Safari Blog

With sorrow and sadness, we would like to announce the death of one of the legendary 'Duba Boys'. He died after a long sickness that was caused by an attack from the elegant male from the neighboring territory - the 'Skimmer Male'. This happened at the end of the first week of November 2007. The Skimmer Male had always challenged the Duba Boys, but had always been circumspect and cautious in terms of timing and location. On this occasion however he pushed home his attack. The Duba Boy was found by the guides the next morning and had a badly injured eye. Later, the Skimmer Male was located in the area and brazenly stayed in the vicinity area for the following two weeks mating with the 'Tsaro Pride' lionesses. This was not the first time it had happened, but was the longest he had ever stayed in the area. In addition he also attacked the second Duba Boy about five days later, on this occasion not inflicting any serious wounds but clearly winning the conflict over one of the sexually receptive Tsaro lionesses. He then continued to enjoy the Duba Boys territory and mating rights for a further week with no attempt to eject him made by the Duba Boys.

During this period the two Duba Boys gave the Skimmer Male and the Tsaro Pride a wide berth, especially the injured male who in fact became very elusive. The fact that he did not associate with the pride and did not hunt for himself as a result of his injuries caused a rapid decline in condition and deterioration in health. He completely lost the healthy and intimidating physique he had became known for.

On the 28th of December, this male was seen by the guides out on game drive. Most of the guides and guests, including multi-repeat guest Iva Spitzer, agreed that it was likely that if he did not feed during the night that he would breathe his last. This turned out to be true.

James was on game drive on the morning of the 29th when he saw some vultures soaring along Letlalo Road. As usual he investigated and was devastated to find the late Duba Boy. It is fitting that he was killed by the buffalos he had hunted for most of his adult life. The area looked like a battle field. The bush was trashed, the grass was trampled and the dead Duba Boy had a gash from the chest down to the belly from the horn of his final adversary.

HISTORY
The Duba Boys have been in the area since the year 1996, when Duba Plains opened. They were the sons to a male lion called 'Stick', who was dominant in the area at that time. He was then chased out of his territory by another male called 'Squinty' towards the end of 1996. Squinty became dominant in the area up until 1999 when the two Duba Boys proved mature enough for dominancy and usurped his position, ruling over this area since this time. It remains to be seen how long the remaining brother will be able to hold onto the prize?

Below is the latest from the lions at Duba Plains in Botswana.

As usual, the Tsaro Pride has continued to provide the majority of the lion sightings this month. They still consist of nine adult females, a juvenile female cub and the sub-adult male ('Junior'). The poor breeding success rate continues with about 8 cubs killed in the last two to three months. 'Silver Eye', the lioness generally thought to be responsible for much of this mortality, lost her own litter recently. The pride continues to be in three different divisions at the moment, although these distinct groupings do regularly join up to hunt and feed. They have also hunted successfully on their own however, although one of the females is carrying an injury to the back leg that was caused by a buffalo. She ('Junior's' mother) recovered quickly however and two days later was seen actively involved in a successful hunt. 'Junior' has already started to be harassed a bit by his fathers the ageing 'Duba Boys'. This typical inter-male aggression has been witnessed a lot at feeding points.

We have long debated the likelihood of the Duba Boys being supplanted as the territorial males of the area, and it now seems as though this inevitability is not far off. Since the beginning of the month the single Skimmer Male, that for the past few months has been making increasing incursions into the area, has actually made his intentions very clear. Over the past two weeks this male has attacked the Duba Boys one after the other, leaving both of them with severe injuries. The first one was attacked around the first week of the month, resulting in bad injuries around the eye that has now been swollen since then. The condition of this male has dropped quite dramatically and for three weeks now could be described as being in bad physiological condition with his whole body showing signs of age and decline: the pelvic bones are more pronounced, most of the body seems more angular and less robust, even the tail is looking emaciated and in general his whole body really appears shrunken. The second male appears to have been attacked just a day or so ago. This male has been looking far better than his coalition partner but on this occasion he had also apparently been involved in a fight and had severe injuries mainly on the leg which appeared to be fractured, he was badly limping as well.

The Skimmer Male - also seen with minor bruises and gashes to the face - has not wasted his time and has been seen on several occasions (always pretty relaxed considering he is in the core of the territory of the Duba Boys) mating with one of the Tsaro Pride lionesses. Apparently he is now mating with a second lioness that had been mating with the Duba Boy a day before the fight. The following morning he was seen with this lioness having obviously fought over the mating rights with the second Duba Boy. In contrast to the relaxed attitude of the Skimmer Male, the two Duba boys have been lying low and have been pretty elusive. We are all looking forward to see the outcome?

The latest camp newsletter from Duba Plains and the Tsaro and Skimmer prides:

The two Duba Boys, estimated at just over 16 years, are still doing very well at the moment. One of them has been seen limping quite badly and there was a period of a week this month when he was not seen at all; apparently this is an old injury from few years ago caused by a buffalo horn. This male reappeared but in pretty poor condition. Their longevity has amazed most of our repeat guests who did not expect to see them still alive! Although there is a slight evidence of deterioration on their bodies, age is only slowly working on them. The Duba Boys have been holding the dominancy in the area for about ten years now which has been aided by two main factors: they have an excellent prey base in the buffalo herd and have not had threats or challenges from other males for a long time. This has assured stability in the area so far. There was a time when we were all anticipating a challenge from the five males from the Skimmer Pride (in the neighboring territory) once they left their natal pride. It now seems like they have gone in a completely different direction, because it has been more than six months since seeing them at all. This in a way is against what we were hoping for as attached to the Duba Boys as we are. It is imperative for successful genetic breeding that a new generation of males takes over the territory in the near future.

Junior (the two year old male with the Tsaro Pride), has provided his own surprises to both the guides and guests. He seems much bigger in size compared with what is expected for his age. In September he made his second solo kill (after a first in August). With his eagerness to initiate hunts (doing it the right way now), he is proving himself a valuable and useful member of the pride. However, he seems to have also developed a penchant for initiating fights within the pride and recently scrapped with the silver eyed lioness who he appears to target specifically. Junior is now a big lion who no longer tucks in his tale and retreats when being growled at by the Duba Boys. He has been seen growling back, and 2 days ago he took one of the boys on in a severe fight that lasted about a minute without him giving up - rather the Duba Boy did ? interesting times and a bit of a turn up for the books?

The young female cub in the Tsaro Pride (9 months) is also still continuing to participate a lot in hunting, after being missed by the swinging horns of a buff last month. This time she was taken on a several meters chase by an old dagga boy (buffalo bull) - had she not made a quick decision to escape into the palm island the whole thing would have ended in disaster. The silver eyed lioness has cubs at the moment, though her offspring have still not been seen.

The rest of the Tsaro Pride is doing very well and are in good shape at the moment with three major groupings being seen on a consistent basis: 2 females and junior; 2 females and the 9 months old female cub; 'Silver Eye' mostly alone due to her having the cubs and meeting up with the others only when hunting and feeding. There has been substantial conflict between the lionesses on the carcasses - a new and unprecedented development in the pride and one that we shall continue to watch with interest.

The Skimmer Male that was in the Duba Boys and Tsaro Pride territory last month has again appeared in the area this September. This time he did not spend his time just wandering around and made good use of the incursion ? he was caught in action mating with one of the Tsaro females for a very good period of 3 to 4 days! This incident happened along Molapo Road, which is the territorial boundary of the two prides. After mating, he disappeared for a while, and then came back into the area, and walked a distance of 7km (about 4 miles) into the Tsaro Pride territory, all the way up to Kabole Pan which is just after the bridge. This means he pushed way into the territory of the Duba Boys and was not looking settled at all (as he was aware of what will happen if the Duba boys come across him), leaving the next day for safer ground.

As I mentioned above,interesting times

At SUNSAFARIS we love the lions from Duba Plains in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Read the latest update from the camp below.

The buffalo herd is still in good condition despite the dryness of the grass. In August, as a result of the buffalo herd spending most of the time in our prime game drive this month, the interaction between the Tsaro Pride and the buffalo herd seemed to have dominated most sightings. We have also been able to cover most of the area as the water has receded a lot. The area along Tswene Road west of the bridge has not been accessed in the last four months due to the water level being very high for example. Recently the Tsaro Pride led the game drive vehicles on this road following the herd (the lioness posing for the picture is the Silver Eyed Female about five minutes before taking down a buffalo cow on the edge of this floodplain).

The Tsaro pride has been very successful this month. We have been seeing more interaction, resulting in 7 buffalo kills witnessed over the month. We are very proud to announce that 'Junior' (the sub-adult male in the Tsaro Pride) has recently proved his worth in the pride. This happened after full five hours of following the Tsaro pride hunting buffalo when we were delighted to watch Junior sneaking through the grass with full concentration to target an older buffalo. After a chase of several metres, he jumped on the back of the cow and brought it down to the ground without any assistance from the adults. After a long time of desperation to do it the right way, eventually he has done it!

Not only Junior has been doing us proud - James 007 was also surprised recently, when watching two of the Tsaro females taking down a cow, to see the small female cub (about 8 months old) swiftly leaping over the buffalo trying to reach the throat for suffocation! She did it a little bit early and was nearly taken by the swinging horn of the cow. She must have learnt a lesson there as she did stay back for a while until the cow was dead. As we mentioned in last month's report, we are still convinced the female cub will make it to the next stage of sub-adulthood. She is also growing at a tremendous rate which is evident by her size versus her age. The other cub of which we reported last month was sadly seen recently badly injured on her back. The cub could not walk with its hind legs, but rather was just dragging them, a sure sign of a back injury. We feel this has been caused by one of the females and she has been seen following her mother almost everywhere she goes. This has made her very easy to track as she leaves a significant trail behind from dragging the hind legs.

The Skimmer Pride still consists of three females and is still very elusive. They were seen only once in August on a buffalo kill on the northern side of the camp. The adult Skimmer male has also been seen once along Molapo Road recently, which is the boundary line between Tsaro and Skimmer Pride territories. The aging Duba Boys are still strong and very confident of protecting the Tsaro Pride and their territory, and still fight viciously for dominance when it comes to feeding and mating.

As you might have noticed from this Blog, Brett from SUNSAFARIS is fascinated by lion pride dynamics. Therefore please find below the latest news from the lions at Duba Plains. Duba Plains is one of Botswana's most remote camps and Brett's personal favourite! PS: Watch the DVD, Relentless Enemies by Derek & Beverly Joubert to witness the Tsaro Pride in action.

The buffalo herd is still looking very healthy, and constantly moving around the concession due to pressure from the Tsaro Pride. They often cross to the wetter part of the extended Duba area (Paradise and Sakoyi Islands in the east) that we cannot access due the presence of permanent deep water channels, although they never seem to spend too much time in these areas. Overall we are of the impression that buffalo numbers are increasing and attribute this to decreased hunting success of the local lion prides and the resultant better recruitment rates of calves into the herd. The respective strategies of the buffalo herd in defending their number from the lions and the lions in attempting to outwit the herd continue to enthral us. Interactions between the two species very often result in badly injured cows and calves that have been rescued from death by the herd. This can lead to infection and the wounded buffalo may die. In the month of July we came across two calves and a cow that appeared to have died in such circumstances.

We are very pleased to see an addition of two lions to the Tsaro Pride. Junior the young male who is almost two and half years now, is doing very well. He has been seen on several occasions initiating the hunting, but we think that he still needs a little more time to learn! Very often he has narrowly missed the fierce horns of buffalo and is slowly realising those horns can do him serious harm. The second addition is a female cub of about seven and a half months. We hope she will make it as well as she has already passed the most vulnerable stage of being killed by other lionesses (which was the fate of previous litters). We think this is a result of her being looked after by two lionesses which are extremely protective over her - the same reasoning applying to Junior.

It was very impressive recently to see one of the most ruthless cub killers, 'Silver Eye', growling and exposing her deadly canines at this cub. She was badly attacked by the two females that look after this young cub, and since then has very often been denied any chance to get anywhere close to her. One of the lionesses ('Machine Gun') had cubs on the northern side of the camp, probably wanting to keep them away from the rest of the pride until a certain stage. This worked out well for that period as the cubs at least made it to at least 4-5 months, but unfortunately after only five days of introduction to the rest of the pride they were all found dead. We are not sure if 'Silver Eye' was responsible for any of the deaths. In one case only did the guides witness the death of a cub. It was killed by two other females, which was not really surprising as they have been witnessed killing cubs before. These two lionesses associate more with the silver-eyed female than any other lioness in the pride. The bereft mother (Machine Gun) was already seen mating by the second week of July. Currently we have one lioness with one cub estimated at three months old. Despite their age (about 16 years), the Duba Boys still continue as the proud leaders of the Tsaro Pride in their domain.

The Skimmer Pride has only been seen once in July. They were seen in the vicinity of the buffalo herd on the north-western side of the camp. This was from a distance, as the Tsaro Pride was very close to the herd and prevented the approach of the Skimmer Pride. The composition is still three lionesses as from about seven months ago. We are now beginning to be convinced that the rest of the pride has emigrated from the area completely. The three that we see are all the young females of about 4 and half years old.

Kings Camp recently experienced a phenomenal month of lion sightings:

Let us start with the high activity of nomad males that are moving into the area from all four corners of the wild African bush.

We received an early call one morning to two male lions killing a buffalo. (Just the call needed to start a chilly morning!) We arrived on scene just after the lions managed to kill the buffalo. It was clear that these “intruders “ knew exactly what they were doing, but seemed a bit nervous. It was not the vehicle presence that worried them. They noticed some other males in the surrounds and it was proven by that afternoon when they were chased off by two other males. The following morning, however, things changed again as we saw that the Machaton pride had joined up longing for a piece of prime cut. The two nomads however did not allow the lionesses and young ones to feed off the kill.

The Machaton Pride eventually gave up and started following the noise of a buffalo heard near to camp. I located the lionesses on the next morning drive busy following the group of bovines very intently. The hunt carried on during the whole day and they managed to kill a female buffalo at about 21h00 that night. (We heard the bellowing from the camp.) On morning drive we followed up and found that the pride was already chased off by the same two nomads that stole the previous kill!!!! (It once again proves how opportunistic predators are!)

Not even more than two weeks later we had action again from all of the above mentioned lions and the Voëldam lionesses (they have cubs now; I am not sure how many though. The action around the kill was quite rough at some stages and the young ones were well hidden most of the time.) from Klaserie.

I walked to my house after hosting dinner one night and heard the typical death bellowing sound from a buffalo. Without thinking twice about it I rushed to the Land Rover to secure the sighting for the next morning. After about 40 minutes of searching, and one very nice leopard sighting, I stumbled across the carcass of a female buffalo next to the road with about 11 hyenas feeding. Quite odd I thought, but soon one of those nomads rushed out of the bush and chased them off. Baffled as to where the other nomad is I heard chewing from deeper into the bush! Another female buffalo carcass!!! The Machaton pride was feeding on this one, at least enough for them, and the nomads could feed off their own carcass.

I raced back to camp and woke my group of guests up at midnight. They had a wish to see lions on a fresh kill, and they were on the vehicle in a flash to see the action. The next morning and the two days to follow had a lot of changeovers between different groups of lions feeding. It happened on the Klaserie border, the territory line of the two prides. Luckily our Machaton pride stood their ground and finished the kill that belonged to them.We won’t forget to mention the ever present Sohobele pride and male. They are also doing extremely well and we have seen them on a few impala and waterbuck kills this month. The six cubs have been in very good shape so far this whole month!!!

In the last newsletter, I went to great pains to point out that there is more to the Bushveld than the Big Five. So, I will not be telling you about the 8 lions seen attacking a baby elephant at Legends (it did survive!)…. ..or the pair of leopards seen playing in front of the main deck at Narina.

We are fast approaching midwinter at Tinga, and this heralds a particularly interesting facet of the natural history of the Kruger. The Tinga concession is located along the Sabie river, and the habitat around the river is particularly favourable for the ubiquitous impala due to the combination of permanent water, scrub, and sodic sites. Concentrations of 95 impala per square kilometre have been recorded. From late April, the area reverberates with the sound of the rut, as the males compete fiercely for access to the females. During this time, the impala rams are so preoccupied with the females, and fending off rival males that they have little time to feed, and generally lose condition over this period. Nutrition levels in the plants have dropped off, but it appears Nature has concluded that in order for the newborn lambs to have the best possible start in life, and be born at the onset of the rains, the males must endure this hardship.

As if that was not bad enough, Nature has landed the impala with a double whammy. It is no co-incidence that over this period that the African Wild Dog has its denning season.  At this time of year, the alpha female of the normally highly mobile packs selects a suitable burrow in a termite mound ……..and in Kruger, dens are almost always established close to areas where there is…wait for it… a combination of permanent water, scrub and sodic sites. The average litter is 10 – 11 pups, and with an average pack size of 8 adults, that is a lot of mouths to feed. In Kruger, the dogs normally range in an area of 855 km2, but when denning, it is restricted to 80 km2. So, not only do they select areas of high prey concentration, but they choose a time when their preferred prey is in a poor condition. Not only are the rams easier to bring down, but the yearlings from the past year are now feeling the pinch during the dry season. Such wonderful synchrony has to be admired…unless of course you are an impala!

What is particularly strange, after this long discourse on impala/wild dog dynamics, is that recently one of our guides (Megan) witnessed a wild dog kill on Narina access. What was strange was that it was a lone female – traditionally the breeding female remains at the den, whilst the rest of pack hunt, and bring back the kill.

Another special sighting recently was an osprey on the Sabie River. These raptors are rarely seen, especially in the Kruger, as they are outcompeted by the resident fish eagles but most twitchers will agree this is something worth seeing.

The buffalo and lion interaction
At the moment the buffalo herd is still spending most of their time in our prime game drive area. It has been very surprising that they have hardly crossed into the Paradise Island area this month. Instead they have been hanging around the floodplains that we can access easily during the flood (which is very convenient for us!). As always there have been several exciting sightings involving the buffalo herd and the lion prides. During one of the sightings the guests watched as a cow had just given birth, and soon after dropping the calf, abandoned it to catch up with the rest of the herd. We think this is a tactic of avoiding the risk of falling prey to the Tsaro Pride that was nearby. The pride duly spotted the lonely calf and walked towards it, not aware of the male buffalo that was lying down within the thick bushes close by. It was very interesting to watch another evolutionary tactic in this relentless battle. As the lions caught the calf, the buffalo bull responded to the distress call and ran towards the lions, chasing them off the calf before it lost the last breath! The male then defended the calf against the lions for as long as three hours! Some commitment to a calf that was most likely not directly related to it.

The Tsaro Pride and the Duba Boys have continued to dominate both our lion viewing and lion and buffalo interaction. There has been approximately six kills witnessed in the month of May. As is usual at Duba over the last three years, we are still continuing to witness more lion and buffalo interaction than actual kills which is good to remember when visiting here. We are excited and delighted to report that 'Junior', the juvenile male is still alive making him the only cub in the Tsaro Pride to survive the very high mortality rates over the last three years. It has been very exciting to watch the females teaching Junior how to kill prey. There was a time when one of the adult females caught a buffalo calf, and then released it prompting the young male to get involved; it took him approximately 20 minutes to kill a calf that must have been around a week old while the females were just sitting there, not helping but just watching him. We think he still need some time to learn as very often he has been seen trying to tackle full grown buffalo, and he has been stuck between the horns a few times.

At the moment there is one other cub (from a subsequent litter) that is surviving and we'll hold thumbs for her future. Another of the lionesses is lactating, indicating the presence of very small cubs, but we have not seen these as yet. We suspect that the cubs are hidden somewhere on the northern side of the camp/airstrip. This lioness moves between the northern side of the camp and the south where the buffalo spend most of the time, passing through the camp very often. One of the other lionesses, the well known 'Silver Eye', was been seen mating with one of the Duba Boys towards the end of April. Has she conceived? We are look forward to seeing her cubs about end of July.

The Skimmer Pride has been very elusive this month. When they were seen, it was while hunting buffalo in the Tsaro Pride territory - mainly in the area along Molapo Road which is the main boundary between the two prides' territories. Interestingly, over the last two months when the Skimmer Pride has been seen, it has consisted only of three lionesses (1 adult, and 2 four-year old sub-adults). We do not know what has happened to the other part of the pride (a total of 8 missing). It is very difficult to investigate due to the water level being high and we therefore cannot cross over into Paradise Island which is their main territory. The debate has been that if they were still on Paradise Island, they would not spent 2 months not coming into the Tsaro pride territory at all, while part of their pride was continuing to do just that (especially when the buffalo herd have not crossed onto Paradise Island for a long time). So far we suspect that the pride must have separated, perhaps temporarily while the water levels are high. Also of interest was a sighting of one of the Duba Boys feeding on a buffalo kill with the females from the Skimmer Pride. Eventually the Tsaro females came towards the sighting and met the Skimmer females with outright aggression! This nearly caused another inter-pride fight but the Skimmer females retreated in time across the water into their territory.