A video of two male lions of the Mohlabetsi pride as seen on the 22nd of November 2015. Male lion dynamics sometimes take a life of their own throwing the text books out of the window. Text books on animal behavior are handy and good study material, but one must always remember that just as human behavior are a complicated subject matter and that we might react different under certain circumstances so would animals. Rules are made to broken.
The western parts of Balule were ruled by two young dominant males who in the process of expanding their territory decided for some unknown reason to split the coalition and each male took a different prides of females for themselves. Kudyela took territory with the Olifants west pride that has since spit into three and the other male are with the Mohlabetsi pride.
The Mohlabetsi male allowed a young subadult to stay instead of chasing him off as is normally the rule. This is the other male seen in the video. Might be that he knew that he was very vulnerable to strange males coming in from the east and that he was badly in need of a partner to help him defend his territory. Incredibly this two have now joined with their sons and this group of 8 male lions are often seen patrolling their territory and they seem to be pushing deeper into Kudyela’s territory. The 2 big males might yet decide to chase the young sons away and it might just be a temporarily situation. Only time will tell. I cannot wait for the next Chapter to start!
Post by Robbie Prehn
