Savute Safari Lodge – Lion Update

August 18, 2008 at 1:02 pm · Filed under Lion Prides in Botswana, Lions Prides in Africa ·Tagged , , , , , ,

The Lion residents of the Savute region seem to readjust just before the dry winter months set in, this is usually when the wet season comes to an end and the waterholes around Savute start drying up. The game viewing becomes more exciting; with new arrivals emerging in the area on a recurring basis.

Throughout the last two weeks of May, a huge, black-maned male Lion made his first appearance in the area. He didn’t waste any time before finding himself a girlfriend, a young lioness that has been in the area for a while. The possibility of him becoming the new “main man” of the area is good, since the other two males (known as the Mababe Boys) are getting older. He will have to challenge them soon in order to decide who will be in charge of the Southern Savute region for their sole use. Adult male lions are extremely territorial; therefore it is improbable that the new comer and the Mababe Boys will be content in the same area. Around the same time, one of the females around the Leopard Rock area made the decision to show off her four three month old cubs. As the game drive vehicle got closer to them, she steered the little ones into a line, crossing the road with her cubs in tow. As the cubs get older, she will slowly introduce them to the rest of her pride.

The rest of the pride is seen on a regular basis, as they roam around the western side of the Savute Marsh. The other Lions of the old Savute pride are still strewn all over the area. There are regular tracks in the early morning. The area where they seem to focus on is dense Mopane veld; hence sightings are more difficult; from the tracks it appears that another big male, known as Scarface, has joined up with two females and two cubs with them. Their territory is in the northern part of the Savute area and close to the airstrip. They are not often seen, however their roars at night can be heard throughout the camp. The Zebra migration that is more towards the Linyanti marsh is coming to an end, hence finding food is becoming more challenging for the Lions. With such an abundance of Lion in the area, it is anyone’s guess how long it will be before the old pride re-joins and yet again start hunting Elephant, the claim to fame of this pride.

These Prides are residents at: www.sunsafaris.com/savutesafarilodge.html

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Winter has Arrived in Moremi

August 12, 2008 at 8:39 am · Filed under Lion Prides in Botswana, Lions Prides in Africa ·Tagged , , , ,

At the moment, the delta is going through a lot of evident changes. Winter is here and the evenings and early mornings are getting significantly colder. The plains are slowly filling up and the crossings are getting deeper due to the flood waters arriving from further north and is now pushing through.

Together with all these environmental changes comes an ever diverse and exciting array of wildlife. Camp Moremi has had an incredible amount of game activity in the area and a lot of it seems to be happening right in front of the camp.

This morning the Earth-Touch film crew advised that the resident Xakanaka lion pride had killed a buffalo not far from Camp Moremi. This was exciting news because during the past week the pride had been moving in remote areas further north of Dead Tree Island. These areas are inaccessible, however an area that the buffalo move through, hence the reason the pride had been out of sight for a week. The Xakanaxa lions are a dynamic and exciting pride. There are two males, seven females, and eleven cubs of various ages. It’s an incredible opportunity to be able to observe these lions interact and play with each other. They are relaxed creatures and never seem too concerned by the presence of the vehicles and guests watching them.

During the early morning game drive, the Camp Moremi vehicles went out to see the pride and their kill which they had brought down at sunrise which was just a few hours before the vehicles got to them. The experience was exhilarating for most of the guests. The females chewed away and tore at the flesh of the carcass in a determined and hasty manner, while the cubs climbed on top of each other and the carcass, tearing off any amount of flesh their teeth could saw through. The males lazed in the morning sunshine until the remainder of the pride had eaten; they then took their turn to tear off large chunks of meat from the rapidly shrinking carcass. The pride ate the remains throughout the day, occasionally strolling down to Jesse’s Pool for a much needed drink, with their heavy bellies almost touching the ground.

Just before the end of the day the spine, skull and pelvis were all that was left of the buffalo. The adults lay on their backs in the dusk sunshine with enlarged, achingly full stomachs while the cubs tried their luck at suckling from the unhelpful and exhausted females. Some of the cubs desperately tried to get some attention from the drowsy males, but didn’t succeed.

It was an incredible opportunity to be able to watch the interactions and personalities of the pride; one could certainly never get tired of watching these awesome and powerful creatures.

These Sightings have been viewed at: www.sunsafaris.com/campmoremi.html

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The Legend continues at Duba

August 7, 2008 at 8:35 am · Filed under Lion Prides in Botswana, Lions Prides in Africa ·Tagged , , , ,

Junior, the son of one of the Duba boys, has come of age and is getting some action in the area. It has been interesting to watch Junior grow and mature and there have been some exciting changes and male interactions in the concession. Junior, however, seems to be very unpredictable and is standing his ground. Some believe that he may even form a coalition with the Skimmer male; we will have to wait and see!

These sightings have been viewed at: www.sunsafaris.com/duba.html

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Mombo a land of the Unusual

August 6, 2008 at 2:59 pm · Filed under Lion Prides in Botswana, Lions Prides in Africa ·Tagged , , , , ,

The following day we were fortunate to see a pride of 21 lion, then two lionesses basking on a termite mound in the rich evening sun. While watching her, our guide Emang heard over the radio of a sighting from one of the other Mombo vehicles of lions that had killed a baby giraffe. We made our way to the scene, taking at least 15 minutes to get there. On arrival we watched a lioness with her three 7 month old cubs feeding off a young giraffe while the mother giraffe looked on forlornly. I know you are not meant to be anthropomorphic in the wild, but her behaviour over the next 40 minutes and following morning certainly led us to this way of thinking.

The lions had been eating the calf for nearly 20 minutes when we arrived; we presumed it was dead as a sizable amount had been eaten from its front right leg and rump and there was no movement from the animal. All of a sudden the young giraffe stood up, lion cubs fell in all directions. The lioness crouched, sizing up this seven foot baby, allowing her cubs to come in for the attack, obviously teaching them how to hunt and bring down prey.

According to the other Land Rover that had been there since the beginning of the attack, this was the fourth time the giraffe had stood up; the incredible power of adrenalin. The lioness stood on her hind legs with paws clasped beneath the giraffe’s head. She and her cubs formed a perfect pyramid of feline force; fangs and claws eventually wrestling it to the ground. Looking at the giraffe I noticed there was still an umbilical cord; this can still be present in a young giraffe for up to 8 weeks after birth. Judging by the size of the baby it looked like it was at least 2 months old.

The little lion family then began to feed of the giraffe again. During the next 45 minutes it raised its head, bleating and staring at its nearby mother no less than four times. It was possibly the most traumatic thing I have witnessed in the wild.

The mother giraffe stood looking on all the time that the young giraffe gallantly came to life so many times. The lioness would then try to suffocate it with multiple bites to the nose and neck. We were willing it to die each time its long rearing neck and head raised up to a pleading stare at its helpless mother and just as we thought it could never still be alive that long the neck would lurch up again and its baby face would stare and bleat. It had taken over an hour for the giraffe to die, during this time a fair amount of flesh had been eaten from the right rump and front leg, along with a lot of blood on the neck and head. The following morning we went directly to the site, all that was left was a patch of blood on the grass, with the mother still standing there looking at the site where her calf that had spent 14 months growing in her belly had met its end. Such is the savage cycle of life in Africa. Such are the sightings that Mombo can present you within two days, standing up to its bold statement of ‘Land of Plenty.’

This unusual sighting was captured at: www.sunsafaris.com/mombo.html

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MalaMala a once in a lifetime oppurtunity

August 5, 2008 at 9:26 am · Filed under Lion Prides South Africa, Lions Prides in Africa ·Tagged , , ,

Whilst observing a pride of well-fed lions dozing in the sand of a dry river bed, one of the females began showing signs of discomfort; sitting up, walking around, lying down again, trying to make herself comfortable. A disbelieving audience watched spellbound as moments later she went into labour & delivered two cubs in quick succession, with barely a ten minute interval between births!
The Lioness, having early memories of game drive vehicles, was accustomed to, and therefore comfortable with, the Landrovers in the vicinity. The customary strategic & disciplined movements around the animals ensure the visitor’s presence is unobtrusive. She completely ignored her human audience, whilst only showing aggression towards one of the females from her pride who ventured too close to the newborn cubs. Once it was apparent that the birthing process was over, the rangers, with their guests, quietly withdrew, and in accordance with MalaMala’s policy of not viewing young cubs, will not approach the den site for at least a month.

The lioness was quite clearly unconcerned with the vehicles’ presence as she began giving birth. To have started moving away from the sighting at that moment would have created a disturbance potentially dangerous for the lioness and her cubs. Up to that point no disruption or annoyance had existed”, a ranger at MalaMala explained. “However, from this point on, it is the young cubs that must be considered. Our policy is to leave them alone for at least a month, after which they may be viewed from a distance by one vehicle at a time. Viewing also depends on circumstances during the next few months - if for example the den site is in difficult terrain where too close an approach is required, the area will be out of bounds.”

This once in a lifetime oppurtunity was viewed at: www.sunsafaris.com/malamalamain.html

Here is a Video of the rare occurence:

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The Showing of her Cubs

July 29, 2008 at 1:36 pm · Filed under Lion Prides South Africa, Lions Prides in Africa ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

The Southern Lion Pride has been a regular sighting on the Lion Sands Reserve over the last couple of months. On most occasions when the Pride has been sighted, we have only seen the two males and three of the five females. We believed the reason for this is because two other females have been hiding cubs in the South-eastern corner of the Reserve.

Finally, our wait was over…

On the evening game drive on the Thursday, 25 February, we located the Southern Lion Pride on the Marula Road in the Lion Sands Private Game Reserve. The Pride had brought down what looked like a young female Impala; all the Pride members were accounted for, fighting over the small Impala carcass.

All eyes and spotlights were on the commotion at the kill, when suddenly we heard a rustle in the nearby vegetation… What could this possibly have been..? A Hyena or maybe a Jackal..? Suddenly, to the delight of everyone viewing the pride, three cubs appeared from the brush and disappeared as quickly as they appeared. What an incredible sighting. Unfortunately we couldn’t view them for long, as they were still very young and we did not wish to put them under any unnecessary stress by keeping the spotlight on them.

We only viewed three cubs, but we expect that there were more nestled in the surrounding vegetation as both lactating females were present on the kill. We hope to get more exciting sightings of the growing cubs.

These encounters were sighted at: www.sunsafaris.com/lionsandsriverlodge.html or www.sunsafaris.com/lionsandsivorylodge.html

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Lions & Hyaena battle for Dominance

July 24, 2008 at 2:29 pm · Filed under Lion Prides South Africa, Lions Prides in Africa ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

Early on Sunday morning the Southern Lion Pride took down a sub-adult Buffalo Bull, just outside Trails Camp on the Lion Sands reserve. The Southern Pride consists of seven members, two males and five females, all of which were present during the kill. The Pride did not hesitate to feed and made short work of the Buffalo, reducing it to skin and bones after just two days. This was surprising as spent much of their time sleeping, belly up, in the shade of the surrounding trees.

On the third day, we arrived at the kill, only to find that our Lions had been chased of the carcass by a Clan of Hyena. Hyenas are apex predators and bring down more prey than Lion, but when their numbers are high and there is an opportunity, they will not hesitate to scavenge a kill. They must have located the kill during the night and successfully chased the Lions from the kill, allowing them to feed in peace on the little scraps that were left. These scraps were quickly devoured, much of which was skin and bones, with one Hyena even carrying off the skull and vertebrae to feed in peace, far away from its noisy companions.

This kill provided us with excellent Lion and Hyena sightings for three days, but there was one more surprise. 70 Vultures had congregated in the surrounding trees, hoping to claim a small morsel. Amongst them was a White-headed Vulture, which is an extremely rare sighting in and around Lion Sands.

These encounters were sighted at: www.sunsafaris.com/lionsandsriverlodge.html or www.sunsafaris.com/lionsandsivorylodge.html

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Lions on the Rise

July 23, 2008 at 9:33 am · Filed under Lion Prides in Botswana, Lions Prides in Africa ·Tagged , , , , ,

There has been a lot of activity from The Matatatha Pride in and around the camp this month; on a few remarkable occasions they were seen hunting the resident buffalo males. Guests have been fortunate enough to experience and observe the interaction between the lions and the hyaena in the area. Another highlight was the incredible sighting of two roaming male lions and one female lion taking down a buffalo calf, the herd decided to get even and the lioness was badly injured in the attack. During the course of the month, four different buffalo herds were spotted. During the month of May, quite a few lion-buffalo interactions were seen; the lions being successful in the bulk of the kills. On one occasion, the buffalo were trying to defend a calf; however they lost it to the determined lions. During the month there were also quite a few sightings of lions killing zebra, giraffe and impala; they were also recorded, unsuccessfully chasing a warthog. The 50 different lion sightings this month consisted of four known prides - the famous Mathata Pride (28 strong), the Maporota Pride (24), the Western Pride and the Stickya Pride, as well as several nomadic lions moving through the territories of the two major prides. The Lion activity has been incredible this month, in 26 days of lion sightings, the Moporota and Mathata Prides, were seen taking down a baby giraffe and a warthog. The highlight of the month was during a Lion-warthog kill when the lions ended up sharing their kill with hyenas. The famous Mathata Pride seems to have lost its oldest female, the Mathata female after whom the pride is named. She was found badly hurt at a buffalo kill at Suzie’s Duck Pond. The Maporota Pride seems to have expanded their territory from the boma areas north east of the camp all the way up to Serondela, Wheatfield and the 92 Dog Den. This pride seems to be doing well, except for the absence of 3 of the 13 sub adults normally present.

The increasing lion population can be viewed at: www.sunsafaris.com/mombo.html

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Dominant Lion Prides at Mombo Camp

July 22, 2008 at 1:40 pm · Filed under Lion Prides in Botswana, Lions Prides in Africa ·Tagged , , ,

Our three dominant lion prides have remained the same for the month of June. The largest two prides, the Mathatha and Moporota Prides, have been constant with regards to numbers. The Mathatha Pride is still dominant in the east but have been seen fairly infrequently as they are generally some distance from the camp. The Moporota Pride have moved further to the north of the camp and have also been keeping their distance, meaning that sightings have also been slightly less frequent than usual.

The lions seen most this month have been the Western Pride. This group of lions appears to have made Mombo Camp the heart of their territory and have regularly provided entertainment for guests through the day as well as the night. Between their territorial patrols and buffalo hunts, the pride has been seen in camp regularly this month. Unfortunately they have lost one cub since our last report and the pride is now down to two cubs. The females with manes continue to thrive and the pride dynamics don’t seem to be suffering as a result of this genetic abnormality.

An incredible lion sighting this month involved one of the Moporota Pride females and her three seven month old cubs. She was temporarily split from the rest of the pride and decided to take the opportunity to teach her cubs a lesson or two in hunting. She caught and brought down a young giraffe without killing it. For the next 30 minutes she left it to the cubs to try to kill, occasionally helping out as the giraffe got the better of the cubs. It was a real privilege for all that were there to witness these dramatic events.

The prides Dominance can be viewed at: www.sunsafaris.com/mombo.html

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The Maned lioness at Mombo Camp

July 22, 2008 at 11:48 am · Filed under Lion Prides in Botswana, Lions Prides in Africa ·Tagged , , , , ,

During the late 1990s through until 2002, a rather peculiar lioness and her pride used the immediate vicinity of Mombo camp in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. ‘Martina’, as she was named, was a huge muscular lioness with a mane resembling that of a four year old male lion (pictured at top). The remainder of the pride consisted of another (maneless) lioness and her two cubs. Martina herself was never seen to conceive and give birth to cubs even though she was observed mating on one occasion.

This pride never managed to successfully settle down in the area. This was most likely due to the high density of lions and the intense competition amongst male lions for territorial control. As an apparent young male with a pride, Martina was regularly harassed and hounded by marauding male lion coalitions and eventually left the area, the pride moving to the south and west never to be seen again.

So what caused this genetic abnormality?

Over the years of her presence around Mombo many a debate about her genetic makeup was held at the dinner table and fireside. Was this an expression of gene carried on the x chromosome? Was this merely a freak mutation, never to be seen again? Was this a result of genetic mutation due to intense in-breeding? Was this a recessive gene able to be transferred to offspring?

Whatever the reason, her genetics doomed Martina to reproductive failure and caused her pride to be forced out of the area. By the same token however she was a superb hunter and was not harassed by spotted hyenas as a result of their ‘perception’ that she was an adult male lion.

The mystery was never solved and the story of Martina became history.

A few years later, during the winter of 2005, Alex Mazunga, one of the Mombo guides located a new, previously unknown pride on the western edge of Mombo Island. He notified me on radio and as they had just pulled down a buffalo I was rather excited and responded. On arrival I noticed that they were extremely nervous and definitely unknown to myself and the Mombo guides. We gave them the rather prosaic name of ‘The Western Pride’.

Months passed by and the pride slowly settled down, conducting their hunting and mating activities without being bothered by us. There was absolutely nothing peculiar about the pride and they become regular stars on the Mombo game drives, producing offspring in the summer of 2005/06 and settling down in the immediate vicinity of the camp, focusing on killing buffalo in and around the channel. They have occupied this niche since then, avoiding the territorial conflicts of the larger Moporota and Mathata Prides that have continued over much of 2007/08.

During April of this year Brandon Kemp and I were out on a safari and located the pride snoozing very close to the camp. As per usual I was snapping away. The pride were casually interacting as they were awakening. Something was wrong. Before I could put my finger on it, Brandon said “Hey, did you see that?”

I was stunned! The young ‘male’ lion that had just walked past the land rover sported no obvious male genitalia! ‘It’ settled down next to another lioness facing us. We quickly hauled out the binoculars and noticed that this cat had a small face like a lioness, an apparent large body and a well developed mane of a two to three year old male lion. Wow! How could this have been overlooked in a regularly seen pride for so long? And even more so what was this all about? Just as we were absorbing all of this, we noticed that the other two lionesses had small manes!

The discovery was overwhelming: The potential questions and answers, even more so. Are these lionesses related to Martina, or rather just products of the same circumstances that bred her?

It is impossible at this stage to answer these questions, but we look forward to many more sightings and fireside debates in the years to come.

This strange Lioness has been seen at: www.sunsafaris.com/mombo.html

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