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History's most brutal killers, the Majingilane Male Lions
History's most brutal killers, the Majingilane Male Lions
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History's most brutal killers, the Majingilane Male Lions
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 (07-10-2018, 02:49 AM)Matimbalani Wrote: Are their any anecdotes from their male off-spring to indicate if they behave in a manner similar to their fathers? Not really, at least not that I have seen. Now, granted, the only adult male that we had a chance of seeing behave as dominant was the Fourways male, and he and his brothers were expelled very quickly by the Charleston males, so there's no way to get something oput of it. The rest of their sons have moved off to the Kruger park, and the Othawa and Manghenis are still very young as well. So, we'll have to wait and see, hopefully some of them return at some point in the future, but who knows. 
4 Majingilane males back in July 11 2010 at Elephant Plains, Image by Ryan J.
 *This image is copyright of its original author
Video compiled by the channel S. D. H. 3T.
Tribute to Golden mane. Miss you and your brothers everyday...
Credits to James Tyrrell - Londolozi.
Tribute to the Majingilane: This is way overdue, as I’m sure many of you will agree. To be honest I didn’t really know what to say for a long time; caught between the sadness at the end of eight years of Majingilane viewing and the excitement of the Birmingham males’ steady territorial expansion onto Londolozi. How can one sum up a coalition’s tenure of 8 years in a few lines? The sightings on Londolozi alone could fill an entire book, and there was a stage at which the four Majingilane, superb examples of lionhood, were dominant over almost half the Sabi Sand Reserve, and in their wanderings there was almost no lodge that wouldn’t have seen them at least once; from the deep south of the reserve, right up to the north from whence they first came. Do we represent them in terms of offspring sired, lionesses covered, buffaloes killed or total area of dominion? To quantify the Majingilane in terms of numbers would almost detract from their wildness, so ultimately, we figured it best to leave this as a purely photographic post, in which people could simply look and remember. I’ll leave you with something I posted on Instagram when it seemed as though the Dark Maned male had finally passed, although his body was never found. It seems almost right that he, the most dominant of the coalition, was the last to go…: Quote:The sun sets on one of the great lion coalitions of Southern Africa. At the end of the post we’ve embedded the original Majingilane Short Film made by Rich Laburn during the Majingilane’s rise to dominance. Enjoy this photographic walk down memory lane with four of the Southern Africa’s most memorable lions. The early days. A young coalition (circa 2011) in the days when they were still approaching their prime.  *This image is copyright of its original author The Dark-maned male on the move. This was the night when the Majingilane – I think specifically the scar-nosed male – killed one of the Tsalala cubs, shortly after it had returned to the pride after being missing for a couple of weeks. The Majingilane always had a curious relationship with the Tsalala pride, being particularly aggressive towards the 2011 litters. There is still speculation as to who exactly those litters were fathered by…  *This image is copyright of its original author One thing noticeable during the height of the Majingilane’s reign on Londolozi was the marked drop in hyena numbers on the reserve. There is no better control mechanism for the hyena population than big, aggressive male lions.  *This image is copyright of its original author Lions are nothing if not opportunistic, and an elephant carcass is an incredible bounty of meat that will last even a large coalition for days.  *This image is copyright of its original author The Sparta pride had brought down a large giraffe quite close to camp, and of course the dominant males had moved in to claim their share. That is actually unfair, as the kill took place in the middle of the night, so the males may well have had a part to play. Here the Scar-nosed male cleans blood off his paw.  *This image is copyright of its original author The Scar-nose and Hip-scar males enjoy a nuzzle on a cold winter’s morning. Males in coalitions are almost always related, and any mutual grooming or affectionate behaviour strengthens their bonds.  *This image is copyright of its original author One of the coalition surges across the Sand River towards ranger Richard Ferrier’s vehicle.  *This image is copyright of its original author An iconic shot of the Scar-nosed male and Missing canine male in the background (also sometimes referred to as the Golden Maned male.)  *This image is copyright of its original author The Missing canine male lifts his head and peers out from where he had been sleeping behind a knobthorn tree.  *This image is copyright of its original author When a coalition takes over a territory, relationships are naturally going to be strained between them and the local prides for a while, sometimes months. It took a long time before the Sparta and Tsalala prides were comfortable enough with the four new males to mate with them.  *This image is copyright of its original author Aggression between males of the same coalition can be extremely high. This photograph is of the Dark-maned male (right) and the Golden maned male, who were establishing their hierarchy once and for all. Two of the Sparta females were in oestrus and the males came to blows to see who got to mate first.  *This image is copyright of its original author Ranger Lucien Beaumont and tracker James Siwela watch one of the males cross a clearing very close to camp, heading towards where one of his brothers was calling on the airstrip nearby.  *This image is copyright of its original author The Dark-maned Majingilane looks west towards the Ulusaba Koppies, possibly listening for roars of the Selati coalition. This was at the time when the Majingilane were expanding westwards, following the Mhangeni females who were establishing territory to the west of Londolozi.  *This image is copyright of its original author The Dark-maned male emerges from the mist.  *This image is copyright of its original author The coalition was already showing signs of ageing, way back in early 2014, yet it would be another 4 years before they were finally gone..  *This image is copyright of its original author The four males assemble across the Sand River from Varty Camp. With such a big territory to patrol, the coalition was usually split, and seeing all four together was a rare event, especially seeing them all next to each other and in the open.  *This image is copyright of its original author A lions-crossing-the-river shot is much prized amongst the guiding team. David Dampier seemed to be in the right place at the right time more often than most.  *This image is copyright of its original author An isolated point of light can add that much more menace to a male lion, as Jacqui Marais’ shot of the Hip-scar male shows here.  *This image is copyright of its original author The Majingilane ruled with an iron fist, as an intruding coalition found out to their cost one day in 2012, when the Majingilane caught them on their southern boundary and mauled the male in this picture severely, until a bull elephant wandered by, charged the lot of them, and allowed the young male to make his escape.  *This image is copyright of its original author A photo from the opposite side of the action, this time by ranger Lucien Beaumont, as the young male swipes for his life at the Missing-canine Majingilane. The Scar-nosed male is on the right of the picture.  *This image is copyright of its original author Invariably big male lions will follow behind their prides. On this day (the same day as the shot in front of Varty camp incidentally), all four males had followed the Tsalala lionesses to where they had finished a buffalo kill in the river, and to see the looks of abject disappointment on the male’s faces after being led to an already consumed kill, was rather comical.  *This image is copyright of its original author A timeless black and white image from ranger Mike Sutherland.  *This image is copyright of its original author For whatever reason, the Scar-nose and Dark maned males were the duo seen together the most regularly. From interactions over the years, it appeared as these two were the first- and second ranked individuals within the coalition. Almost fittingly, they were also the two that survived the longest, both passing away within a couple of weeks of each other earlier this year.  *This image is copyright of its original author As they were regularly patrolling huge tracts of land throughout the Sabi Sand reserve, sometimes only their footprints would betray where the Majingilane had walked, and sometimes only a fleeting glimpse of a lion crossing a riverbed in the distance – like this shot of the Dark-maned male in the Manyelethi – were what we had to make do with.  *This image is copyright of its original author Ranger Dean Smithyman and guests enjoy a front-row seat to a walk-by from the missing canine male.  *This image is copyright of its original author The coalition cross Fluffy’s Clearing on a blustery winter’s day.  *This image is copyright of its original author The Dark-maned male looks back towards where the Tsalala pride were laying in the sands of the Manyelethi riverbed.  *This image is copyright of its original author The Scar-nosed male leads the dark-maned and Hip-scar male behind the Mhangeni pride on a wet December morning. The Mhangeni lionesses had just had a crack at hunting a buffalo herd with the males in attendance, but nothing had come of it, and as the weather cleared the whole group of 17 lions got moving. As usual, it was the males bringing up the rear.  *This image is copyright of its original author The four Majingilane in their prime. One of Southern Africa’s truly iconic coalitions.  *This image is copyright of its original author 
^Great write up, enjoyed it among all the pictures. This one I haven't seen before and it's actually the best shot of all 4 males imo:
*This image is copyright of its original author Is it from left to right: GM, HS, DM, SN?
Do you think it's possible that some Fourways lionesses or some of the Fourways coalition were fathered by the fifth Majingilane ?
(07-22-2018, 12:20 PM)Gabriele GLG Wrote: Do you think it's possible that some Fourways lionesses or some of the Fourways coalition were fathered by the fifth Majingilane ? The possibility is always there, and without genetic tests it's impossible to know, especially since we don't know for how long they controlled that pride prior to them entering the sabi sands. It's also, of course, a long shot to guess. 
One of the best videos of Majingilane even DM is not there with the other three
Focus and calm before the storm.... We all know who is SN  But who is infront and who is the second HS or GM? GM or HS? One of the other 2 is exactly the same with SN except the nose... 
Thanks Tshokwane
GM and SN looks the same...Mane colours face etc HS looks smaller than GM or its the angle of the video the problem?
Photo Credits Tiffyfranks01 Going through some photos tonight I found this very special picture. Taken on the 25.02.18, it was the first and only time I got to see three of the Majingilane males together. I was almost in tears I was so excited!!
Scar nose & Dark mane  *This image is copyright of its original author
Great forum!
I have always been fascinated by lions, especially the legen of Magopos. But i just cant seem to figure, which of the two coalitions were the strongest and most savage? i mean the majingilan were brutal, but magopos was savages ? So who was really the strongest? Magopos has the legend, so i would tend to say them, but the Majingilans did kill Kinky tail and rasta? 4v1 though |
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