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Lions of Timbavati
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Safari Update
Another eventful week has passed in the Manyeleti Game Reserve! The Nharu pride of lions made an appearance a few days ago and was found twice during the week. Unfortunately only 11 individuals were counted and a sub adult male and female are still missing from the pride! The pride is in great condition and on both occasions they were found with full bellies. They managed to kill a buffalo in the central north of the reserve but sadly lost their kill to the Birmingham pride accompanied by the formidable giraffe males. Fortunately it looked like the Nharu's did eat some of the meat! Earlier in the week, two of the Giraffe male lions were found in the heart of Thanda Impi male lion ’Scorro’s ‘ territory and vocalised frequently during their unwanted visit! The Mbiri lionesses and cubs are still staying below the radar in the south western corner of the central Manyeleti. The last Thanda Impi male lion Scorro hasn’t been seen for many days and no info was received on his current whereabouts. The following day the Giraffe males made their way back toward the north where they reunited with the Birmingham pride. Nompethu leopardess gave much excitement when she was found with an impala kill hoisted up in the heights of a Knob Thorn tree during the week! A pack of five Cape hunting dogs were located on numerous occasions during the week close to main gate.  *This image is copyright of its original author
Reality finally seems to have caught up to Scorro. The Thanda Impi's had a fantastic run considering it was just Scorro carrying the coalition on his back for the most part the last year and half. Hopefully he will surprise us again by pulling through another tough circumstance.
The drama continues for the mbiri pride of lions and their pride male Scorro! The birmingham pride accompanied by the giraffe male lions have made their way into the heart of the mbiri's territory and the mbiri's with their cubs haven’t been seen for the last six days. The last remaining Thanda Impi male Scorro was found four days ago on Tintswalo Safari Lodges’s reception road by himself listening intently to the distant roars of the giraffe males. The rival pride managed to bring down a buffalo at ingwemanzi on the morning of the 25th and they’ve stayed in the area ever since. We are holding thumbs that the five mbiri lionesses and their 13 cubs were able to stay under the radar of these gigantic and formidable males!
In the far south of the Reserve, we were quite fortunate to spend time with the nkuhuma pride in the company of the birmingham males! They’ve killed a buffalo very close to the Manyelti Game Reserve/Sabi Sands boundary during the early hours of Thursday morning and finished the bovid that same day! 
From: Motswari blog
News 24 November 2017  *This image is copyright of its original author Friday was a cloudy day, but it started with Eric saying that he had heard the lions roaring to the south of camp, so Kevin and I began checking the area, and soon Eric and Kevin had tracks for two males on our airstrip moving south and having not found tracks coming out of the area, we dropped the trackers off and began widening our search in the vehicles; Chané soon found where they had walked on top of Henry’s vehicle tracks a couple of kilometres ahead of us, and we moved into that area, knowing that they couldnt be far; we followed the tracks to a nearby pan, and then saw where they had moved away from that, past another pan and then eventually found the two male lions resting on the road; much to my surprise it was the two Western Pride males, and not the Kruger males as I had been suspecting – perhaps the Western Pride males got wind of the fact that these new males had chased their pride away from that area a few days earlier and came just to let them know who the real bosses were. Well, at least one of them is a boss, the other male looks like he is on death’s door! He is in an absolutely terrible condition, and really cant go on for long – skin and bone, and his eye is looking terrible. Sad to see, but it is part of nature, and the other male is looking in fantastic condition – how such a stark contrast in conditions arises is a mystery, but it is entirely possible that it is related to TB-resistence, whereby the stronger male is genetically predisposed to be less susceptible to the TB. They are the same age, grew up together, have lived together, but the difference in condition is incredible. We left them resting and carried on to the east in a light drizzle hoping to find some wild dogs, but it was not really happening out there this morning. After a sundowner we headed east hoping to see the male lions roaring, but arrived to find that they had moved off…luckily, they hadnt moved far and we caught up with them as they finished drinking at a pan and move back north; the bigger male waited for his skinny partner but moved off a little later without him and we opted to leave the skinny guy in peace and head back to the lodge satisfied with a lovely afternoon.  *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 28 November 2017 kept us company as we headed towards the lion, and we found another male rhino before arriving at the lion as he got mobile, but as with most things these days, he too was limping! It appeared to be the Sumatra male lion, but I am not 100 percent sure; what I was sure about was that he was going to roar for us, and when he arrived on our western boundary, he lay down on the comfortable tarred road and gave us two awesome roars as the sun set on another great day! We were miles and miles from the lodge, and had a long drive home that didnt produce anything exciting, but it was a good day in perfect weather!  *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 29 November 2017 This morning was my last drive for a couple of days, and I wanted to check out in the east to see if the lions and come back, but decided to check on Ntima male leopard and his kill first. In bright sunlight we headed off towards the area but arrived to find nothing – no leopard, no steenbuck, no wild dogs. How 24 hours can change a scene! Henry picked up tracks for a lone lioness coming from the south towards Giraffe’s Nest, and I made my way towards him to help as the Difference and Patrick started following on foot. A herd of buffalos and a wild dog disappeared into Kruger before I could get them, but with lions roaring to the north-east of where the trackers were tracking, I headed into that area, but soon found tracks for the whole Western Pride moving into our area and back form where they had disappeared yesterday. The trackers decided to leave the tracks for the lone lioness and follow up on the pride’s tracks – much easier tracking nine of them than one of them! Whilst watching two hyenas, Chris radioed to say that there was a lioness in front of the lodge, so we headed towards the area and soon found a fat lioness walking below the wall; she joined up with an equally fat young male lion and walked down our access road and drank at a pool of water in a rocky outcrop. It was clear that they had recently fed, and with the trackers still on the tracks, we thought that they might have had a kill north of the camp. The vultures however descended nearby, and when one of the lions walked a little further east, Henry followed and found the rest of the pride resting in the shade of a marula tree as one young male fed on the reason for their fat bellies…a massive buffalo kill! Some 30km of driving around searching, and all we needed to have done was drive 800m down the road from the lodge to have found them! Anyway, it was a great reward for a morning’s effort. A few questions remained – was the lioness the trackers were originally tracking from the pride, or just the lone Sumatra lioness? Which lion was roaring to the north-east? And how long will they be there for…the latter will be the easiest to answer, but it should be for a good couple of days. Some sad news though for the pride, the one pride male that we was in such a terrible condition last week was found dead on Ingwelala yesterday, so the pride is officially down to one male; a sad part of the bush, but after having seen him a few days back, death was the kindest fate that could have befallen him. I will be back on drive on Friday afternoon, so will resume with the updates then! Enjoy the remainder of the week ?   *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
 (12-13-2017, 11:16 PM)Chris Wrote: Where are the mohalebetsi males now? I haven't had the time to read the blogs that wrote about them, so I'm not entirely sure. But the other day I did saw a video or a publication about them, so I think they're ok but maybe they were forced to change their territory after the arrival of the Machaton males.  (12-14-2017, 04:17 PM)Tshokwane Wrote:We’re can I find them?(12-13-2017, 11:16 PM)Chris Wrote: Where are the mohalebetsi males now? (12-15-2017, 09:21 AM)Chris Wrote: We’re can I find them? I used to read about them from here: https://www.sundestinations.co.za/blog/
From : chacma bush camp
Lions of the Maseke : Lionesses, Sub-adults and The Bushveld King A couple months back we introduced you to a coalition of 6 burly male lions that we know as the “Maseke Males”. These lions patrol their turf with vigour and appear to be in elite physical condition, with two older males seemingly dominating the rest. Our sightings have included the full pride of boys, and then of the four younger males dining out on a kill. The Maseke have certainly made their mark on our reserve, but there came a time when we were wondering about our lack of lioness sightings. We needed to establish the whereabouts of the females, and ranger Luan spent plenty of time tracking the lions of the Maseke. Male lions are generally drawn to an area that boasts a high density of prey and availability of females. It is in their genetic make-up to sire cubs and continue their elite bloodlines. With so many boys around, there had to be females in the area – and it was up to us to find them. Lo and behold, we discovered the female of the species! Immersed deep within the mopaneveld in the pockets of knob-thorns and general shrub close to the Lamai gate, we spotted the lionesses. The females were tucking into a meaty feast of wildebeest, but it was tricky to get 100% visibility due to the sheer density of the surrounding thickets. At least we know there are females in the area, but they already have growing cubs. Were the sub-adult cubs perhaps sired by the Maseke males? In time, Luan and the team will find out. We are slowly establishing the history and the lineage of the lions of the Maseke Game Reserve, but it can be a complex task given the wide range a lion patrols.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author After spotting the lionesses we were also lucky enough to witness the Maseke males take down a buffalo. This coalition of brute force is quite the dominant power on our reserve – good luck to any other males pushing boundaries and overstepping their mark. These males rule the land with an iron fist! We sat with these males for ages, watching them tear into cartilage and gorge themselves on ripe, fresh flesh. The scene was brutal, but necessary for the survival of our bushveld kings. Lions will eat until they cannot move, and will lie on their backs to let their stomachs expand and cascade over their limbs. After observing the final morsels being devoured in a lion feast, you might notice that their breathing becomes laboured. This is because their enlarged stomachs press on their diaphragm.  *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  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author After indulging in the ultimate lion sighting of the Maseke males, we came across yet another set of lions. This time the pride was spotted quite a distance from the Lamai Gate, and were hovering around the Olifants River area close to Nyati. We noticed an older lioness with 3 sub-adult cubs, two males and one female, with one of the cubs being somewhat older than the other. Because they were so close to boundaries we speculate they wondered over from Excellence farm. These lions certainly weren’t sedentary – the older lioness attempted to take down a warthog, but was unsuccessful in her attempts.  *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 Quote:To recap. We spot the Maseke deep in the heart of our traverse on a regular basis – that we’ve established. We’ve spotted the female with the older sub-adult lions close to the gate on a kill, and now we’ve just seen another lioness with 3 sub-adult cubs close to the Olifants river. Have any of the Maseke sired these cubs? Who are the lionesses close to the Olifants? Who is the other lioness we saw at the gate? Our quest is to find out how these lions are connected to the Maseke. A complex but worthwhile task that allows us to monitor lion behaviour in the area.
I don't think they're related, Chris. These lads are not the Mohlabetsi younger males, otherwise it would have been stated as such. Also, if you notice, they are far more "street wise" than what those subadults were.
Machaton males
Info and pictures from: Karl van der Westhuizen. Nov 23, 2017  *This image is copyright of its original author This is one of the two young Takazile/ Kudyela pride males. Him and his brother left along with the Singwe male, when the Machaton males came in. Reports of the Singwe male north of the olifants river, this guy appeared out of nowhere a few nights ago and is still sticking around, who knows where his brother is? it's going to be an interesting night ahead for this youngster to say the least. With two of the three big males back in the area, it could get nasty. Good luck fella! Nov 23, 2017 at 8:46pm. How can a sighting like this not make your day? Nov 24, 2017 A follow up on the youngster from last night. His path did cross that of the big males, and they didn’t do any damage to him. I don’t think there was any need to, to be honest. A lot of shouting and a few light smacks and it seems like he’s on his way. DEC 20 2017 A scene similar to that of the Lion King this morning, as we discovered a new addition to our reserve. This little cub was born to one of the Kudyela/Takazile pride females in the night, and wonderful to see one of the Machaton males very nearby, up on a rock, keeping a watchful eye on his offspring  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author
The Legend continue...
The last trilogy male still alive! Pictures were taken by Riccardo bori at Tornybush G.r  *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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