Lions of Manyeleti

[MrLoesoe]

The Remaining Son of Red Road a.k.a. the young Nharu male - as a cub

Now that the remaining son of Red Road, the young Nharu male, is growing into an adult male and seems to have a great bond with his father, and is the only male offspring of Red Road that we are still able to follow and possibly the only one alive, I wanted to dive a bit deeper into his history. As we all know the young Nharu male has got a bit of a goofy face (the left side of his lip is higher than the right side), due to a jaw or lip that is assymetrical, so I thought: maybe he was recognizable as a cub. And he is :) 

I watched all Tintswalo videos from the time he should have been born and I think I found footage of him. It turns out he was born with this goofy mouth, or he got it from a very very young age. As he became older, and obviously his jaw and face grew, it became more prominent.

This first photo below, was the first time he was filmed. Since the video was published on 6 June 2020, I think he was born March or April 2020. So basically the young Nharu male is (almost) 5 years old now. He was born into a litter of four. I think by one of the older lionesses, but I am not 100% sure. As you can see, his mouth is already a bit 'displaced' from this very young age.

   
   
   

Footage starts at 5:28:

He grew up during a time where there were a lot of cubs in the Nharu pride (15+). There were at least three litters. I think he was part of the second litter (first and second were quite close to eachother). During this time a lot of cubs caught mange and were underfed, including the young Nharu male, as you can see below, in very weak condition.

   

The most special footage I found was the one below, where his father, Red Road, is cleaning / bonding with him. And other family members are in the back. It seems father and son have always had a great bond. Perhaps that plays a role in the fact that he is still with the pride in 2025.

   

The bonding of RR and his son starts at 2:58 in the video below:

As the young Nharu male grew up, a lot of his siblings disappeared. Below you can see him age 1.5+:

           

Again bonding with RR:

   

At some point, he had three brothers, so four male cubs / subadults in total. Unfortunately, his brothers disappeared.

       

At almost 5 years old, this is him now:

(All photos attached are screenshotted from Tintswalo Lodge videos.) Reply