Matetsi Pride

What an amazing sighting of the Matetsi Lions this morning! What appeared to be just an sunrise encounter with the lioness and her cubs at Bore-hole 16 by Safari Camp ended up being a movie. Whilst we were still watching the 5, two young males emerged from behind us. Even though they were approaching from far we could see that they meant big business since they came running at full speed. At that very moment the cubs, especially the male became very restless and we could see he was in a panicy situation. The sister cubs couraged it out and moved forward until they were very close to the two males but as the confrontation was just about to occur, the cubs turned and ran away with the male cub in company. We watched these challenges for about 10 minutes and could not get answers to what was really transpiring. While we were still watching, we suddenely heard roars of several other lions in the Southern direction. Within another 15 minutes another 4 male lions joined in the war game. We raelized that no mating took place confirming that the mother of 4 is already pregnant but the unwanted element is her male cub. The big males must be sensing that the male cub is a threat to their genes in the in the future since he will represent the black maned lion who used to be dominant in the area and presumably fathered him. The big males chased the male cub around but failed to catch him. Later during the afternoon game-drive, we located the lions again but at two different sites. One big male who must have mated with the lioness still hanged around with her and the cubs at the Westwood vlei while the other 5 males stayed up the sand dune on Ridge Road. All seemed very peaceful on both sides, not knowing what will happen in the dark hours of the night. Nature will sort itself out. There is all the reasons to believe that this is but a process of conflict resolution which intends to bring sanity in the formation of a very resident pride of lions at Matetsi other than the nomadic behavior of the past.

Posted: Matetsi by Peter Gava, Date: 23 August 2007