The lonely roars of the Tsalala lioness have been emanating from the Sand River a lot recently.
I use “lonely” in the acceptance that it is a human construct, and one can’t know for sure what that lioness is feeling, but knowing her situation one can’t help but empathise in some way with her plight. Without any companionship whatsoever, a social animal like a lion must surely experience some kind of negative emotion; again, emotion is a word I hesitate to use. But surely emotion isn’t limited purely to the human species.
Anyway, my point is that the lioness’s isolation continues to persist. The Ntsevu pride to the south-east, the Mhangeni females to the west, the Styx pride to the north-east… She is essentially boxed in. Leaving aside her prospects of joining a pride, I want to briefly touch on the male dynamics in the area and how they pertain to her.
Although the Birmingham males continue to concentrate their movements on and around the Ntsevu females, there have nevertheless been one or two forays made by one of the males in particular into Londolozi’s central reaches, into the heart of where the Tsalala lioness has been spending her time. Ironically it is the same male who killed the Tsalala sub-adult last year, yet he could be the best way for the current Tsalala female to prolong her tenuous hold on Londolozi’s northern parts.
This male has been seen more than once sniffing around the Sand River to the west of the Londolozi camps, most likely looking for the single Tsalala female.
Although a lone Ottawa male has been found moving through Londolozi’s northern sector a few times in the past weeks, he isn’t likely to pose a real threat to any neighbouring coalition, being only 3 1/2 years old at the moment. Whilst the romantic idea of this single male joining with the lone Tsalala female is the kind of stuff Hollywood stories are made of, the reality is that for both of them, a there is only the slightest chance of a happy ending. I’m not trying to be a naysayer here, I’m simply stating fact. For a single male, taking over a territory is an unlikely prospect, when coalitions of three, four or five might be your competition. And likewise for the lioness; her only real hope is to join another pride. To fall pregnant and raise cubs by herself – essentially starting a new pride from scratch – might be a bridge too far. Which isn’t to say it can’t happen, we’re just saying it’s unlikely.
Be that as it may, the Birmingham males have still been sniffing around.
Well, at least one of them has. And should this lone female have any chance of maintaining territory in which to possibly raise cubs, her best bet would to be come under the umbrella protection of a large territorial coalition like the Birminghams. Whether or not a lone lioness is enough reason for them to expand even slightly remains to be seen, but my guess is no. The male who seemed to be searching for her recently was displaying the flehmen grimace regularly; what he discovered we can’t be sure, but if the lioness had been in oestrus it is likely the male would have sought her out more actively, rather than disappearing back to the Ntsevu pride later that night like he did.
The whole Tsalala saga is currently in a bit of a stalemate, with the lioness having occasional run-ins with the Ntsevu females downstream from the Londolozi camps, killing the odd nyala, but not really making progress in any particular direction. She seems to be in perfect health and is feeding regularly, yet hasn’t looked like producing cubs. This last bit is the key factor. With not every mating bout between lions resulting in the female falling pregnant, there needs to be consistent interaction between the female and a male – any male – for there to be a chance of her bearing a litter.
And unfortunately, while the Birmingham males continue to remain firmly entrenched with the Ntsevu females and their current three litters of cubs, it seems as though these males aren’t destined to be the Tsalala female’s answer. At least not for now.
I still hope the Tsalala female will join a pride maybe to the north. If this scenario can happen will she leave the Sand river and move north with a new pride?
Hi Marinda. Hard to say. The Sand River is prime territory so I imagine a new pride would try to incorporate it into their territory.
Thankfully she is still ok, it would be wonderful if she could have cubs and keep the legacy of the Tsalala pride going ??
Hoping for the long shot and a happy ending for all
Hi Andrew and Daniel,
I think we all are…!
Unbelievably majestic. Thank you for sharing these powerful visuals.
While every blog is interesting and all the images are wonderful, just curious why some have metadata and some don’t.
Hi Jeff,
We tend to stick the metadata on the purely photographic posts.
Best,
James
It’s another thought provoking post from you James. Lions tend to be much more social than their other feline counterparts, yet I’ve concluded, perhaps erroneously, that like high school cliques are formed, so lions form their own. I suspect that because the Tsalala lioness has been on her own for awhile, it would be difficult for her to join any other pride, although if she had cubs, she might be more acceptable to the group. If not, then raising cubs alone could be an impossible task.
In her case perhaps the feminist attitude of “a woman with a man is like a fish without a bicycle “ will continue to work for her. She’s obviously eating and healthy so……….we’ll wait for the next chapter.
Hello James, thanks for the update. Do you have any idea what happened to the missing Birmingham Male Lion, Mfumo? No one seems to know what has happened to him, apparently he’s not been seen in months.
Poor girl. One can only speculate, but I continue to worry for her. Thanks James for the continued update.
Is there ever a quiet period for the Londolozi lion dynamics?!
Lone lionesses have recorded raising cubs by themselves before, so it’s impossible that the Tsalala Female could pull it off.
Hi James,
Thanks for the awesome awesome photos and stories you share here! Could it be possible for the female to be barren? If so would the male lions ever be able to sense that? Would the male lions be able to sense that and if so would they just keep mating with her and leave her be or would they do something drastic like kill her?
Hi Tina,
This would certainly be possible. It’s a very good question actually, as I remember there were reports of one of the Mapogo killing a lioness that was suspected of being barren.
The males would most likely be able to detect this through pheromones in the females’ urine.
Do you have any idea what happened to the missing Birmingham Male Lion, Mfumo? He died?
Hi Danilo,
We don’t know offhand but if we find out we’ll let you know. Yes sadly he is presumed dead.
Regards