I am sure by now anyone who has been to Sabi Sabi or follows us on social media has heard of the success story of the Southern Pride lioness at some point. Against all odds she has managed to raise her sub-adult offspring single handily. This was quite a feat considering she was a lone lioness and it was her first litter. It has been an honour watching her grow in strength and confidence.

As she grew in confidence, her territory also expanded. We started seeing less and less of her but while ago we saw her in the southern part of the reserve, her domain. We noticed she looked quite plump and had swollen mammary glands, signs that she potentially could be expecting. It made perfect sense that she would return to her pride land in search of den sites she successfully used to raise her previous litter, sites she herself once called home as a little cub.

On Monday night, while driving back to Bush Lodge, we found the trio of lionesses in an open field stalking wildebeest. They were unsuccessful a couple of times but seemed determined. The night sky was full of stars and little to no breeze at all, our tracker was confident that they would eventually make a kill.

We left early on Tuesday morning, eager to find the pride and true to our tracker’s prediction we found them on a wildebeest kill. The carcass had been dragged a distance from the kill site and safely tucked away in a drainage line under bushes away from the prying eyes of vultures.

As we sat and watched we noticed that the older female was missing. Could she have possibly left to fetch the cubs? We spent a while at the sighting in anticipation. As the day got warmer, we decided to call it a morning and head back to camp.

As we turned the corner, the answer to our question was standing smack in the middle of the road! There they were, mother and 3 little furballs right behind her! We parked to the side of the road to give them space to pass and one could have heard a pin drop as we watched them all walk right past us. The cubs seemed quite interested in our vehicle but mom was quick to shoo them off towards the kill.

It’s great to see the Southern Pride grow in numbers and hopefully one day they grow back to being one the most dominating prides of the South.

Blog by Andries Ndlovu (Bush Lodge Ranger)