I can’t remember when a portion of the Styx Pride was last seen at Londolozi. It certainly has not been this year…
3 members of this pride are currently in the center of Londolozi trailing a large herd of buffalo. Their movements are slowly and hesitant: they are in the middle of a difficult away game…this is far out of their territory! It appears that they are being led by a young lioness; the remaining two lions keep looking over their backs as if expecting to be chased at any moment.
The one lion is a young male who has obviously been attacked and is currently nursing some nasty looking, yet seemingly superficial wounds. The eldest female, with a very distinctive cut/damaged right ear appears to be lactating. Her movements are heavy and all three are showing signs of troubled times to the east of our border. Although we can only guess, at this stage, what has happened, it is very exciting to see some new faces in town!
The wounded male by Adam Bannister
We await to see if they are merely passing through or whether this is the beginning of a more concerted effort to move their borders westwards. Feel free to comment if you have had any experiences with the Styx Pride…
Lioness with distinctive ear by Adam Bannister
Written and photographed by Adam Bannister
Hi Adam , you know this appearance is not exactly a surprise … In fact those Styx members are togheter from long time since the Majingilanes took control over their teritory . They were the last who surrendered and I thought it will be with happy end… After many months the young lioness was accepted by Majingilanes and they mated. I think the young male is the reason why took choice to move further of their area . There is a strong bond between this three lions , the Styx male was injured after a fight with Majingilane – he bring down a buffalo by himself and was descovered by one of Majingilanes . He didn’t run and remained with one Majingilane in order to feed togheter from buffalo. It’s not first time when he challenged Majingilane if you can beleive – a very bold and powerful young male . When the other 3 Majingilanes arrived he was attacked and injured and he was very lucky to have his sister and grandmother by his side.
Great to see them! The poor Styx male has been a bit beaten up by the Majingilanes/Manyeleti males but he held his own and was seen feeding beside one of them at one time, but we all knew the big guys wouldn’t tolerate it for too long. Glad they have moved on.
I hope that once again will be a big pack of lions. I wish them ! ♥♥♥
Adam, what a wonderful story on these lions!
Great pictures! I truly loved the beautiful
shots that you’ve taken!
I’m so glad to see that Grandma Styx and the sub adult male and female managed to get back together again. The Styx boy had another run in with the Majingilanes which is why he has injuries, it’s funny, sometimes they tolerate him and other times they beat him up, but his sister and Grandma Styx always look after him. Both Grandma and his sister have been mating with the Majings lately to keep them away from the boy, even though the sister hated them for a long time as they killed and ate her sister. I wonder if they will ever get back together with the adult Styx girls, haven’t seen them all together since last year on Wildearth at Djuma.
It seems like these 3 lions have a serious amount of drama attached to them! Its wonderful reading all these comments about the lions, including all the facebook comments. It really gives us at Londolozi a better understanding of pride dynamics that occur outside our known area. Keep the comments coming…
Rosie I can tell you that all 4 Styx lionesses + 4 cubs were seen togheter aproximately 2 weeks ago , and indeed that is first time in many months .
We found these 3 lions again this morning. This time in Marthly near our northern boundry on a fresh impala kill which they devoured in minutes. The sub adult male looks to be in a bit of pain, particularly when getting up or sitting down.
James let’s be optimistic , maybe young Styx male could have a meeting with Sparta youg males and make a coalition …. Please , do you know something about injured Sparta male – is he still alive ?
These 3 were in Djuma yesterday, we saw them on Wildearth Safari tv online, the young male looked fine, if a little thin, his sister and Grandma Styx were looking very fit and well .
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