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02-07-2025, 11:29 AM( This post was last modified: 02-07-2025, 11:29 AM by sunless )
Update from the Sandringham
sandringhamreserve As wildlife rehabilitation efforts continue at Sandringham Private Game Reserve, we are gaining deeper insights into the diverse cat species that call the reserve home.
Currently, to the best of our knowledge, the reserve is home to approximately 20 lions. The Sandringham Black Dam Pride consists of eight adult females, three sub-adult males, four young cubs - including a rare white male - and three very young cubs. The dominant males include the Sandringham Xikukutsu male and a second Xikukutsu male, who appears less frequently.
As these lions grow more accustomed to our presence, we look forward to sharing more regular updates on them.
02-07-2025, 12:28 PM( This post was last modified: 02-07-2025, 12:37 PM by KM600 )
(02-07-2025, 11:29 AM)sunless Wrote: Update from the Sandringham
sandringhamreserve As wildlife rehabilitation efforts continue at Sandringham Private Game Reserve, we are gaining deeper insights into the diverse cat species that call the reserve home.
Currently, to the best of our knowledge, the reserve is home to approximately 20 lions. The Sandringham Black Dam Pride consists of eight adult females, three sub-adult males, four young cubs - including a rare white male - and three very young cubs. The dominant males include the Sandringham Xikukutsu male and a second Xikukutsu male, who appears less frequently.
As these lions grow more accustomed to our presence, we look forward to sharing more regular updates on them.
So assuming some of those females aren’t offspring of the Xikukutsus, it means the Black Dam females who first went over there with Giraffe Male have now joined back up with the three breakaway lionesses and formed a full pride once again. That would be the best case scenario instead of most of them going missing.
We’ll see tho, if majority of the lionesses are quite young then they’re actually daughters of Xikukutsus and are strangely referred to as adult females whereas the males are still seen as subadults. Just read it back and there’s no mention of females elsewhere, so it seems the female offspring is already added to that count, and all of them are seen as adults meaning the reunion was unlikely.
I think the white cub being a male is great too for ppl who care about it, the white gene already runs in the pride so now he can spread it to other prides if he’s successful in raising his own offspring. Aside from the Birmingham breakaway white male who’s a tank, I’ve never really cared about white lions.
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(02-07-2025, 11:29 AM)sunless Wrote: Update from the Sandringham
sandringhamreserve As wildlife rehabilitation efforts continue at Sandringham Private Game Reserve, we are gaining deeper insights into the diverse cat species that call the reserve home.
Currently, to the best of our knowledge, the reserve is home to approximately 20 lions. The Sandringham Black Dam Pride consists of eight adult females, three sub-adult males, four young cubs - including a rare white male - and three very young cubs. The dominant males include the Sandringham Xikukutsu male and a second Xikukutsu male, who appears less frequently.
As these lions grow more accustomed to our presence, we look forward to sharing more regular updates on them.
So assuming some of those females aren’t offspring of the Xikukutsus, it means the Black Dam females who first went over there with Giraffe Male have now joined back up with the three breakaway lionesses and formed a full pride once again. That would be the best case scenario instead of most of them going missing.
We’ll see tho, if majority of the lionesses are quite young then they’re actually daughters of Xikukutsus and are strangely referred to as adult females whereas the males are still seen as subadults. Just read it back and there’s no mention of females elsewhere, so it seems the female offspring is already added to that count, and all of them are seen as adults meaning the reunion was unlikely.
I think the white cub being a male is great too for ppl who care about it, the white gene already runs in the pride so now he can spread it to other prides if he’s successful in raising his own offspring. Aside from the Birmingham breakaway white male who’s a tank, I’ve never really cared about white lions.
(02-07-2025, 11:29 AM)sunless Wrote: Update from the Sandringham
sandringhamreserve As wildlife rehabilitation efforts continue at Sandringham Private Game Reserve, we are gaining deeper insights into the diverse cat species that call the reserve home.
Currently, to the best of our knowledge, the reserve is home to approximately 20 lions. The Sandringham Black Dam Pride consists of eight adult females, three sub-adult males, four young cubs - including a rare white male - and three very young cubs. The dominant males include the Sandringham Xikukutsu male and a second Xikukutsu male, who appears less frequently.
As these lions grow more accustomed to our presence, we look forward to sharing more regular updates on them.
So assuming some of those females aren’t offspring of the Xikukutsus, it means the Black Dam females who first went over there with Giraffe Male have now joined back up with the three breakaway lionesses and formed a full pride once again. That would be the best case scenario instead of most of them going missing.
We’ll see tho, if majority of the lionesses are quite young then they’re actually daughters of Xikukutsus and are strangely referred to as adult females whereas the males are still seen as subadults. Just read it back and there’s no mention of females elsewhere, so it seems the female offspring is already added to that count, and all of them are seen as adults meaning the reunion was unlikely.
I think the white cub being a male is great too for ppl who care about it, the white gene already runs in the pride so now he can spread it to other prides if he’s successful in raising his own offspring. Aside from the Birmingham breakaway white male who’s a tank, I’ve never really cared about white lions.
(02-07-2025, 11:29 AM)sunless Wrote: Update from the Sandringham
sandringhamreserve As wildlife rehabilitation efforts continue at Sandringham Private Game Reserve, we are gaining deeper insights into the diverse cat species that call the reserve home.
Currently, to the best of our knowledge, the reserve is home to approximately 20 lions. The Sandringham Black Dam Pride consists of eight adult females, three sub-adult males, four young cubs - including a rare white male - and three very young cubs. The dominant males include the Sandringham Xikukutsu male and a second Xikukutsu male, who appears less frequently.
As these lions grow more accustomed to our presence, we look forward to sharing more regular updates on them.
So assuming some of those females aren’t offspring of the Xikukutsus, it means the Black Dam females who first went over there with Giraffe Male have now joined back up with the three breakaway lionesses and formed a full pride once again. That would be the best case scenario instead of most of them going missing.
We’ll see tho, if majority of the lionesses are quite young then they’re actually daughters of Xikukutsus and are strangely referred to as adult females whereas the males are still seen as subadults. Just read it back and there’s no mention of females elsewhere, so it seems the female offspring is already added to that count, and all of them are seen as adults meaning the reunion was unlikely.
I think the white cub being a male is great too for ppl who care about it, the white gene already runs in the pride so now he can spread it to other prides if he’s successful in raising his own offspring. Aside from the Birmingham breakaway white male who’s a tank, I’ve never really cared about white lions.
Indeed, those males are definitely older than subadults too, they look ready to leave. The quicker that place opens up permanently, the better.
I don't know if there are any fences surrounding Sandrigham, but if there are, do we know if they intend to tear them down? I sure wish we knew what happened to Giraffe Male, after he and the BD Pride crossed into there. It was around the same time as BDM was killed, too, a really hard time for the lions of that area.
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02-07-2025, 08:20 PM( This post was last modified: 02-07-2025, 08:22 PM by KM600 )
(02-07-2025, 07:41 PM)BA0701 Wrote:
(02-07-2025, 07:28 PM)KM600 Wrote:
(02-07-2025, 07:22 PM)sunless Wrote:
(02-07-2025, 12:28 PM)KM600 Wrote:
(02-07-2025, 11:29 AM)sunless Wrote: Update from the Sandringham
sandringhamreserve As wildlife rehabilitation efforts continue at Sandringham Private Game Reserve, we are gaining deeper insights into the diverse cat species that call the reserve home.
Currently, to the best of our knowledge, the reserve is home to approximately 20 lions. The Sandringham Black Dam Pride consists of eight adult females, three sub-adult males, four young cubs - including a rare white male - and three very young cubs. The dominant males include the Sandringham Xikukutsu male and a second Xikukutsu male, who appears less frequently.
As these lions grow more accustomed to our presence, we look forward to sharing more regular updates on them.
So assuming some of those females aren’t offspring of the Xikukutsus, it means the Black Dam females who first went over there with Giraffe Male have now joined back up with the three breakaway lionesses and formed a full pride once again. That would be the best case scenario instead of most of them going missing.
We’ll see tho, if majority of the lionesses are quite young then they’re actually daughters of Xikukutsus and are strangely referred to as adult females whereas the males are still seen as subadults. Just read it back and there’s no mention of females elsewhere, so it seems the female offspring is already added to that count, and all of them are seen as adults meaning the reunion was unlikely.
I think the white cub being a male is great too for ppl who care about it, the white gene already runs in the pride so now he can spread it to other prides if he’s successful in raising his own offspring. Aside from the Birmingham breakaway white male who’s a tank, I’ve never really cared about white lions.
Indeed, those males are definitely older than subadults too, they look ready to leave. The quicker that place opens up permanently, the better.
I don't know if there are any fences surrounding Sandrigham, but if there are, do we know if they intend to tear them down? I sure wish we knew what happened to Giraffe Male, after he and the BD Pride crossed into there. It was around the same time as BDM was killed, too, a really hard time for the lions of that area.
I heard that the fences are currently still up and that’s why Xikukutsus haven’t went back into Thornybush for a few years, since 2022 even, however they will be coming down once Sabi Sabi have finished their development, I believe that was said in an update someone sent in here the other day.
Most ppl believe Giraffe Male is dead as around the same time Xikukutsus first went to establish themselves over there, a male was found dead but there was never an ID on who it was. Ppl believed it was Giraffe Male as he was thought to be the only male over there. Judging by atleast their count, there’s no other lions over there.
(02-07-2025, 11:29 AM)sunless Wrote: Update from the Sandringham
sandringhamreserve As wildlife rehabilitation efforts continue at Sandringham Private Game Reserve, we are gaining deeper insights into the diverse cat species that call the reserve home.
Currently, to the best of our knowledge, the reserve is home to approximately 20 lions. The Sandringham Black Dam Pride consists of eight adult females, three sub-adult males, four young cubs - including a rare white male - and three very young cubs. The dominant males include the Sandringham Xikukutsu male and a second Xikukutsu male, who appears less frequently.
As these lions grow more accustomed to our presence, we look forward to sharing more regular updates on them.
So assuming some of those females aren’t offspring of the Xikukutsus, it means the Black Dam females who first went over there with Giraffe Male have now joined back up with the three breakaway lionesses and formed a full pride once again. That would be the best case scenario instead of most of them going missing.
We’ll see tho, if majority of the lionesses are quite young then they’re actually daughters of Xikukutsus and are strangely referred to as adult females whereas the males are still seen as subadults. Just read it back and there’s no mention of females elsewhere, so it seems the female offspring is already added to that count, and all of them are seen as adults meaning the reunion was unlikely.
I think the white cub being a male is great too for ppl who care about it, the white gene already runs in the pride so now he can spread it to other prides if he’s successful in raising his own offspring. Aside from the Birmingham breakaway white male who’s a tank, I’ve never really cared about white lions.
Indeed, those males are definitely older than subadults too, they look ready to leave. The quicker that place opens up permanently, the better.
I don't know if there are any fences surrounding Sandrigham, but if there are, do we know if they intend to tear them down? I sure wish we knew what happened to Giraffe Male, after he and the BD Pride crossed into there. It was around the same time as BDM was killed, too, a really hard time for the lions of that area.
I heard that the fences are currently still up and that’s why Xikukutsus haven’t went back into Thornybush for a few years, since 2022 even, however they will be coming down once Sabi Sabi have finished their development, I believe that was said in an update someone sent in here the other day.
Most ppl believe Giraffe Male is dead as around the same time Xikukutsus first went to establish themselves over there, a male was found dead but there was never an ID on who it was. Ppl believed it was Giraffe Male as he was thought to be the only male over there. Judging by atleast their count, there’s no other lions over there.
Such good news, all around. When GM and the BD Pride crossed over, that is when we found out about the history of that place, thanks to @Tr1x24. Now Sabi Sabi is going to turn it into a wonderful place, where these creatures can thrive, it is awesome!
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I hope the bond between both Xikukutsus isn’t as fractured as they may have hinted in their post, with one being seen much less frequently, they refer to his brother as The Sandringham Xikukustu male.
Obviously it’s fine now as there’s no challengers but once this place opens up, it won’t take long before a new coalition tests them, and they’ll already be at the end of their prime by then. It’s actually quite strange one is spotted less as judging by their lion count, there’s no adjacent prides he could hang with. There’s no consistent sightings there so hopefully their bond is still very much intact.
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Now this makes sense, I have to admit, I was real confused seeing this male especially with light maned Xikukustu being as he’s too old to be their son. Very full circle that tho, Xikukustus being related to Giraffe Male and also moving permanently to Sandringham with the Black Dam Breakaway Pride and then accepting his son who’s also related to everyone above. Some ppl may still say Ross males fathered them, which I don’t believe but even if true, Xikukustus would be related to them through Avoca Pride being a breakaway from Giraffe Pride.
02-08-2025, 02:39 AM( This post was last modified: 02-08-2025, 02:41 AM by BA0701 )
(02-08-2025, 12:50 AM)KM600 Wrote: Now this makes sense, I have to admit, I was real confused seeing this male especially with light maned Xikukustu being as he’s too old to be their son. Very full circle that tho, Xikukustus being related to Giraffe Male and also moving permanently to Sandringham with the Black Dam Breakaway Pride and then accepting his son who’s also related to everyone above. Some ppl may still say Ross males fathered them, which I don’t believe but even if true, Xikukustus would be related to them through Avoca Pride being a breakaway from Giraffe Pride.
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More fantastic news from Sandrigham, the treasures that place that place kept hidden, are finally getting some light shown upon them. I don't recall there being a male sub with the BDM pride that crossed over, though. @T I N O @Potato @Mapokser @Tr1x24, do any of you recall a male sub in that group that went with Giraffe Male and the partial BD Pride? Also, has that portion of the pride been renamed, or do we have two BD Prides now?
