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The book "NightStalk" describes how big this pride is. The Sweni pride consisted out of 37 lions. Over and above this they shared their territory with 6 other subadult males and another pride nearly as big as themselves to the west and a smaller pride to the north. Truly amazing!

Lion paw.

At Olifants last month, we were looking down on the river from the observation shelter, and saw five young lions standing absolutely still on the rocks watching a herd of hippo with several young in the river. The carcass of a young hippo was lying in the water not far from the further bank.
Suddenly the leading lion began hopping from rock to rock, and working his way across to the further bank, reaching the point where the carcass was lying. A second lion joined him and the others came up and waited some distance behind.
For some time nothing happened.The lions were motionless on their haunches, staring at the hippos. Then suddenly two of the adult hippos rushed out of the water and up the bank heading straight for the lions -- who turned tail and loped away into the bush .
Do lions often kill hippos?

Hi Gerald, and welcome to the forum.
Lions are opportunistic animals and will take more or less anything if the chance presents itself.
They more than likely do not actively hunt hippos due to the ferocity of the adults, but a Hippo carcass would be too much to resist.

Does anybody know what the latest statistics are of how many lions are in Kruger?

I seem to recall that there was supposed to be a Lion census being conducted in late May, starting in the South of the Park.
Maybe someone has more info on whether it has been completed yet.

estimated 1500 lions.

Yup, it was definetly 1500. Lets hope the Bovine TB won't affect there numbers.

Even though I don't like lions, they are part of nature, so I wish them the best.

Kruger King...

But the Kalahari lion has it much tougher than Kruger lion in other areas like harsher environment, lack of cover to hunt, less prey species etc. They basically scavange in the Kalahari most of the time and their cub mortality is much higher as well.

S100 March this year

We have a fat cat at home because she is 16 and has given up the idea of hunting birds and ending up in the pool for her anti social behaviour. Now she eats her food plus the dogs leftovers and sleeps...She is also now very fat.....Could the same easy life be happening to Addo lions.

Not so long ago I saw a film of the capture of Bitterpan and other pride lions destined for Addo. They were the normal sleek mean and beautiful Kalahari Lions. They were then released into Addo not too long ago and it seems that the multi days long trek just to find the odd porcupine are over for them in their new home and it seems to me that it is almost like a kid who now spends its life in a fast food and take away alley. I went to Addo this morning and the first animal I saw through the new South Gate was this little ex Kalahari Missus. She crossed the road slowly in front of me and then stopped in the thick Karoo Boerboon bush on the side of the road to check out this lens being pointed at her. We spent 10 mins together before she decided she better move on. She must have been the princess of Bitterpan a year or so ago but our little Lass now wears a big fat collar (Doesn't do much for photos!!!) and our Kalahari Miss is now very broad in the beam from the easy meals at Addo. She's fat but at least she had a nice personality!!

These are not my pics but were sent to me by a friend. I thought I would post them here to show you just how scary Lions are.











Sorry if this post is too big. If so maybe a Mod can fix it, thanx.

WOW! What a series! Especially the first two pics, they are just great! Do you have the story behind it as well? It would seem to be the KTP, but was the car annoying the lion? Or just a bad hairday for the lion?

It would seem to be fine, just tinypic being rather slow at the moment....