There will be obstacles, there will be doubters, there will be mistakes, but with hard work, there are no limits.

The two Fourways males have been doing so well in taking over the Southern Pride, they even showed how good they can be for the pride in killing buffalo almost every week. It really was great to see the females enjoying the presence of the two males.

Their confidence grew day by day and it was almost a definite that they were going to father the new cubs, they eventually got to mate with all the females which meant the females were supposed to have cubs in about 110 days, but after a month or two most of the females were not showing any signs of being pregnant and some did. Were some of the females nervous and went into a false oestrus making the males believe that they were ready to mate with?! Looks like some of the females were waiting to make sure that the two males were there to stay and capable of protecting the territory and cubs, luckily so because it wasn’t long before we heard the distinct call of two males coming from the far east - this could only be the two Charleston males.

Days went by where we didn’t see the two Fourways males and then we found them one morning both with bad scars on their back legs and one male with a bad bite mark on his spine. Could it be that they had a run in with the Charleston males for the first time and were lucky to escape? “Only time will tell”.

Again weeks went by and no sign of the Charleston males, they probably were not ready yet to come in for a takeover and felt responsible to look after their aunt and their two cousins who only turned a few months old the other day.

As the days progressed we were shocked one morning when we came across a sighting which blew everyone’s minds, it was the Kruger male, Solo, orange-eyed Fourways male and a few of the Southern Pride females all on a buffalo carcass.

Could it have been that Solo and the Kruger male didn’t see the Fourways male as a threat and let him be? The other Fourways male was still mating with one of the Southern Pride females and maybe had no clue what his partner was up to. The next day everything was back to normal again – the two Fourways males were back together and Solo and the Kruger male went far north to boundaries they have never been in together before. It wasn’t long before Solo came back alone and we received the worst possible news that Solo and the Kruger male had a run in with the Charleston males and the Kruger male came off second best. With the passing of the Kruger male, Solo made his way back south into the Kruger National Park calling every now and then hoping that the Kruger male was still around. The only thing Solo found was the one young Sparta male who had no interest in getting close to Solo - maybe Solo’s sheer body size scared him and maybe Solo is already looking for a new mate.

With the Charleston males full of confidence after they killed the Kruger male, the time seemed right for them to push west and south into the heart of the Fourways males’ territory. They came in with a bang, scent marking from the word go. The Charleston’s were first seen with the one older female in the pride which caused tension between the two brothers already. The dark maned male decided to let his brother be and went back east as there was no sign of the Fourways males anywhere. Eventually one morning we were tracking the Charleston male and Southern Pride female, and when we eventually found them, we came across all five females and one Charleston male with the two Fourways males not too far away. The bigger of the Fourways males looked like he was stalking the Charleston male and got to about 40 meters from him when all of a sudden the females and the Charleston had a bit of a rumble which sent the Fourways male running for the hills. That was the one opportunity the Fourways males had to take on the Charleston male as his brother was a long way away from them, instead they took the easy road out and ran! This was a clear sign that they are not fit for these females and that the Charleston males are the right males for them and that they would stand their ground against anyone.

Since that encounter we have not seen the Fourways males for at least 11 days now. Was this the final take over from the Charleston males? Let’s see what happens in the coming weeks...