Savanna Lion News………

The lion sightings at Savanna have been incredible again this month. Four of the Mapogo (big males) and four of the Ximungwe females have been together often, and mating with the Ximungwe pride continues. The guides are unsure how many of the females are expecting, however they are going to stop guessing, as every month they seem to be wrong! Future newsletters will however announce once the cubs have been born! Having said this, it is believed that one female – the one with the short tail – has already had her cubs just north of the camps’ boundary, but still on the concession.

A big surprise was that one of the Ottawa females has produced cubs near the river, and most guides didn’t even know she was expecting! This is unusual, as the older cubs that they still have, are about two and a half years old and still with the pride. Usually, when the young males are chased out by the adult males, the young females either form their own pride or stay with the mother to form a bigger pride, before the mothers produce cubs again.

Two of the Mapogo disagreed over the Ximungwe females, however unfortunately, the actual incident was not seen by any of the guides, but as the photograph shows, they definitely made contact, and this particular male seems to have been the loser. Over the past several months there have been plenty of short, sharp altercations, but with nothing more than egos dented or a blood nose or lip. One would have thought that a hierarchy structure would have developed by now.

The Ximungwe pride and the four Mapogo have had a glorious time this month as the buffalo herds have been in the camps’ area. At the beginning of the month they killed five buffalo of varying ages in three days!

The Sparta pride consisting of 12 lions was seen for a short while in the camps’ traversing area this month; however they only stayed for a day, before returning east to the core of their territory.

These Sighting have been Viewed at: Savanna Lodge

White Lions Return to Timbavati……..

A white lion sighting is one of the most extraordinary wildlife sightings for anybody.
This unique and rare sighting can only happen in one place on the planet and that is in the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve in South Africa. Patrick O’Brien, the Head Guide at Kings Camp was privileged to see white lion cubs in the Timbavati approximately 4 years ago unfortunately both white cubs died due to an unknown reason.

Yesterday, Patrick and a few guides from a neighbouring lodge were lucky enough to see two white lion cubs on Kings Camp’s property. This sighting was called-in very early in the morning. The vehicle Patrick was in was very close and was the second vehicle to approach the sighting. The sighting was simply amazing. The pride consists of 3 adult females and 4 cubs of about 8-9 months old. Two of the cubs are white and the other two are “plain”. Meaning they are the usual tawny colour.
The pride was feeding on a giraffe they took down a few hours after the rain and should last them a few more days. Hopefully the pride will hang around for next few days offering more action. It might just become a more frequent sighting from now on at Kings Camp.

These Sightings have been viewed at: Kings Camp

Growth at Kings Camp for the Lion Cubs…….

One of the sub-adult females, Kuhanya is spending most of her time on her own.

The communication between Mom and daughter is less frequent and the guides suspect that Kuhanya will be looking for her own territory soon. What is extraordinary is to see the growth rate of these cats. It feels like the other day when she was barley the size of a house kitten. They grow so quickly, however having said that it was more than two years ago that she was so small.

These Sighting have been viewed at Kings Camp

Mapogo & Ximungwe pride on the move…….

For the past month the Mapogo have been seen on a regular basis in the camps’ traversing area maybe because two of the Ximungwe females are coming into season and are receptive to the males. Another draw-card was two large buffalo herds in the area and the lions have made a number of buffalo kills this month offering plenty of action for the guests. Most of these kills have been young animals, so have not lasted for any length of time hence the camp has seen fantastic interaction between the lions and the buffalo, where on several occasions the herds of buffalo have chased the lions off, but persistence prevails and normally ends with at least one buffalo being killed.

As already mentioned, mating with the Ximungwe pride continues and hopefully at least two, maybe three, of the Ximungwe pride are pregnant. The Ximungwe females caused a bit of a stir this month when they moved right to the north of Savanna which is unfamiliar territory for them. For one day, they also moved east out of the territory into an area they have never been to before. Everybody waited in anticipation to see whether they would return or whether this would be a permanent territorial change. Fortunately, they returned the following day, killed a waterbuck and returned to their original territorial area.

These Sighting have been viewed at: Savanna Lodge



Savanna Lodge doing well with Lion Sightings………

The past couple of days at Savanna have been full of action. The Ximungwe pride has killed six wildebeest and one reedbuck in a matter of nine days. Individual Mapogos have ridden on the back of these kills and have come in once the Ximungwe pride have made the kill and dominated. The Ximungwe pride is doing well and mating continues to happen, hence at this stage the guides are uncertain whether any of if any females are pregnant yet. It is an exciting time and everybody is waiting in anticipation to see small cubs in the area again. During the last few days, the Ximungwe pride, with the help of three Mapogo, killed a big male buffalo very close to cheetah flats. This in return offers exceptional viewing for two days while these lions gorged themselves on this massive beast.

The Ottowa pride that was seen frequently during the last two months at Savanna has now moved east and it will be exciting to see if they will continue to use the area within their territorial plays. The large herd of buffalo has been making frequent sorties into the camps’ area and water points still have plenty of water due to last year’s rains and this is obviously the draw-card. Certain cows within the herd give them direction and take them from one water point to another. This has on occasion created conflict between the hippo and the buffalo, as the hippo are trying to protect their area and the buffalo are just trying to get a drink and a wallow. Fortunately, no actual physical contact has taken place and it is wonderful to see this interaction.

These Sightings have been viewed at Savanna Lodge

Sights on the Rise @ Kings Camp

During the past month the Machaton pride was seen frequently around Kings Camp.

A few killings were witnessed and they were seen feeding on Buffalo twice. The two

cubs are doing well however experienced a tough week when they were left alone close to the camp for nearly 7 days! Their mother left them behind to join the pride and the “Timbavati boys” for a long distance hunt. Reports came in of sightings of the adults over 10 km away from the cubs. Quite extraordinary to witness the ability of the youngsters to survive without food and milk for such a long time! The mother has collected them in the mean time and they were rewarded with a good drink!

The Schobele Pride spent most of the month separated from each other. Frequent sightings were witnessed of 3 of the 4 sub-adults around the Makulu dam area.

This grouping, consisting of two brothers and one female cousin survive by hunting mostly impalas and bushbuck and for the three of them it is sufficient as there are not many mouths to feed. The adult female and the third brother were seen a few times up in the extreme Northern parts of the camps’ traversing area and it seems like the female is in estrus and being courted by one of the Mahlatini males.

These Sightings have been viewed at Kings Camp



A Males Pride & More at Savanna

The lion sightings have been phenomenal this month at Savanna. The excitement kicked off with the Ximungwe Pride and 4 of the Mpogo killing 3 buffalo just outside the camp. With full tummies, mating started with 3 of the Ximungwe again. For the past few months, the guides have been anticipating lion cubs from the Ximungwe Pride however this is obviously not the case as they are still mating on a regular basis. Hopefully the females will fall pregnant soon. With the mating in progress, there was quite a lot of interaction between the males and on one morning, a huge fight started between two of the males over a female who was trying to play the field, however, more damage was done to the males’ pride (excuse the pun!) than bodily harm.

These Sighting have been viewed at Savanna lodge

Elephant Plains Lion on the Rise

The lion sightings at Elephant Plains have been phenomenal this month. The Tsalala’s and the Stix pride were seen nearly every day and guests were privileged to witness a few spectacular kills. Sadly one of the Stix females got killed by the Mapogo’s in a feeding frenzy. They are very aggressive lions when feeding and she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. She apparently had the back part of her spine snapped. But as for all the other lions it is going well. The Tsalala pride still has all eight of their cubs and one specific day they had two of the Mapogo’s resting with them. The cubs are very playful and the males seem to tolerate them rather well. It was an exceptional sighting to witness. The Stix pride lost one of their cubs for about a week, but luckily, they found each other again. So they still have five cubs. The Sandypatch female still comes in and out of the east and still has her one cub. The Windmill pride appeared for a few days and they have three males of about three years old and they are in good health. This new pride is welcomed with open arms as more lions mean better sightings!

These Sighting have been viewed at Elephant Plains

Lions at Kings Camp……..

After last month’s loss the Schobele pride was taking strain to re-gain their balance and hunt again as a unit after the loss of one of their adult Lionesses. The pride wondered around without focus to find food however with the experience of one adult gone all the attempts to hunt seemed without strategy. They covered vast distances in search for food and on one morning stumbled across a buffalo carcass close to the camp…Being so hungry they rushed in for the feed and got ambushed by the Timbavati boys, whose kill it was. The boys were patrolling in the area and on their return found some “unwanted” guests feeding on their kill! All hell broke loose and one of the large males got hold of the sub-adult Lioness and killed her. This was the second heavy blow for the Schobele pride as she was the one to replace the other Lioness. Click on the following link to see a video clip of the ambush:
Click to View Video Here.
The remaining 5 lions did have some luck on their side and managed to kill a Kudu on the other side of the camp 2 days later….The combination of the Timbavati Boys & the Machaton pride dominated sightings on the Lion front. Various Buffalo kills were made throughout the month and the cubs were seen eating meat for the first time!

Unfortunately one of the cubs was killed by one of the resident female Leopards.
Rockfig jr. found the little ones playing alone and found it wanting to take revenge on the babies of a much larger predator; an unfortunate incident, however the only way “Mother Nature” takes care of natural selection. The other 2 cubs are fine and the mother has moved them back to a previous, well known and more secure spot in the Nhlaralumi riverbed.

The Mahlatini (Mashlatini – “From the Thickets”) coalition of 3 males in the North is still trying to settle on the vacant terrain. They also managed 2 Buffalo kills during the month and produced some good sightings. They are slowly getting more relaxed with the vehicles now.


An interesting incident occurred in the Klaserie pride consisting of 6 Lionesses.
They killed a Buffalo close to the camp and finished the carcass in less than 24 hours! They were a little reserved with the vehicles around and moved across into the Klaserie Reserve as soon as the kill was finished.


These Sightings have been viewed at Kings Camp

Lion’s on The Rise @ Elephant Plains

The Lion sightings during the month of July were simply incredible and the guides have rated this month’s sightings as the best they have seen in four years. From the heartache of seeing so many lions being killed over the past few years they are relieved to report that the lion population is returning to the numbers it once was. Seeing the proud lionesses looking after their young cubs is an incredible feeling and it is a privilege to be part of their lives on a day-to-day basis. All the prides have cubs, including the lonely Sandy Patch female. She has got four cubs that are looking fat and healthy. One of these days, she will at least have a few more lions to help her hunt and slowly, but surely, build her pride to a strong and powerful one. The Tsalala’s has six cubs of approximately four months and when they returned from the south there were eight cubs. BB has two of her own cubs and it is great to see that after all this time she has added two more. The guides feel confident that all the cubs will survive because they have six fathers to protect them. BB now permanently stays with her two daughters. Because all the cubs are nearly the same age they can feed from any of the mothers which are a great help. The Stix females are doing very well and they still have their five cubs with them. The two females that have been missing resurfaced the other day with four cubs so as you can see there are plenty of cubs around! The two Stix females will wait another few weeks before taking their cubs back to the main pride. They are waiting for the cubs to get a bit bigger as the main pride’s cubs are now a year old. They might be just a bit too rough when playing with the smaller cubs.

These Sightings have been viewed at: Elephant Plains