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Fantastic pics Chad

Were these taken at ingwelala?

thanks mike....no, these pics were snapped up at motswari....i dont know if the pride has actually been seen on ingwelala yet, i know they are seen by members on the main rd, but i havent heard of sightings of them on the property, although i do know they spent at least 3 days there last month, just no one saw them....currently they deep in the klaserie and we shall have to wait and see when they decided to return to the timbavati....

Well done, Mr Cocking!!!

Wonder if they'll ever pop over to Kruger!

Does the one look a bit preggies, or were they near a kill?

Thanks Rich....they do move into the kruger on the east of the timbavati, and to the north of the umbabat, but that is into the wilderness area south of the olifants rive, so no tourists will se them...

and no, she is just fat! they arrived back in the timbavati after 2 months absence and ate, in their first week:

2x young buffalo (day 1)
1x zebra (day 2)
1 x adult buffalo (day 3)
1 x adult giraffe (day 5)

i still had guests that said they looked skinny!

Hi

I have certain questions.

1) What is the difference between Albino and Leucistik animals (except the colour of the eye?).

2) Does the white Lions only occur in Kruger (spoken only in the southern Africa) or does they exist somewhere else? If yes where are the records?

3) My Grandmother saw long long time ago a Black Leopard are these animals Leucastic aswell or what these "abnormal" cats called?

Thank you for the answers.

@ the chad - WOW! They are awesome! Thanks for posting

There is somewhere, here on the mammals forum, a good explanation of the two, especially leucistic, but I'll give it a shot.

Albinism is basically the absence of colour pigments in the skin, hair, feathers, etc. - therefore the pink eyes, lips, nose, etc. - basically all visible skin.

Leucistic means a colour variation. The animal has colour, but other than the norm. Example a white, not albino, impala, buffalo, etc. It does have colour, but not the same as usual. Or a totally black impala, or a zebra with no white. Never seen or heard of any, but those would be leucistic. So it is basically a colour variation.

the black leopards are known to occur; that is a colour variation called melanism, where too much melanin (black pigment) is produced in the animals...you get some birds like the melanistic form of the gabar goshawk that occur regularly because of the genetic inheritance...

i could be wrong, but leucism is gentically transfered, i am not sure about albinism??? if two albinos have young, will their offspring be albinos? if two white lions (leucistic animals) have young, all their cubs will be white...it is about pairing the recessive genes....i would guess albinism is not so much a recessive gene as a 'broken' gene??? im just thinking aloud here

as for the white lions, they are known to occur in the kruger, hluhluwe-umfolozi (have heard of a report there many many years ago), but predominantly and most frequently in the timbavati...as for the rest of southern africa, i havent personally heard of anything....why are they white? no one has any idea, but a lot of theories, like its a kick back from the ice age, but if that were the case, then surely the gene would be more wide spread and not confined to our area???

Woweee I never knew Kruger had white
Lions! This is beautiful and amazing!
I truly hope I see one in my lifetime.

Chad your pics r just mind blowing! Well done!

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Wow....

Well i doubt it, that bif an lucastic Male and Female lion breed, that only leucastic Animals occur. With Colour Variation, there are a lot. I know from a Black Leopartd in Kruger (my Grand ma saw it), Then we have the black Lions of the KTP (OK they only have a Dark Mane but still that is indeed interesting). We dio have Black and white Springboks..... .

Amazing how many Varioans Styles occur.

Whats the zoologists take on this , is it possible ?

malealea, are you saying that if 2 leucistic (white) lions mate, that not all of their off spring will be white? that is not true...if 2 white lions mate, there is a 100% chance that the cubs will be white...if a white and a non-gene carrying lion mate, 0% of their cubs will be white...if a white mates with a gene-carrying lion, there is a 50% chance of white lions (which doesnt mean 50% WILL be white), and if 2 gene-carrying lions mate, there is a 25% chance of the cubs being white...its all explained my genetics...

We have seen them last year at Ingwelala. Chad, I see that you have posted some good photos on their website. The ones that we took was taken by a friend of Christo 'Devos' (should be de Vos) of bungalow 86/7.

Hi All

I have just returned from Timbavati and was fortunate to have seen the two white female lion cubs that the chad has posted pictures of!!! According to our guide, there are currently three wild white lions- these two females and a young male that is part of another pride.

Apparently it is possible for other white lions to be roaming somewhere within Kruger (as the area is so vast and large amounts of wilderness areas are restricted to the public) but it seems that there is a lack of current evidence to support this theory.

I think the natural occurance of White lions is fantastic as it was thought that they were infact extinct in the early 1990's!

A recent documentary has been made about the white lions of Timbavati and I think it will hit S.A shores soon!!!