have huge frames as well but they are still a bit tall and lanky compared to the Shishangeni.
The iconic white male of the Shish pride is looking strong and healthy and is always a great sighting for guests and staff alike!
(Photo: Field Guide, JP Le Roux, Singita)  *This image is copyright of its original author
N’wanetsi Males – Lions of Kruger
This week featured lions are The Nwanetsi male lions *All Images & videos belong to Big on wild Posted by mica1993 November 16, 2017 The very first time we saw the N’wanetsi males was in March of 2015, we only saw two of them and we weren’t sure which lions they were at the time, but we saw them on H1-3 near the H6.  *This image is copyright of its original author Male 1 and Male 2In one of our previous posts we had mentioned that our trip in December of 2015 was the first time we saw so many male coalitions after not ever seeing any all our previous trips. The N’wanetsi coalition we saw on our trip to the Kruger where we stayed at Tamboti over New Years, it was not a bad way to bring in 2016 for us. One morning after not seeing a lot on the H7 we decided to head onto the S100 instead of the H6. Even though it was indubitably hot, we saw a lot of cars stopped, when we finally managed to see what everyone was stopped for, we could only see one lion but eventually we could see 3 male lions together and we were pleased because despite being so hot they were not sleeping as lions usually do when it’s hot and we were able to get good pictures of them.  *This image is copyright of its original author Male 2 & Male 3The next time we saw them was the same holiday a few days later on the S100 but we only saw two of them, they were far in the bush but out of nowhere decided to get up and mark their territory and we were able to take nice photos of them together. We saw them two other times after that, the next time we saw them one of the males was mating with a lioness and his brother decided to come and keep them company.  *This image is copyright of its original author Male 2 & Male 1The N’wanetsi males are a coalition of 4 males they have territory on the S100, H6 and H1-3  *This image is copyright of its original author One of the males is rarely seen, we have actually never seen him, we assume that he stays with the pride.They are the pride males of the N’wanetsi males, the pride consists of 5 lionesses.They have a territory on the S100, H6 and H1-3. The 4 N’wanetsi males are easy to identify: One has a unique mane, it is light at the top and black at the bottom and he looks like he has eyebrows which always make him look grumpy.  *This image is copyright of its original author Male 1The second one has a mark on his right side, and he has scratches all over his face.  *This image is copyright of its original author Male 2The third one a cut on his top lip.  *This image is copyright of its original author Male 3And the last one has a scar on his hip (we don’t have a photo of him). We have captioned all our photos so you know which male it is in the photos. The next time you are in the area make sure to keep a lookout for them. Don’t forget to read the our other posts about lions of Kruger. Resources & Information found on: http://www.krugerpark.com Lions of Kruger National Park group on Facebook: Big on wild Wildfact: Coalitions of kruger national park
From Jock Safari Lodge:
"The Eastern Bank males are in great condition with all the buffalo in the area. Photo by Ranger Estiaan."  *This image is copyright of its original author
 (11-09-2017, 09:45 PM)Ngala Wrote: From Discoverkruger, Oct 2017 Sightings Album 1: Incredible Lions |
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