The Mombo lion population is believed to be one of the highest in the country and has been increased by three new cubs from one of the Western Pride females. These female has been sighted taking down warthogs and young giraffes in more or less same area and this made the guides curious since they noticed that she was nursing cubs. They started monitoring her movements and eventually found her cubs hidden on a palm island.
The Mathata Pride, the biggest in the area, has been seen only 14 times compared to Maporota (the second biggest pride) which was recorded on 23 different game drives! The Western Pride tends to confine its movements along the channel which runs past the western side of the camp. Unknown lions were also recorded around the Moporota floodplain. In total the guides saw an average of 52 individual lions on the drives conducted this month.
One of the highlights recorded from the Main Camp deck was that of an unidentified lioness which made a red lechwe kill on the plains in front of the lodge and almost lost it to crocodiles who played a tug of war with her, until she decided to drag her kill further away from the water. Almost every guest saw part of this breathtaking sight.
Hyaena are still found in good numbers on Mombo Island and have been seen interacting with lion on several occasions – sometimes taking risks which get them killed
Mombo Island had as many as 72 lion sightings this month. This came about from a good number of prides being located over and above the two main prides, the Maporota and the Mathata. The prides include the Wailer and the Piajo (2 males, 2 females and 3 sub adults) Prides mainly found in the Simbira area. The Sticknyao Males patronised the Baobab Roost and the Maporata Road areas and were mainly found mating with various females and the Boro Pride of 11 animals was seen feeding on a tsessebe in the middle Boro area. The Mathata Pride is still in the area and on one occasion was found feeding on a zebra kill when an elephant came in and chased this pride of more than 20 off the kill. The Maporota Pride has also been seen a good number of times and amongst them is an injured female.
These lion Prides & more can be viewed at: www.sunsafaris.com/mombo.html
