Who's your daddy?

Tensions running high - Majingilan male

My radio cackled into life - "Two Ottawa sub-adults located to the east of Incala, north of Dumphries". Lions, brilliant. The arrival and take-over by the Majingilan males in early 2015 bought chaos to our western sector, scattering our resident males and sending the two prides running in every which direction. Many bitter-a-battle later, the Selati males are no more, the three Ottawa females have lost 6 of 8 of their cubs, and the Ximungwe pride are an adult female and one cub down, leaving two adult females and 5 cubs. When male lions take over a new territory, it is typical for them to kill any existing cubs so as to induce the females to mate again and to remove the gene pool of the ousted males. Avoidance tactics are generally deployed by the females, sending one adult female to mate & distract the males, and the other females to get as far as possible to keep the cubs out of sight and safe. The Ximungwe pride, who have a traumatic history when it comes to male take-overs, have been far more successful than the Ottawas at keeping their 5 remaining cubs alive. The Ottawas on the other hand, who historically have spent far more time with males as a whole pride, have not done as well. Thus we've all been waiting, baited breath, to see the outcome. It is broadly understood that if the females can protect their cubs until at least 2-2.5 yrs old, they will be safe from the males, as they resemble adults as opposed to cubs. 

Eleven months into the take-over, the Ximungwe pride are continuing their use of aversion tactics, and doing well as a result. The Ottawas have been less predictable, often leaving their two remaining cubs alone for extended periods of time. On one such occasion, the two Ottawa sub adults were located, so we went to have a look, keen to see how the sub adults were doing. What we saw when we got there though, was not just two cubs. Out of the bushes, one at a time, emerged the three adult females, and behind them, one Majingilan male. This was the first time we had seen an adult male with the pride in 11 months, so we were all on edge about how he was going to behave with the cubs. On seeing him, the young male got up and limped away, a sign that perhaps this wasn't their first meeting of the day. The Majingilan male stopped short of the rest of the pride and lay a little way off, but in the half an hour that we were there inched closer and closer all the time. Accompanied by those deep, rumbling growls, from both male and females, the situation was tense. As if on que, one adult female and the young male cub got up at the same time to move off, and the Majingilan lept up with a roar, high on his back legs and took a swipe at the younger male. Mom intervened, fighting fiercely for her boy. It was all over in seconds, the Majingilan well and truly beat, cut on the eyebrow and all, and mom and son moved away to lie with the rest of the pride. Nothing else happened after that, they all fell asleep and we were left feeling all together quite puzzled by the interaction. One thing we did notice however was that one of the females had a very large belly and extended nipples, a clear sign that she could in fact be pregnant, explaining their acceptance of the male. 

Majingilan male creeping forward, inch at a time

Keen to see how the little male was surviving against the beast, we followed up on the pride the next evening, to find them all present, and very much still together with the Majingilan male. Although he was still lying separate from the rest of the pride, he still moved when they did. Tensions were clearly still high, though it seemed that relations had settled, if just a little bit. Fingers crossed for the young male, watch this space for further update on him and possible news of new cubs for the pride. 

On a mission

Majingilan male with the Ottawa pride - my first time to see them together in 11 months

Other encounters...a Majingilan male with a Ximungwe female

Attention-averting tactics - a Ximungwe female showing just enough interest to keep the male from going elsewhere, but not co-operating with mating at all!

The circle of Scavengers

Circling vultures overhead is not an an unusual occurrence in the lowveld. But when they put their landing gear out and dive down to the ground, you know there is something there worth checking out. 

We arrived at the "scene of the crime" to a mass of vultures, some perched in the trees, others hoping on the ground,  and then we saw it; a hyge male kudu carcass, with a lonely hyena guarding it like his life depended on it. As we watched,  a battle waged between the hyena and the vultures,  who outnumbered him about 50 to 1...and that was just on the ground. With the hyena head down and gorging himself, the vultures kept creeping forward closer and closer, until they got to the point they could have a nibble, only for the feeding hyena to leap up and chase them all away. We watched this play out about 10 times over, with new vultures landing every few minutes to get in on the action.  The hyena must have thought enough was enough though and eventually sulked off, but not without taking a final vicious snap and swipe at the vultures.  

The vultures couldn't believe their luck at his departure and before we could even blink, they mobbed the carcass to the point where we could see nothing but feathers and hear nothing but squabbling. 

Their joy didn't last long though, because less then a minute after the hyena left, a young male leopard, the Torchwood male, darted out of the bushes towards the carcass. A second round of hysteria errupted with vultures scattering in all directions, leaving us ducking and diving around in the car to avoid a talon in the eye. Now clear of vultures (who as it turns out has huge respect for leopards and none for hyenas), Torchwood tucked in happily to the meat, similarly joyous with his find. 

Things in the bush have a tendency to swing in round-abouts though - another 5 minutes later we spotted not one, but three hyenas, jogging back towards the carcass. At the last minute, Torchwood spotted them, and darted up the Marula tree, under which the carcass was lying. Hissing and snarling at the hyenas below (who had now well and truly taken over the carcass again), Torchwood eventually settled up in the tree, realising he may be in for a long wait. The vultures on the other hand began their approach again, very pleased with the new turn of events.