Few, if any prides at Londolozi carry with them the same sense of longing for success as the Tsalala Pride does. The history of the Tsalala Pride is steeped with trials and tribulations, heartbreak and sorrow, yet success and resilience. The future of the pride depends solely on the last remaining lioness. This feat would see her follow in the footsteps of some of the most iconic lionesses that have graced the Londolozi landscape over the last 25 years. So what is going on with this lioness?

The Tsalala Female rests on one of the many granite boulders in the Sand River.

She is only a few months short of five years old and although she would’ve reached sexual maturity somewhere between the age of three and four she has not yet had any litters of her own. It has been just over two years since her mother was killed and she has continued to use the Sand River as the core of her territory much like she learnt from her late mother. This has boded very well for her as the likelihood of her encountering other prides of lions in and around this area is somewhat limited.

The Tsalala Female when she was still a young cub crossed the causeway with her late mother.

For the past 18 months, we have heard her roar early in the mornings and evenings in an attempt to find one of the dominant males in the area. Her territory along the river sits right on the boundary of a few different coalitions of males. To her east, the two Ndzhenga Males hold a large territory. To the north are the two Black Dam Males. To the west, she has the possibility of encountering either the lone Skorro Male or the two believed to be responsible for killing her mother, the Plains Camp Males.

The Ranger and Tracker teams at Londolozi have been waiting with bated breath for the day that we come across the Tsalala Female in the company of one of these males. This day eventually arrived at the beginning of November. While setting out early one morning we found tracks of a male and female lion which ultimately led us to find the Tsalala Female with the Skorro Male close behind her.

Lion Reproduction & Courtship

The courtship of lions lasts for around five days and mating will happen every 15-20 minutes. It is usually only on the fourth day that ovulation actually occurs. One of the theories around this necessity is that the female wants to ensure that this is indeed a dominant male. If he isn’t she could be wasting valuable time and energy in raising cubs that will most likely be killed by other males that are in fact the real dominant males in the area. If the male is not the dominant force to be reckoned with, the noise of the mating will attract the attention of the true dominant males, ultimately leading to them chasing off the intruder.

The Tsalala Female and the Skorro Male were seen together early one morning.

It would, however, be in the Tsalala Female’s best interest to try to mate with as many of the previously mentioned coalitions given that her territory sits right between their territories. This would mean that if once she has cubs and she happens to encounter any of these coalitions they won’t be able to be sure that they are in fact the fathers or not thus giving her the best opportunity to raise her first litter successfully.

Over the course of 4-5 days, the Tsalala Female and Skorro Male were seen mating.

The Tsalala Lineage

The mother of the current Tsalala lioness was also a single mother who raised her daughter to an age where she could fend for herself. This was repeating the feat achieved by the Original Tailless Female all the way back in 2002 when she too raised a single cub alone. Lions are the only strictly social cats and they benefit from having multiple females in a pride to all share the responsibilities of raising their young. A pride of lions have a far better success rate at hunting in numbers than they do alone yet this pride has continued to defy the odds time and time again.

A view we are hoping to see again someday soon where the Tsalala female, seen here as just a cub, has her own litter of cubs.

To our knowledge up until this point she has only mated with the Skorro Male but as she is a fairly elusive female and we sometimes go a few weeks without seeing her there is a chance that she has already been mating with some of the other males. Either way, it is an exciting prospect that in the next three or so months, we could see the Tsalala Pride start taking its first steps in returning to its former glory. If you’ve been lucky enough to see the Tsalala Pride on any of your previous trips to Londolozi I am sure you’re equally as invested in seeing this young female successfully raise the next generation of Tsalala Cubs.