Over the last few weeks we have witnessed some amazing interaction between our lion pride, the Southern pride, and the Kruger males.

The pride managed to pull down a buffalo about a week ago and spent a few days lying up on some large sodic sites in our southern section.

The buffalo didn’t last very long, as there are 16 mouths to feed and with the adult females being able to scoff 30 kilograms of meat each in one sitting there was little to pick off for the vultures by day 2.

With a week of rain and no offroading allowed we were happy to find them lying out in the open most of the time still digesting the buffalo. On one afternoon as we headed south again to find the lions, we were surprised to see that the Kruger males had joined them.

They were laying a little way off from the females but they looked to have no bad intentions. The cubs were a little on edge with the presence of the males and every time the males moved eight little heads would lift up and make sure there was no danger.

One of the females got up and slowly made her way over to the male and instead of rubbing heads as lions will do to strengthen social bonds she gave him a swat with her paw and then lay down next to him. He did not retaliate and there was an uneasy tension between the two as they lay a few metres apart. He kept licking a new open would on his nose from the swat and then flopped back down to sleep.

The males have since stayed with the pride for the last three days without incident. It almost seems as though they are slowly wearing the females down and may just win the fight to become the pride males. It all depends how they handle themselves around the cubs because the females will not tolerate them being around if they pose a danger to their offspring. I am completely engrossed in the story of these amazing lions and look forward to keeping everyone informed as to their progress. We watched last night as they all went to enjoy a drink before setting off on their evening hunt. What a sight to see so many lions all lined up along the waters edge lapping away at the water.