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Lions of Sabi Sands
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Gotta love the adoptive practices of the Nkuhumas. I hope the mangy Mhangeni boys recover and the rag tag band of lions continues together, specifically so the males can form a future coalition with the Nkuhuma boy. Credit: Safari Live, edit by TheoHikulkija.
Credits: Elephant Plains Game Lodge
Our New Lion Coalition The dynamics of the lion prides in our traversing area, is quite interesting. At this stage, there is much speculation regarding the future of our lions, but there have been a few changes of recent. Two young Talamati and three young Mhangeni male lions, joined the Nkuhuma pride roughly a month ago. While one Talamati male seems to be more accepted by the Nkuhuma females, his brother, on the other hand, does not seem to have the same acceptance as yet, but this will come with time. The three young Mhangeni males are also attempting to stay clear of a few select adult lionesses. They have been on their own for a long time, but joining up with the Nkuhumas will be far safer for them in regards to keeping them away from older male lions (three Avoca males). Hopefully, these new young males will be an asset for hunting within the pride. So far, the pride has taken down one giraffe and one buffalo. They still struggle to successfully execute the hunts, with the new members, fortunately, the pride have a history of extremely good hunters and even better teachers. This will also help the young males to master the technique of hunting. Like most things in life, having more members in the pride can have some negative effects. One ‘con’ is having more mouths to feed. This means they will need to hunt more frequently, especially as the six young males will dominate all the kills, leaving the females with less food. However, this is a great opportunity for the young Nkuhuma male to form a bond with these other five males, making it easier for them to one day move on, and hopefully form a new coalition. This may be beneficial if the Avoca males, who are in their prime, end up with the Nkuhumas in the near future. This will most likely push out the young males. In Buffelshoek, in the north-eastern part of Sabi Sands, the three northern Avoca males have begun pushing into our area to take control. This movement could still take time. The newly formed Nkuhuma pride stay around Elephant Plains, Simbambili and Arathusa properties. This may be for the protection of the young Nkuhuma females, as the pride then to go into Djuma when they hear the Avoca’s roaring close by. At this point in time, with the Birmingham brothers that moved into Londolozi and Mala Mala, there are no large males with the Nkuhumas. This will probably remain this way for the foreseeable future as there are larger prides, fresh running water and more food available going south. But this is the wild, and anything can happen. EP Ranger Gerrit Ackerman
How many adult Nkhuma lionesses are there currently? And did this pride ever have any cubs with the two previously dominant coalitions, Mapogo and Majingilane?
Ackerman's numbers - 2 Talamati, 3 Mhangeni are at odds with what has been seen at Djuma - 1 Talamati, 2 Mhangeni.
(10-25-2018, 12:00 AM)sundarbans Wrote: How many adult Nkhuma lionesses are there currently? And did this pride ever have any cubs with the two previously dominant coalitions, Mapogo and Majingilane? There are 5 Adult Lioness.. Mapogos were dominant for some time.. the pride was split and formed Torchwood pride during that time Majingalanes were never dominant over them Matimbas were dominant. (Junior was sired by Matimbas and 3 or 4 of the adult Lionesses iin the pride are sired by Matimbas) There are 6 sub-adults (1 male + 5 females) currently aged around 28-30 months old sired by BBoys (10-25-2018, 12:06 AM)Herekitty Wrote: Ackerman's numbers - 2 Talamati, 3 Mhangeni are at odds with what has been seen at Djuma - 1 Talamati, 2 Mhangeni. Even in recent drive 3 Mhangenis were seen. It is suspected that, the sub-adult male which was trailing his mothers (Mhangeni) joined the pride recently.
Credits: Arathusa Safari Lodge
 *This image is copyright of its original author As previously reported, there has been some interesting developments in the lion dynamics lately. Ranger Sabastion Wayne took a closer look and had the following to report:
“The above good-looking sub-adult male lion, about three and a half years old, is one of the Talamati males that has been hanging around with some of the Nkuhumas for a while now. We recently found him and his brother taking a breather with an old Nkuhuma adult lioness (the female with a scar on her hip), as well as a sub-adult female and her brother. Prior to their return on a property where we traverse, all five of them were on a giraffe carcass for about three days.
We also saw three of the Nkuhumas with two Talamati males, on the same day the rest of the Nkuhumas – seven of them – were spotted by other rangers far in the east. I drove east the same afternoon to follow up on the rest of the Nkuhumas, and found them fast asleep not too far from where they were left that morning. Interestingly all seven were there, as well as one very mangy Mhangene male close by – he looked about 3 years old.
It’s a bit strange with the split Nkuhumas, who as you know consisted of eleven lions – five adult lionesses, five sub-adult lionesses and one sub-adult male. So missing was one lioness from the Nkuhumas, but we got to see three Nkuhumasand two Talamatis in the morning as well as seven Nkuhumas and one Mhangene in the afternoon.
After sundowners we received an update that the missing lioness from the Nkuhuma pride was spotted way west of the rest, being closely followed by an Avoca male lion with a bit of a limp. While making our way home, we quickly stopped to check in on them. It looked like they had been mating, which probably happened north before coming over to our side. It was pretty cool to see a big male lion, and I was also relived to see the missing Nkuhuma lioness. We believe she left the rest of her pride and went north as she was in oestrus and ready to mate.
 *This image is copyright of its original author I did not manage to get a pic of the Avoca male with the limp following the Nkuhuma lioness, but this is a photo of the same Avoca male from a couple of weeks ago. The picture above is the other Talamati male with three of the Nkuhumas the morning they returned after feeding on a giraffe they killed about three days prior. While we were watching the five lions, another ranger at the sighting told me that they had seen an old buffalo bull with a bad limp about 2km from these lions. We both thought that when these lions do become active later and decide to head north, they might just find the straggling old buffalo bull and who knows what would happen?
Guess what we found the very next day! Three Nkuhumas, two Talamati boys and… two Mhangene males on a buffalo carcass!
Not really sure how two Mhangene males managed to find these lions, but nevertheless, it was an awesome sighting for our guests.
 *This image is copyright of its original author On the right is the Nkuhumas lioness with the scar on her hip and two Mhangene males, one feeding and the other sleeping. The two Talamati boys, the sub-adult male and female Nkuhumas were just off to the left with massive bellies, sleeping and digesting their food.
 *This image is copyright of its original author You can see one of the Talamati boys at the back sleeping and just look how round that belly is! The Mhangene males are easily identified by their mangy appearance.  *This image is copyright of its original author This is what the buffalo carcass looks like the very next morning… and here you can see the three Nkuhumas and two Talamati boys. vinodkumarn Wrote:Credits: Arathusa Safari LodgeVery interesting development. If these young males stick together, they will have a chance in a few years to to claim territory in the sabi sands as they will have numbers on their side. They are currently surrounded by coalitions of 3 or 2 (northern Avoca, Bboys, Matimba and southern Avoca). I was really hoping that the young othawa male would find and join up with the young nkuhuma and talamati males. Instead, he is busy chasing tail by himself and scent marking in BBoy territory. I have a bad feeling about his survival as the Bboys will hunt him down eventually. 
Nkuhumas have cubs?
I hope Othawa prince will go to the direction of this pride and meet the other boys(Talamati Mhangene and Nkuhuma boy)because BBoys will chase him for sure.... (10-25-2018, 03:42 AM)Mohawk4 Wrote: Nkuhumas have cubs? all sub-adults aged 28-30 months matter of time they get into heat and attract Avocas.. may be in next 6 months I guess... by that time the sub-adults will also grow a bit and out of danger
Credits: Elephant Plains
Oct 15 - 21:
From Londolozi Week in Pictures: Oct. 26, 2018
Again the Ottawa male seems to be front and centre in the lion dynamics this week (although I don’t have a picture of him today). Seven days ago we were talking about whether or not he would be able to ingratiate himself with the Mhangeni females, but since last Friday’s post he has been seen more and more with the lionesses, and in a couple of the sightings some of the pride’s cubs were even present. The long-term prospects for him might not be too healthy though, as he was chased for his life by one of the Birmingham males, from the Sand River in front camp right out of the western boundary of Londolozi. He managed to get away unscathed, but if he is to be spending more and more time with the Mhangeni lionesses, I think we can expect more aggressive encounters between him and his Birmingham counterparts and the Ottawa male is most certainly outmatched.
I'm not sure what lions these are, and while I don't like to post unidentified lions, the shot is an exceptional one somewhere in Sabi Sands.
Image by Jaco De Kock, October 26, 2018  *This image is copyright of its original author
(10-27-2018, 01:33 AM)And Herekitty Wrote: I'm not sure what lions these are, and while I don't like to post unidentified lions, the shot is an exceptional one somewhere in Sabi Sands. Birmingham male I believe Nhena and a kambula lioness.
Poor young mangy Mhangeni battles on at Arathusa. Video by Jamie Jameson, October 30, 2018
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