Henry Ford said “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is a progress; working together is success”. That is the quote that the two Fourways males follow.

It all started off very slowly as we started seeing these two young males more and more regularly from about two years back, they have been pushing in from our north eastern corner and never really showed any interest in going further west. Then one day, about 4 months ago, early one morning, we found the two Fourways males busy finishing off an impala kill deep into the Sand River males’ territory, not looking bothered at all. Ever since that day they have been walking all over the place scent marking and calling, this meant the females all ran for their lives as these were new males to them that they have never seen before and with the reputation of the Mapogo’s who killed almost 60% of the lion population in the Sabi Sands, you can never be too careful.

With them all chuffed with their new territory and trying to explore all the new places, they gave us Rangers and Trackers a nice run around every day to try and find them as they were covering vast distances in a short period of time.

It all started settling down a bit and the six Southern Pride females were found closer and closer to the males. The one morning, all excited to see what happened during the course of the night, we went out and found tracks of two males chasing females around. Continuing our search we found the males on a Nyala kill which they probably stole from the six females as their tracks came straight from there.

This probably didn’t make things easier for the females, so they moved far south into our property where the Fourways males have not been and the three Sand River males were still hanging around.

Days went past where the males stayed north and the females stayed south. The females were very successful with hunts down the south and their body condition picked up very quickly.

The two Fourways males eventually built up enough courage to go explore the southern part of our reserve that borders the Sabie River. They picked up fresh scent of the females and were on a mission again trying to find them but with all the vocalising the females made a run for it and have been sitting somewhere in the Kruger National Park. That evening I saw the Fourways males chasing one Sand River male far east.

Weeks went past without seeing the six females and the Sand River males. Eventually one morning we found one Southern Pride female with the Fourways males showing lots of interest in mating with them, but she was still giving the two males a lot of space as they had to fight it out to see who will be the dominant male to mate with her and that night it started with the younger male mating first for a few days and then splitting up again for a few days then found the bigger male mating with her. Everyone is super exited as this means the Southern Pride might start building the pride again with two stable males here who are in great condition and looks to stay here for a long time.

But then one morning we were woken up by what sounded like two males calling in front of Bush Lodge. Kosie and I went out and found the two Charleston males running around calling and scent marking all over the area where the Fourways males were the night before so we started looking for the Fourways guys but couldn’t find them. They made a run for it all the way down south.

Now this was the deepest we have ever seen the Charleston males into our property. Are they here to stay or were they just here because of their aunt that had her cubs here for a while and tried to protect her and her cubs from them. With all this happening the one Sand River male was spotted moving very fast north and a few days later back south again. Is he looking for his brothers to try and claim what is theirs or are they just going to move on and look for a different territory?

Now ending it off on a good note... The Fourways males were found mating with a different Southern Pride female, meaning we could maybe expect new members in the pride in about 110 days! Just hope the Fourways males keep their heads up and confidence high.