White Lion cubs under threat from older male lions
The new white lion cub along with its tawny sibling from the Ross Pride face a serious potential threat. Chad Cocking, from the Umbabat area of the private reserves of the Kruger reports that two nomadic lions that have already killed one of the Machaton Pride sub-adult males are hell bent on domination and will not hesitate to kill cubs that do not belong to them in their bloody quest to rule a pride.
Chad reports from a recent game drive:
“In my rush, Petros didn’t have time to look too much at the tracks, but amidst the 2000-odd hooves making marks in the sand, he thought he had spotted lion tracks, so I reversed, and quickly ascertained that he had indeed seen lion tracks. And I knew that they were fresh…and I knew this without even having to look at the tracks. I wish I could claim to have super tracking skills, but rather I just used my logic; if the lion was there standing 15m off the road, there was a good chance that he had made the tracks quite recently!!!
Yes, we had almost driven past them! Regardless, we found them, and by them I mean the two Ximpuku males (Ghosts) with the collar. These lions walk around the reserve each night roaring and leaving tracks, but are never seen, but have eventually been seen! This morning they weren’t going anywhere during the night and they had returned from 5km south to once more pursue the buffalo herd and this time they had got lucky in picking off one of the calves. The smaller collared male lay eating the kill whilst his bigger counterpart rested nearby. These are big lions. And sadly we can also confirm that last week they killed another of the Machaton young males, leaving the Machaton Pride with only 5 sub-adults males left. The sad part is that we are all certain that the killing is not yet over. As long as these two boys stay away from the Ross Pride that we see occasionally, we will be happy, and this is because it was confirmed yesterday that this pride from the south has a new white lion cub in their midst; hopefully we shall get to see it in the near future!”
Interesting times ahead!
The best camps to stand a chance of seeing the white lion cub are Africa on Foot and nThambo Tree Camp.
