About the Author

James Tyrrell

Alumni

James had hardly touched a camera when he came to Londolozi, but his writing skills that complemented his Honours degree in Zoology meant that he was quickly snapped up by the Londolozi blog team. An environment rich in photographers helped him develop the ...

View James's profile

26 Comments

on Lion Update: The Main Players

Join the conversationJoin the conversation

Lions Updates Of Sabi Sands
Guest

Amazing blog, thank you for the updates , also the eyrefield males [ Tsalala & eyrefield male] already mated with one of the southern pride this morning they were found with two of the southern prides females so is more likely that they have the eyes in the southern/selati pride we might see a take over soon.

Ramesh
Guest

What impact are these lions having on the other predators like leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, etc?

James T
Guest

Ramesh we ran a blog a few weeks ago on how we think the hyena population has taken a dive as a result of the Majingilane’s presence.
leopards seem not to be too affected, but cheetahs tend to be outcompeted in an area like the Sabi Sand, where hyenas, lions and leopards are generally plentiful, and as a result there are not many cheetahs in the reserve.

James

Erwin
Guest

Thank you for the update.

Is the Tsalala sub-adult, which is presumed dead, the same sub that was injured and separated in February? She was mauled a second time?

James T
Guest

Hi Erwin,

This is the same female.
We do not know if she was mauled a second time or has simply deteriorated since the first incident…

James

Erwin
Guest

Thanks for replying.

Thanks for the update James !
Hope we will see the Tsalala-subadults again.

One question comes to my mind, when you say “Styx-pride 5 females”. Did that include the very old Styx-matriarch (around 14-15 years old). She was said to struggle with following the pride recently, so I wonder whether she was there. Were there also 2 adolescent females ?

James T
Guest

Hi Patrick,

to be honest, I am completely unfamiliar with the Styx pride and the numbers in the pride.
I do know that one of the other rangers viewed these same lions not far from our north-east corner a few weeks ago and saw the same individuals that we counted above, but i will double check that for you.. The ones we saw moved off relatively soon into long grass to sleep and we could not get a good look at the females to tell their ages…

James

Rosie
Guest

Thanks James, just wondering about you saying there were two sub adult males in the Styx pride as I thought there was only one. There used to be another sub adult male older than this one but he died last year. Gogi and his sister, who is now back with the rest of the pride managed to keep him alive until they both moved back into the Styx pride when she was old enough to mate. Young Mr Styx did ok by himself for a while, but then he got beaten up once too often and died because he could no longer hunt because of his wounds last year. Can you please clarify if there are in fact two sub adult males in the Styx pride now ?

James T
Guest

Hi Rosie,

it certainly looked that way, but it is a pride so rarely seen by us that we aren’t 100% sure of its exact make-up.

James

Lynne Myers
Guest

Hi James,
Glad to hear our cubs are now well fed, though I do think you could have slipped them a steak or two! Briana and I are home and missing you and “Mikey”. Thanks for making our trip so special.

Digital Tracker

Thank you for the updates.. It is always a pleasure to read about the resident lions.

Jill
Guest

I was wondering the same thing as Patrick. The Styx pride should have 4 adults, 4 subs (2 male and 2 femal around the same age) and 3 cubs.

Evette Hartig
Guest

Great update, thank you for taking the time to keep us informed on the Lion families and dynamics at Londolozi

Roy Taback
Guest

Fantastic, marvelous and very impressed

Mike
Guest

thanks alot

Kk
Guest

That is very sad about the Tsalala sub-adult. I guess with just one sub-adult and Bibi being so old, I wonder if the pride will reunite with the 4 breakaways?

I guess the Styx is the 4 females, 4 sub-adults(two males and two females) and three smaller cubs. Though two of the adult females seem to have a limp of some sort.

Ed
Guest

It’s quite a coincidence that the two Tsalala sub-adults have gone missing around the same time Adam left. Are you sure he didn’t take them with him?

Linda
Guest

thats funny 🙂

James, I finally had a chance to read your blog and I am in awe of how much information you put into your “brief” update! Being so far away, and wishing I could be there watching these lions more often, I so appreciate any update at all! Thank you James!

Musti
Guest

Hey James, thank you for your amazing work. I am missing one thing. What about the matimbas and the selatis? I would like to know the interaction between these coalitions and what they are up to. Thank you in advance

Hi Musti,

The Matimba prides territory does not fall onto Londolozi so we do not see them so not too sure of their make up, they are North of us. The Selati pride is to the South of us and I stand to be corrected but we call them the Southern pride and we see them very rarely!

Kindest regards,
Kate

Paul G
Guest

Hi James , saw on facebook that the Majingilane males we involved in a scrap with 4 other males in the area around 20 / 21 March . Do you know of this and would you know who the other 4 boys are . Are the Majingilane’s being tested and could the 4 other boys be testing the water before trying a territorial bid ?

Look forward to your reply .

Regards
Paul . G

James T
Guest

Hi Paul,

I think this may have been a clash with the Selati males in the west. The Selati males used to hang around Londolozi before their takeover of Mapogo territory, but we don’t see them too much anymore as their territory is predominantly far west of our boundary.
From what I heard there was a lot of roaring and moving around in this scrap, but no actual fighting.

I’ll look into it.

James

Avalon
Guest

Hello james so are all of the Mapogo males gone cause i was doing a little wondering because i k ow they clashed with the big 4 Males

Jason
Guest

I think solo and the eyrefield male wont be able to be the dominant male’s in the KNP male territory as the lone KNP male had no problems confronting the 3 sand river male’s and mouling 2 of the male’s with the help of the southern female’s the 3 sand river male’s were chase off. Any update’s on this confrontion would be great as I have been a keen follower of the KNP male, since he lost he’s brother awhile ago?
cheers

Connect with Londolozi

Follow Us

One moment...
Anonymous
Be the first to this photo
You and 1 others this photo
q

Filed under
Anonymous
10 April, 2798
+
Add Profile