following the Mapogo Pride

MacMacPosts: 92
Joined: 2007-07-10
Location: White River, SA
-->Wed, 03/10/2007 - 3:56pm

Greetings Bomites,

The new males that were seen in the Nkorho area are from a different section of the Sabi Sands. They are known as the Mapogo Pride. They are a coalition of 6 male lions that broke away from the Sparta Lion Pride late in 2005.

They are a fascinating group of lions in that their behavior (being such a large male coalition) is very uncommon and differs from typical lion activity. Their strength and legend has grown to make them one of the most famous prides in the Sabi Sands.

The have been known to control large territories and even other lion prides. In addition they have been known to attack large animals including giraffe, young rhinos and even hippos.


Mac



This is a photograph of one of the lions of the Mapogo pride...

AquilaPosts: 3252
Joined: 2006-12-04
Location:
-->Thu, 04/10/2007 - 12:32am

Some interesting reading on this Ranger's Diary. Some of it is graphic.

Mapogo Leave Their Mark on the Tsalala Pride

Last Moments of the Life of a Male Lion

This Mapogo group of Males is really scary.

Also, part of this covers how the Mapogo Males came to be. It's under Sparta Pride

Londolozi Lions

My YouTube Videos

karen-inVAPosts: 4375
Joined: 2007-04-11
Location: Chesapeake, Virginia - USA
-->Fri, 05/10/2007 - 7:04pm

Hey all,

I found some more info last night on the Mapogo Male Coalition. This info helps me to further understand why I had been seeing more reference to only 5 and not 6 of them all together.

This is from a private reserve also located in Sabi Sands called Ulusaba.

http://www.ulusaba.com/bushtelegraph/2156/ulusaba-rangers-diary-june-2007

Some exerpts from the June reports:

Karen from VA

Photo Album *Updated October 1st*

Mini MonkeyPosts: 154
Joined: 2007-04-17
Location: Michigan, USA
-->Fri, 05/10/2007 - 7:23pm

This info was in the Elephant Plains monthly newletter Today:

The five Maphogho’s/Cannibals (male lions) pleasantly surprised us with their presence one morning. We found them feeding on an adult bull giraffe that they had killed the night before. Although this feat sounds incredible, it is actually easier to do than it sounds:  when lions chase giraffes they will herd them towards thick bush or a dry riverbed – reason being that the giraffe/s will hopefully trip or stumble over or through obstacles.  As soon as they fall down the lions will be onto them in a flash!  These guys probably couldn’t believe their luck, as only a few hundred meters away from their giraffe kill, a bull rhino died of natural causes…  They were spoiled for choice between giraffe or rhino steak!

MM

Here is the link to the entire newsletter:

http://www.elephantplains.co.za/members/ranger_reports/ranger_reports_0709.asp

More interesting reading....

Return of the Mapogo

In reading this, it seems this group instills fear in the folks at Londolozi. Not just for their resident lion prides but for the humans also.

Aquila, thank you for this. I think James missed his calling. He needs to be writing mystery books. I could almost sense the fear and quiet. Wow!

It seems with every story I read about the Mapogo lions they stir awe in the writer. It will be interesting to follow them and watch their story unfold.

This pride sounds really scarey.  I would think that they would want to do something about lions that could threaten the tourists.  I think I would dart them and move them out of the area.. each one to somewhere new far far away and seperate from each other.  Might cut down on the carnage they seem to live on.  Wow thats really amazing reading and scarey!!

I doubt they will intervene unless tragedy with humans does evolve. I have a gut feeling this group might eventually split up into smaller coalitions.... at least I hope so.

Here's a little something I found on this pride.  It is taken from IDUBE PRIVATE GAME RESERVE  (situated in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve) latest news - August newsletter:

During the month the impact of the six male lions from Eyerfield (or the Mapogo as they are now known) was seen again and again. At the start of the month we had regular sightings of a group of three buffalo bulls around Ebony Dam to the north west of the camp. This changed one morning when the tracks of the Mapogo were picked up coming west towards camp, the tracks headed around the back of camp and overlaid those of the three bulls. Soon tracks were found of two of the buffalo running south over those of the lions, suggesting that the one remaining was not doing so well. Sure enough the six lions were found on a fresh buffalo kill to the south of Ebony Dam a few moments later. The kill was consumed in a matter of a day and a half and the lions rested and moved away to the north. Less than a week passed and another buffalo was killed to the north of the river. These six lions use their size and their numbers to overwhelm their prey and it seems that perhaps only adult elephant have nothing to fear from them.

Towards the end of the month an incident played out highlighting the harsh reality of the African bush. One afternoon drive we were looking at a group of giraffe when we noticed some rhino across to the other side of a drainage line. Leaving the tall browsers we made our way around to the rhinos. On close inspection it turned out to be two young females that we usually see with their mother. As the sighting was still close to the drainage line I assumed that the mother was still in the thicket out of sight and moved on without another thought. The rest of the evening went smoothly and we were rewarded with the sight of Wally the male leopard feeding on a warthog kill he had made previously.

The next morning my guests were leaving early so there was only a short time to conduct a drive. We started with a quick sighting of one of Shangwa’s cubs and then started to follow the tracks of the Mapogo that we had come across on the way to the leopard. With the aid of a couple of other rangers and trackers, Titus and myself worked on the tracks. As time started to run out we began to realise that we would not find them before we had to return for breakfast. This became more apparent when we found the tracks for the Ximungwe pride in the same area and it seemed that the Mapogo were chasing them. The Ximungwe pride had already been spotted that morning, a long way from where we were at that time. Just as we were a bout to leave the area one of the other rangers found one of the males a short distance ahead of us and as one is better than none we went to join him. As we approached the lion we could all smell something dead and we realised that the Mapogo had probably chased the Ximungwe lions from a kill and were now returning to claim their prize, a pair of hyenas running pas seemed to confirm this. As we rounded the bushes we were greeted with the gory sight of the Mapogo tearing into a rhino carcass, close by was the body of one of the cubs from the Ximungwe pride which had obviously not been fast enough to avoid the wrath of the Mapogo. As the lions moved around on the carcass we saw that it was not too fresh and had puncture marks on the back. This was not a lion kill but an elephant kill, I don’t know what exactly occurred but it is probable that a musth bull killed the rhino as she tried to defend her youngsters. Bull elephants in musth can become aggressive as their hormonal levels surge and the killing of rhinos by such bulls has been recorded on a number of occasions.
The Ximungwe pride had probably been attracted to the carcass by the sound of feeding hyenas. The Mapogo perhaps heard the hyenas but would also have heard the other lions feeding as they approached. The sight of the dead cub lying next to the rhino is a reminder that all of the animals in the bush tread a fine line between survival and death.

Thank you for this article Sabine, one more look into the mind of the Mapogo Mafia. They sure do have quite a reputation!

another tidbit on the boys..

click here

October 26th @ 7:54pm 4 or 5 Male Lions came past the Nkorho waterhole followed by landies.

Unless another large Male Coalition has been formed, odds are it was probably the Mapogo Males making an appearance at Nkorho Pan.

It was definitely an awesome treat for those of us watching.

With many thanks to our Zoomie for the great close ups and following them until they got out of cam view.

JUST AWESOME!!!

more about the mapogo boys here

I am a little bit confused by the WildEarth blog report as it conflicts with other info I've seen in a couple of respects. First, the Mapogos originated on western Mala Mala/eastern Londolozi and are known as the "Eyrefield Males" on Mala Mala. Here's a link to the Mala Mala lions page, the "Eyrefield Males" section only has a brief blurb describing a buffalo hunt but there's a fair amount of info under "Eyrefield pride" if you go back into early periods, starting with their birth and life as young cubs in 2001. They aren't all brothers, one of the six is completely unrelated to the other five who were sired by the West Street males and the Eyrefield females:

http://www.malamala.tv/mmlions.htm

I'm also a little confused on the report of one of the Mapogos being killed by a crocodile, I had thought there were five sighted on the Nkorho cam very briefly toward the end of that brief visit the other night. Along those lines, Mac mentioned that one of the Mapogos was off hunting and unaccounted for but didn't mention that there were only four present and that the coalition had been reduced by two. I know one of the Rollercoasters was killed by a crocodile on Londolozi not too long ago and wonder if there might have been some confusion, although perhaps there was in fact a separate incident with a crocodile that Mac was not aware of when he posted his message. The Londolozi site hasn't yet reported it yet either, but there hasn't been a new ranger diary there in a while. I guess it will be cleared up eventually though, either in a report on the Londolozi, Inyati or Ulusaba as all of those sites seem to actively report on Mapogo sightings.

I found it confusing too Ron. From everything I had read there are 5 brothers/cousins that were born between 2000 and 2002 and one unrelated male a couple of years older than the related boys.

Sure would like to know if one did indeed succumb to a croc attack.

Thanks for the link!

October report from Inyati Reserve:

http://www.inyati.co.za/files/Game%20report%20Oct%202007.pdf

Not sure when this was posted (that is, whether it covers October or was posted in early October to cover September sightings), but if they're referring to the 29th as "October 29th", it would seem to conflict with the earlier info that the Mapogo were reduced to 4 or 5.

The Mapogo visit Mala Mala: http://www.malamala.tv/Archives07/nov03.htm. Scroll down to the November 2 and look for "Eyrefield Males" as that's the name they use for the Mapogo on Mala Mala. Some nice pictures along with a little bit of detail about the sighting.

They also made an appearance on November 10: 

http://www.malamala.tv/diary.htm

Again scroll down to that date for some great pictures and a description of the visit.

It's evident that there are currently five of them. I've been unable to find out whether they no longer associate with the slightly older, unrelated male that was once part of their coalition or whether the story about the crocodile attack was in fact true rather than confusion regarding a croc attack on a different lion.

Thrilling entry from the Londolozi ranger diary site:

http://www.rangerdiaries.com/mapogo-rise/

This one also describes the current coalition as five, although Campbell's comments on the chat indicate that the sixth is still a part of the Mapogos.

Thanks Ron for the link! I love reading the articles on that site.

Seems the related lions tend to branch off from the older unrelated male from time to time. They even were reported to have killed the cubs of the unrelated male yet were seen after that with him at various sightings. Confusing....

Thanks Ron~~~I love reading the ranger diaries.  He is quite the writer.  You feel that you are right there experiencing the excitement with him.

Agree with you both, he has a way with words and does a great job of making the reader feel like they're right there witnessing things firsthand.

Aquila, where did you see that info about the other males killing the cubs of the unrelated male? Just curious as I hadn't seen that before. Definitely does sound like more of a "loose affiliation" lately although I still think the story of the unrelated male joining the Eyrefield pride years ago as a subadult is an amazing one and shows the tremendous resiliency and survival instinct of these animals. 

Here ya go Ron.

Mapogos Killing Cubs Article

Thanks Aquila, I could've sworn I read that entry before but somehow missed the part about killing the cubs.

To bump this up and to add the sad news of the Mapogo coalition killing one of Djuma's Nkuhuma males last night. The two Nkuhuma males have 9 lionesses and at least 16 cubs with more on the way. The other Nkuhuma male is reported unharmed and has retreated up North of Djuma. Djuma is hopeful that the lionesses and cubs are or will be heading North for safety also.

That's certainly disappointing news. Hopefully the remaining male and the rest of the pride do find refuge to the north and the Mapogo turn their attention elsewhere, i.e. back to their own territory to the west. I guess this incident was related to the substantial roaring activity we heard on Nkorho Saturday night/Sunday morning as Chitwa dam is only about two miles to the west.

Having one male protect that large pride and all those cubs seems tenuous to say the least, so far the single rollercoaster/shaws male has managed to maintain control of the Eyrefield/Sparta lionesses and their 9 cubs despite the Mapogos trekking through their range. But, many of those lionesses are sisters of the Mapogo and I tend to wonder if that has anything to do with their reluctance to sieze control. Interestingly, the Eyrefield females seemed to eject the Rollercoaster male from their proximity just a week ago, as recorded on the Mala Mala sightings diary, I don't really know the significance of that or whether it will be permanent.

I also find it strange that the Mapogos haven't seemed to have too much interaction with the Styx lionesses, that is unless I've missed it. They've mated with the rollercoaster male and have some cubs themselves in northern Mala Mala, but he doesn't seem to spend much time with that pride otherwise and couldn't keep the Mapogo from taking over in any case. They haven't had a dominant male since breaking away from the declining Split Rock male a year ago (who actually has formed a coalition with a Kruger male and is still at it in the southern reaches of Mala Mala, amazingly enough) but would seem to be ripe for the Mapogos to exert control over.

edit to add this from the Mala Mala site's October report, speculating on some limited interaction between the rollercoaster male and one of the mapogos:

Ron, I'm not sure if you meant this to be prior to the killing of Blondie from the Nkuhama pride.  It seems our playboy Blondie of Nkuhama was cheatin' on the Nkuhama gals and mating with a Styxx Lioness on the side when he was attacked by the Mapogos.  After which, the Styxx gal took off with the Mapogo Boys and is said to now be mating with them. 

Hmmm, those Styxx girls are awfully fickle and not very picky, huh?  We already knew the same goes for those Lion boys.  

A few updates (though confusing as they are) of the Mapogos actions lately.

Mapogos have been reported to be in and around Djuma searching for the Nkuhuma pride. Not sure how many as one seems to still be in Elephant Plains area mating with a Styx pride member.

We heard the Nkuhuma pride were safely up North but then a report a short while later said lions were calling from Sandy Patch and was believed to be the Nkuhuma pride or Dozie the only remaining Male with the Nkuhumas. There was great concern that a conflict might be in the making at that time with the Mapogos.

Rexon of the WildEarth drive team even expressed fear of tracking on foot with the Mapogos in the area. This is coming from a veteran tracker/drive operator. He said he has never seen behavior like this before where males are even killing female lions. He says they seem Mad.

Very nice picture.  He is very handsome.  I am in Temple Texas but I spent alot of time in Mana Poles in Zimbabwe in the bush documenting/viewing all the animals.

I love the lions and am so glad you have this information and pictures.  Happy New Year to yall.

God Bless,

Alissa AKA Jumbored

Adding what Alf posted in the Cam Chat. December 2007 report:

from the ranger - elephant plain

Lion: We have had excellent, excellent, excellent lion sightings! The love doctor has shot his arrow into the Mapogos. The whole month they have been mating with all the Stix females. So, hopefully, in about 3.5 months there will be plenty of cubs. An unfortunate incident took place when one of the Kuhuma males that were mating with one of the Stix females got into a fight with one of the Mapogo males and died that night. This means that there is only one male left to protect all 12 cubs of the Kuhuma Pride. It will be sad, should this male and all the cubs also be killed. But, that is the way of the wild. There is an upside to the story: if the Mapogos take over the Kuhuma females it will mean that the Mapogos would have taken over all the prides in and around our traversing area. So, there will be no more killing of cubs by the Mapogos because all the cubs will be theirs. We can only hope that the New Year will bring lots of lion cubs and less mortalities. This year the Mapogos killed at least 22 lions that we know of.