There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
(12-16-2024, 09:15 PM)Mapokser Wrote: 2015 someone reliable ( IIRC a ranger ) made a facebook post explaining what happened, and the head of the anti-poaching team from Sabi Sands at the time of the Mapogo ( Willem Botha ), made another post citing the previous post and confirming that yeah it was what happened.
Basically Dreadlocks moved north towards Singita/Ottawa property and left the reserve ( fences were often destroyed by floods ), he killed some cattle and the leaders of IIRC 3 local tribes were pissed and demanded his death, the rangers tried to dart him and bring him back, but were threatened by the tribes. Weeks later Dreadlocks' skin was found with a poacher, probably the guy "hired" to shoot him
Thank you for that. I remember reading some of this stuff back in the day and I remember W. Botha. I didn't know it was confirmed he was poached and to this detail ththe info was out there but it makes sense.
Curious about those fences nowadays and since that era, besides Mfumo disappearing, I don't remember hearing about any lion traveling out of Sabi Sands into the nearby villages. Has there been any other accounts of this since?
It's possible something similar happened after that, of course, but I don't think it was ever confirmed, meaning reliable people admitting or confirming that missing lion X left the reserve and was killed in human-wildlife conflict.
(12-13-2024, 10:43 PM)BA0701 Wrote: We were discussing the situation at Elephant Plains, on the Kruger thread, and it got me thinking about the things that happened back then. The loss of Rasta was a really big blow, just as the loss of KT was even bigger, but, I still believe that the loss of Dreadlocks, to poachers, was the biggest loss to the 6 Mapogos. They had been able to regroup and recover from all of the others, and Dreadlocks played a big role in that. Once Dreadlocks was killed, the end of the Mapogo reign came relatively quickly afterwards.
Yeah, they were still the strongest coalition around before Dreadlocks died, though even before his death, they had already given up on their entire north and east territory, accepting the Majingilane rule, which came with Rasta's death and PB's injuries. Even after PB very quickly full recovery, they never attempted to challenge Majingilane for Londolozi, Northern Sector or MalaMala. I think, however, that if Mr.T had not killed the Ximungwe cubs, bringing the females back to estrus, there might have been a chance for them to make another move against Majingilane.
Still, technically speaking, Dreadlocks wasn't poached, to say he was poached would be to say someone illegally sneaked into the reserve and shot him, but he was killed outside Sabi Sands and the demand to kill him instead of allowing him to get darted and brought back, came from leaders of some local tribes.
But anyway, back to the dynamics, lion strategy or whatever, one should give full credit to Majingilane, I'm sure luck always plays its role, but the bond, intelligence, coordination and teamplay of the Majingis was out of this world, they had competition and clashes with coalitions of 6 ( Mapogo, Matimba ), 5 ( Bboys ), 4 ( Selati ), 3 ( Sand Rivers ) and never lost any members, hell, no member has even been seriously injured, their only lost ever was that of 5th in their first territorial challenge, after that they went into an insane spree off successfully competing with other males.
5 Selati - just proving the point, Majingilane took young Selati down from 5 to 4 members early on and consequently they never outnumbered them since and thus never become that big of a threat.
