Kings, Cubs and a White Lion: Six Months in the Timbavati

I am happy to say that a few of the predictions I made regarding the prides' trajectories held true (and I will ignore those predictions that I got wrong!), but even happier that there have been surprises that I had been hoping for for a couple of years that came to fruition.

So let's have a recap of what has been going on with the lions of Tanda Tula over the past six months.

River Pride: Coming Out of a Tough Period

It was not long after I wrote the last blog that another tragedy struck the River Pride. Following up on lion and hyena tracks in the eastern reaches of our concession soon led to the grim find of the remains of a young male lion. It was quickly deduced that he was one of the River Pride males, but what was less clear was exactly what happened to him. The most likely scenario involves the Mayambula Pride, as these two prides continue to overlap in their territories around Machaton Dam.

Regardless, it was another massive blow to the pride, and I feared that I had been too hopeful in forecasting a gradual betterment of their lives. Six months later, I am delighted to say that this pride's future is looking up, and they are once again coming into their own.

The strain of having only one experienced lioness providing for the whole pride is now a thing of the past. The two young males, as well as the three young females, have graduated into a stage of their lives where they can now be seen as competent lions, and together with two adult females, they have once again become a dependable hunting unit. This is evidenced in the general condition of the pride, and while we do still see them empty-bellied from time to time, these occasions are becoming more of an exception than the norm. This past month they have been found with large buffalo kills, and seen actively following buffalo herds -- something they have not done on a regular basis for a couple of years.

A few days ago, we responded to the roars of lions near Machaton Dam, and I fully expected to roll up and find the Mayambula Pride there, but was somewhat surprised to see the River Pride instead. It didn't take long for them to begin roaring in front of us. I cannot tell you the last time I heard this pride roar. Most prides are happy to roar when they are settled in a territory and don't mind who hears their calls. Have the River Pride returned to this state of confidence?

Without any pride males, and still having lions young enough to be killed or ousted in a pride takeover (the two youngest lionesses are just approaching two years old -- lionesses generally need to be closer to three years old to be considered safe in a takeover), I would have thought that the lionesses would be doing their best to avoid attention. Regardless of what I think, the pride is roaring again. Time will tell what the outcome of this is, but I will remain positive and hope that they are doing so because they are, for the first time in a long time, comfortable at home again.

Sark Breakaway Pride and Nkombo Males: The Next Chapter

Looking at how spoilt we have been over the past month with this pride, I can't believe there was a time I was upset about what happened during 2025. Last time we updated you, the Nkombo males had been mating with the three lionesses from the Sark Breakaway Pride, and they were slowly accepting these two blonde males as their new dominant boys.

Towards the end of 2025, all three lionesses fell pregnant, and we watched as their bellies and teats swelled, waiting patiently to see where they would den. They began spending more time around the Zebenine riverbed to the west of Tanda Tula, and in mid-February of this year, all three females gave birth within a ten-day period on the thick banks of the riverbed. We watched their behaviour and movements over several weeks, and soon realised that the youngest lioness had sadly lost her entire litter before we even got to see them. It could well have been to do with the persistent rains in early March and the slight flooding that accompanied it, but irrespective of the reason, she was without her cubs and ready to mate again.

The two other females soon introduced their seven cubs to us -- five females and two males -- and have provided some quality sightings as they let their bundles of joy play around in the riverbeds before leaving them in the thickets as they go off hunting.

With cubs and a female in oestrus, the Nkombo males have stuck very close to the pride and barely ventured off to patrol their territory. While this helps keep the area around the cubs safe, they must not neglect the rest of the land that is theirs to protect. These males are still young, but growing nicely, and with every passing month are looking more and more formidable. The persistent limp that one of the males had is now healed, and they are in good shape.

Sark Breakaway... Breakaways?

As for the remaining portion of the pride, it has been a less successful six months. They have dropped from 13 to 11 pride members with the loss of the one-eyed lioness and one of the two-year-old females. And while at 11 members they still have numbers on their side, they are seldom able to stay as a cohesive unit for long.

Exactly which lions cause the continuous breakups is not known, but based on their splintering, their movements to all parts of the Timbavati and beyond, as well as the scars they return with, there are lions out there that do not want them around.

There is no consistency in the composition of the fragments they split into -- it could be a mix of young males and sub-adult females, or only males and the cub, or adult females and any combination of the others. We found a young male, adult female and sub-adult female with a giraffe kill close to camp, and a few days later nine members were found in the western part of our concession.

They headed to Nkhari, then disappeared south, and returned to the west with 11 members before pitching up in the northern reaches of our concession. They move with no predictable pattern, and it really seems that they are just trying to stay out of trouble. The two older boys are looking in good shape, and appear to not be moving on their own as much -- at five years old, they still seem to relish being part of a pride.

Mawondane Pride: Even Tougher Now

We had discussed the potential for the two Mawondane males to become a feature of the Timbavati landscape in time. Sadly, that does not appear to be the script that nature is writing. After hearing a sustained bout of roaring, guides in the northern Timbavati followed up and found hyenas eating the remains of a male lion. It was initially feared to be one of the dominant Ncila males, but the evidence soon pointed to the missing Mawondane male. A month later, with the pride still moving as a duo, that conclusion seems confirmed.

So what now for this pride? As a duo, these males had a genuine chance of challenging for a pride in the area. As a solitary male, the remaining Mawondane lion now has far less chance of that happening. It is not impossible, but the synergistic benefits of a coalition are lost to him, and he would need a good deal of fortune to make the transition from nomadic to dominant male.

A possibility would be for him to link up with another lone male and form a new coalition -- a rare event, but one we have seen a few times in the Timbavati over the years, even with mature males. As for the lioness, nothing good can come from life as a single female. She will not be accepted by another pride and will likely have to get used to life as a loner. For now though, the two are staying close together and making the most of their situation, and both are looking in top shape.

Mayambula Pride: The Enigmas

Since their recent peak in 2022, when they topped out at 26 lions, this pride has been a little topsy-turvy, at least with respect to the parts of their lives that we see at Tanda Tula. Things may be less erratic beyond our borders, but we only get occasional glimpses of them and are struggling to know exactly what is going on.

Following the anthrax outbreak of 2025, we have only seen one Vuyela male alive, and can assume that the other four males all succumbed to its effects. We also saw nine lionesses at the end of 2025 and have not seen more than seven this year. Did they lose a couple of lionesses too, or are they simply playing a very good game of hide and seek? I am slightly inclined to go for the latter. We saw a couple of litters of cubs born to the pride last year, and even earlier this year there were signs of cubs near our southern boundary -- yet none of the seven lionesses we have been seeing this year are lactating. This could mean one of three things: I am not as observant as I should be; they have lost all of the cubs; or there is a splintered fraction of the pride with cubs spending time beyond our borders, and we are only seeing the more adventurous lionesses without that responsibility. I am going with option three.

We are luckily seeing them with a little more regularity as they push up towards Machaton Dam. We recently heard a great deal of roaring from the dam and arrived to find seven members roaring at full volume, the calls of a much louder eighth member suggesting they were moving north with one of the Vuyela males. We have seen him mating with one of the lionesses on a few occasions in recent months.

The sightings we have of this pride don't give us a full picture of what is happening, but the fact that they are still visiting us hopefully means that things are generally stable, and as always, we hope that their forays deeper into Tanda Tula will continue to increase in frequency.

Giraffe Pride: When Recessive Genes Collide

Some would argue that we have saved the best news for last. If you have been following our lion updates closely, you will already know about the most exciting lion news to come out of the Timbavati in over a decade.

A white lion cub has been born to the Giraffe Pride. It is a pride well known for their white lion gene -- in 2014, they had five white lions in the pride. Sadly those three cubs never survived, and the two adult lionesses passed away in 2016 and 2017. Since then, every time the pride has had cubs, the first question asked is not how many, but whether any of them are white. This has become even more common since the Birmingham Breakaway males took over the pride, as they too are potential carriers of the recessive gene.

Towards the end of 2025 the pride had ten cubs, and sadly all answers to that second question were no. This was not a problem at all when we got to spend time with the six newest members within our concession, includingthis moment of the mothers moving the cubs to a new den.

The joy was short-lived. A few weeks later, one of the small cubs was found lying dead in the grass. We consoled ourselves with the fact that the other cubs were alive and well, and relished the sighting as the mothers and an attending Birmingham Breakaway male roared their claim on the land, answered by at least three other pride members nearby. That was the last time anyone saw those cubs alive.

Start again. Luckily, with 11 adult females in the pride, there will always be more cubs. In November, one of those lionesses gave birth outside our concession. In late January, several members were feeding on a buffalo in the far eastern portions of their territory. That afternoon, a milk-laden lioness left the carcass to go and nurse her cubs. The guides followed to see where she was heading. None of us expected the cubs to be only 500 metres from the carcass. And no one expected one of those cubs to be white. Yet there it was -- a new white lion born to the pride at last.

Over the following months we have watched him grow, as has his tawny sister. The pride has also welcomed three other tawny cubs -- two males and a female. The mothers seem to spend more time together and away from the non-mothers, but with the mating that has taken place over recent months, it is likely that most of these lionesses will be dropping more cubs soon. And with a pale cousin now having shown himself, I can tell you that the "are there any white ones?" question is going to be the first thing asked the moment they start bringing their cubs out of hiding.

And that is the good news we will end this lion update with. Be sure to keep up to date with our monthly updates, and see more regular footage and photos of the lions on our social media feeds. We will give another comprehensive update on the changing lion dynamics towards the latter half of the year.

Until next time, take care.

Chad