Predator vs Predator Conflict and News

[bob]

This thread collects news and happenings from around the web, for those interested...

and, of course, all the pics and news belong to the rightful owners..

[bob]

o true... It's often hard to find patterns in animal behaviour. A few years ago we saw a lioness under a tree. In the tree there was a big male leopard. The day after we returned and the lioness was still very close to the tree. The leopard also was still there and now we were able to see why the lioness hung around that tree...the body of a lion cub was also hanging in the tree. According to a guide in another car the body was up there already for at least 2 days! So I don't think the leopard wanted to feed on the cub. But competition could not have been the only reason me thinks since in that case the leopard would not have bothered to drag the cub in the tree thus drawing attention of lions...(this was ngorongoro - Tanzania with huge lion density). So why did the leopard drag the cub into the tree? Mother nature's weird twists I suppose...

[bob]

According to Dr Gus Mills the leopard chased the cheetah for 180m before it got to it and killed it, our answer to the question is also that the Cheetah must have been injured for the leopard to get it. We have walked to the tree where the Cheetah was in and did take some pics (don't want to post them as it doesn't look very nice), but the cheetah has literally been eaten up by the leopard and it seems that he didn't just kill it because of competition.

[bob]

the jackal also initially thought there is something wrong with the Bateleur. In line with his opportunistic nature, he went closer to have a look, but the Bateleur puffed himself up and the jackal retreated. Eventually they were drinking side by side. The Bateleur was later joined by its partner and they both flew of.

[bob]

The incredible lion viewing continues and seems to dominate at the present. The rangers found the female leopard, Mambiri, up a tree on an impala kill. After they had positioned the vehicles for a good view, she suddenly became agitated and took off. As she has always been very relaxed with cars, this seemed unusual behaviour for her. The rangers tried to follow her but she hid herself nearby in the long grass of a donga so she was barely visible although still within sight of the kill. Within minutes, the lionesses of the Ximungwe pride began to appear one by one, having picked up the scent of the kill. Mambiri had placed it in the highest branches of the tree.
Female leopard, Mambiri

The guests watched in amazement as one of the younger lionesses climbed up to the first branch and sat precariously, showing little of the leopard’s agility. For about half an hour she growled at the other lionesses below - as for lions possession is nine tenths of the law.

She kept glancing longingly at the kill high above her but everyone except her knew that it was impossibility. Eventually she made a very ungainly descent and one by one, each lioness took her hopeless place.

Last but not least, and, equally unsuccessful, the big male took his turn. As darkness fell, they gave up their desperate quest and Mambiri was able to return and finish off her meal.

[bob]

The Ravens Court Pride has given us exceptional viewing too around Savanna Camp. They have seven cubs left out of the original nine. We are not sure how they lost two but we presume it was to hyena. Early one morning, the Savanna rangers came across the Ravens Court Pride with the big male lion tearing a hyena apart. The screams of pain could be heard from kilometers away and this is what alerted the rangers to the battle. However, as soon as the rangers arrived on the scene, the lions seemed to lose interest and the badly wounded hyena was left lying in the grass. We returned a few hours later to check on the hyena but it was no longer there so we are unaware whether it survived the vicious onslaught or not.


Hyenas are very strong and resilient animals so it is possible that it could recover from these exceptionally bad wounds. While our hyena population seems to have dwindled over the past months, we are now beginning to see more of them at leopard kills. This has included lactating females, an indication that we have a den somewhere close. Those of you who have had the good luck to witness a hyena den with all the young will understand our impatience to locate this one as soon as possible.

[bob]

The Ottawa male, who had been pushed off by the Wallingford male has now made a comeback and he is also putting the Wallingford male’s territory under threat from the Eastern side of our property. There was an amazing incident a few days ago where the Ottawa male killed a warthog in front of our vehicles. The Wallingford male then came to challenge him and a skirmish took place and to crown it all a lioness arrived on the scene, chased both leopards off and stole the kill! This all happened so quickly, leaving our guests awestruck at the exceptional sighting that they had just witnessed.

[bob]

The guests had amazing viewing after the Ximungwe Pride had killed a buffalo, which had become separated from the big herd. The big male lion had already had his fill by the time the rangers arrived on the scene. There were initially four lionesses with six cubs. They were then joined by another two lionesses from the same pride and a further six cubs. At one stage there were nineteen all feeding together. It was extraordinary to see at what an early age lions become aggressive and the snarling and viciousness shown between young and old. One of the cubs was injured in the feeding frenzy and it is believed that its hip was dislocated. Unfortunately, this cub has disappeared and we believe it to be dead. This feast went on for several days. From the beginning a multitude of white backed and hooded vultures took up their positions in the surrounding trees waiting for pickings but soon became bored until only a patient few were left.

The two territorial lions that operate in our area finally met up and clashed. The older male from the North with his greater experience seemingly got the better of the younger better looking male from the South. He has ended up with his first scars, which have finally given his handsome face a bit of character. However, both lions have now made sure that they keep within their territorial boundaries and are quite content to roar at each other from a distance.

[bob]

Leopard viewing is consistently good and a very rare occurrence was seen recently when Shangwa’s cub was on an impala kill. The Ottawa male came in and stole the kill and within minutes was in a tussle with the hyena. What was so unusual was that after the initial growling they then settled down and shared the kill until a second hyena arrived. At this stage the Ottawa male quietly took his leave with one impala leg that the hyena had left behind. We are still waiting for Mkwela to give birth but she still may have a month to go. She is still going out of the reserve and we only hope she does not give birth outside.

The big ugly male leopard has been seen a couple of times recently. He has obviously been in a fight as he has some bad scratches and is in poor condition. We think it was probably the Wallingford male who confronted him when he finally woke up to the fact that some of his females had a new boyfriend.

[bob]

We have had some very bad news concerning the Sand River Pride of lions. With all the recent rain and flooding that we have had, our western fence was washed away in certain places and the Sand River Pride escaped into the tribal areas.

For 5 days, we tried to get them back with no success. They killed several head of cattle and it was believed that they were becoming a danger to the surrounding population.
www.savannalodge.com


As far as we know, most of this pride had to be destroyed. This included the one-eyed female and most of the cubs. This will leave a gap in the Northern part of our property. We can only hope that this will be filled in the near future.

The six new males are still throwing their weight around in our area and a fight ensued between them and the single male. He was quite badly mauled. It is only a matter of time before he will have to move out permanently or be killed. The Ximungwe Pride and the Ravenscourt Pride continue to flourish and the single male within each of these prides will have to watch out when these 6 intruders increase their boundaries.

[bob]

We are sad to pass on the news that 10 of the Sand River Pride lions have been destroyed. The fence could not be mended quickly enough to keep them in the Reserve as they were under pressure from the 6 new males who were constantly tracking them down to establish their dominancy over them. We have had inquiries from many of you as to which pride the Sand River Pride is – a lot of you will remember the One Eyed female who was one of the dominant females within the pride. She was the first to be destroyed. They also had 8 cubs and these too have been destroyed. It is tragic to have lost virtually the whole Pride that we have been viewing for the past 15 years.

[bob]

tarting with lions, we have had exceptionally interesting viewing with the Mpogo establishing themselves as the new dominant males in the area. We mentioned in the last Newsletter about the two females from the Ottawa Pride splitting up. One mated with one of the Mpogo and the other took the cubs to the far corners of the territory for their safety. Unfortunately, this ruse was not effective and the Mpogo found the female with the six cubs. She obviously tried to resist these males to protect her cubs but the dominant male killed and ate her. This is not unusual behaviour during the times when males are establishing themselves within a territory. The remaining female of the Ottawa Pride joined the 6 cubs again and has tried to keep them away from the marauding males. However, there have been several occasions this month when the dominant male has found her, mated with her again and spent many hours chasing the cubs thankfully without ever catching any. The other 5 males, however, did manage to catch a cub a few days ago, killed and ate it.

This was the most bizarre sighting as when the rangers started out on drive in the morning, they heard the commotion of hyena cackling and laughing. They followed up on the sounds and came across a leopard and some lions in a tree ( one female from the Ottaws Pride and 6 cubs) with 10 hyena running around underneath. The hyena had stolen the lions’ kill who had in turn stolen it from the leopard. Five of the Mpogo also followed up on these sounds and chaos erupted when they charged into this sighting. They unfortunately caught a young male cub from the Ottawa Pride. The leopard, the young Makubela female, spent many anxious hours in the tree, while the 5 males savaged the cub below.

[bob]

[bob]

We were privileged to see a clash between two Mpogo fighting over this female. It was awe inspiring to witness the incredible power and strength of these huge male lions and makes one shudder to think of the damage they could do to a human. While they came out limping and bleeding profusely, there was surprisingly little damage done in the grand scheme of things. After the initial skirmish of a few minutes both males were so exhausted that they called a halt and walked off parallel to each other. They then returned for another bout but the paler of the two was definitely the more dominant.

What we find absolutely incredible is that the animals in the wild hold no grudges; this seems to be a human trait. We are adding a photo of the two fighting brothers the following day to show this.

[bob]