The Takeover

As the seasons change so do the dynamics of the animals, in this case the lions.

Over the last few months, we have the Maputo coalitions ruling the northern sections of the Singita concession which has been promising, with the very relaxed Maputo male joining up with a more shy, older male who has come across from Mozambique. With time spent in the presence of the confident resident male, the new male grew more relaxed with our presence with each sighting we had of him.

With these two males taking charge of the western territories, this meant the gradual settling down of the Chava Pride of females. Named with the Shangaan word for “fearful or scared” the pride was still a bit nervous around the vehicles but started to move further and further east into our concession from the Kruger National Park. In the presence of the two big Maputo males and with more exposure to the vehicles, not only were they settling more within the Singita area, but they grew more accustomed to being viewed in the game viewers, and were no longer running away as their confidence grew quickly, and soon it seemed their pride would grow too. The region of the concession that the pride has moved into has shown a low density of lions recently, so it was great for us as their occurrence in the area increases our chance of potentially view more lion prides.

This was all so exciting for a short while until the arrival of the Sonop / H6 males threw a spanner in the works. In the first week of August 2024 there was a report of four big male lions making their way down the border of our concession and the Kruger National Park. At this time of the year its incredibly dry and water is very scarce so the brief visual of new lions is not uncommon, but what happened next was a bit of a shock…

For the last three weeks these males have made their way further and further east into the concession pushing away any other male lion anywhere close to where they are. Almost overnight these males have taken over, vocalizing and scent marking with every step further east.

With no recent sign of either of the Maputo males we can only assume that they have either been killed in combat or chased away by these strong, young males which would not only out-compete but also out-number the smaller Maputo coalition. What makes it strange is that there have been no signs of the Maputo males at all for the last few weeks, almost as if they knew that their reign was over and for their own safety moved as far away as they could, as quickly as possible.

As intimidating as these lions are, it’s a blessing in disguise for us. With the presence and the power that a coalition of four male lions brings with them, it could mean that there is a chance for a stable dominant coalition in the northern section of the concession allowing the prides of females, especially the Chava Pride, to truly settle down, have cubs and establish the northern sector as their territory. These new males could potentially allow them to establish a huge area as their territory which will allow for their strong genetics to spread as far as they can, strengthening the prides of the Singita Kruger National Park.