White Lion War at the Kruger

Guests of Africa on Foot and nThambo Tree Camp were treated to a very rare and special sighting the other day. Both camps are located in the Klaserie area of the Kruger Park and are home to the Big Five, as well as the special wild white lions!

The resident pride for both camps is the Ross Pride. This is a very special pride of lions as over the past two years they have battled against the loss of their original pride males, which created a very disjointed pride for a year. However over the past few months, the new resident dominant males have slowly brought back the protection and stability they need to thrive. In the past year the pride has given birth to two wild white lion cubs, both of which unfortunately died. However the pride now has another three young cubs as well two older male cubs.

Occasionally guests visiting these two affordable Kruger Camps also get to see the Giraffe Pride of lions. This pride also carries the white lion gene, and they currently have two white lionesses. It was one of these white lionesses that got herself into a little bit of trouble with the Ross Pride.

Rein Kock, Senior Ranger at Africa on Foot, was on game drive with some guests. They were trailing a herd of buffalo when the call came in that the Ross Pride was following the buffalo. Rein responded and got his guests into position to witness a truly magnificent sighting!

As the Ross Pride was following the buffalo, they started roaring and broke out into a run. Something was definitely brewing and soon enough they noticed the Giraffe Pride of lions on the other side of the buffalo herd in Ross Pride territory!

With the Ross Pride males fully ready to defend their pride and territory, the Giraffe Pride tucked their tails between their legs and beat a hasty retreat back towards their territory in the Timbavati area of the Kruger.

It was then however that the white lioness made a decision that nearly cost her her life. She started chasing one of the smaller Ross females, and soon got into trouble when three Ross females came to her defence. She immediately adopted a submissive pose in a bid to save her life. The Ross females quickly asserted their dominance and started attacking her.

Luckily for the white lioness, she backed into an electric fence (that is the boundary of the Klaserie and some neighbouring private land), and when the lead lioness from the Ross Pride made contact with the fence, she got a shock and a fright and ran away. The white lioness grabbed her chance and took the break in the attack to make a quick getaway!

During all of this excitement, Rein was still able to get some amazing images and together with some other safari agents on an educational at the camps, got some great footage of this incredible sighting!