This week has been a fairly
quiet one,as far as the big cat politics goes. The Matimba males seem quite
content to hang around with the females they have secured. Slowly they are
beginning to act like territorial males and less like marauding killers,
securing their territory and achieving security in an area that has lacked
stability for well over a year now.
Lions
Matimba males
Dark males with the Koppies females
This big coalition is still
split into two groups, the blonde males in the south and the dark males in the
central Manyeleti. As it stands at the moment, the dark males have spent most
of the week with the Koppies females with two sightings of them together. The
first sighting was at S6 pan to the north west of Main dam. When we arrived the
female was just beginning to stir and after a few minutes she started moving
east towards Main dam. Within seconds the Matimba male made his move to where she
had been lying. He sniffed around looking for any sign that she might be ready
to mate. They mated with these females a few weeks back, so his
chances weren’t good, but you can’t blame a guy for trying though!
A few days later, Patrick
found both males with two of the Koppies girls on Mantwan Mphisi. It had been a
little chilly that morning, and all four lions were huddled together. After 15
minutes or so, the oldest Koppies girl got up and started moving east and the
slow procession started after her. Being a matriarchal society, she would
dictate the movement of the group and it was interesting to see the mighty
Matimba males fall in line like that.
Blonde males with the Nkuhuma females
The first sighting of these
Lions was on Pungwe access, where Mpho found one Matimba male with two Nkuhuma
girls and worryingly only one cub. The split of this pride is still very
apparent and even though they were together last week, they again have moved
in different directions. Only time will tell what happened to the older cubs. They were following a herd of
Buffalo, so this may just be the clue.
A few days later we found two
of the blonde males close to Bushbuck dam in the extreme south. They spent the
day lying in a Guarrie thicket and just after sunset made their way to the
water to have a drink. The male that had the injury to his front left paw came
first. As the other male caught up he started roaring and the injured male
joined in. The sound of two big male lions roaring is one that you won’t forget
quickly and is one of the most impressive sights and sounds in the bush.
Other sights from the bush
Hope you all enjoyed the
blog. I can’t wait to see what next week brings.
Darren and the safari team
All photographs edited by Darren Roberts-York
All photographs edited by Darren Roberts-York
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