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As usual the Satara area provides great lion entertainment... I returned from Satara on sunday and had the most exhilarating experience I have ever had in the Kruger...

On the morning of Saturday the 27th of June I set out at 6:00am onto the H6 and then onto the s41 where I came across a lone male lion lying in the middle of the road. I then noticed a female lying 50m further up the road and immediately assumed that they were a mating pair. After a few minutes the male got up and approached the female and then proceded to attacked her... This lasted a few minutes with each lion beating the c**p out of eachother... All of a sudden the commotion stopped and the male stared into the bush before bolting across the road in the opposite direction. This prompted me to look in the direction he did and about 100m away 7 young male lions loped in our direction. At this stage the female lay motionless. The 7 young males saw her and then surrounded her and proceeded to stalk her for 20minutes before they too began a full on attack on the helpless lioness. Eventually the female managed to escape and for some reason the first male started to roar from the other side of the road. This was a very brave move in my opinion because the already irrate 7 young males headed immediately in his direction and after a while a huge battle ensued with loud roaring and growling. The 7 then returned with deep wounds and I can only assume that the lone male didn't have a very happy ending...
Now I know that male to male competition is normal, however, why did the lone male and the coalition of 7 attack the lioness with such intent?
Pictures to follow...

Evening Mlambane,
What you saw was probably a territorial fight. The male lion was probably protecting his territory and was defending it from intruders. Strange to have two groups fighting each other.
Would love to see your pictures.

Phew, what a sighting. Am interested to hear comment on the behaviour and dying to see the The satara area is a firm favourite of ours too.

WOW Mlambane - can hardly wait to see the pictures of this escapade!

@ Rumuruti: The interaction between the lone male and the 7 young males was by all means a territorial battle, that is obvious. The strange aspect of the behaviour is that both the lone male and the 7 males attacked the female... Lion territories are deffended by male coalitions and male to male contest competition is common, however, male to female contests are rare...

Yes Mlambane, it is very strange seeing the male attacking the female. I have witnessed such a scene in another national park and then it was because there were two females with cubs nearby and the female had entered their territory.
Would be interesting to hear what could have really been the cause of it all.

Mlambane, actually, territorial defence is undertaken by females as well as males, most often very actively by the females actually. The "territorial battles" between males is actually something totally different than the territorial battles between prides, or of the pride against intruders.

Females will defend their territory against intruding females, and may even fight off males wanting to take over the pride, especially if they have cubs. They may even leave the pride if they cannot stave off the males, although that doesn't happen too often. Usually it is a tense period after the take-over, and then the females give in to the new pride male(s).

The males don't really defend the territory because of the territory, they are really defending the territory because of what's in it - the females! But they will attack any intruders, even females as you have witnessed. A couple of years ago there was actually an insert on 50/50 that showed lions attacking, killing, and then eating a lionness! Can't remember whether it was only males, or mixed.

This female was probably a nomad that wandered into his territory. Interesting that the young males also attacked her though.

But seven of them! Might even challenge the Mapogos. But I've read that the remaining five of them have split up now, 2+3.

Hello MLAMBANE,
A couple of weeks ago we were there as well, the S41, I'm sure you have seen the same group we saw. Indeed, a lot of males in the group, with short manes, right?

Here are some pics of the at least 14 lions we saw..



This lion had a nasty wound, maybe you recognize it He was the most growling one

We were very much impressed by these lions and wondered why there were so many males in the group .. my aunt said that last year they saw the same group.. with these (young) males...

But very strange they attacked the female

Looking forward to see your pics

I was also thinking of a nomad female. The young males seem to be the odd ones out of this fight.

Strange me too waiting and wondering why!

@Bishop3006 - females do defend their territory and will actively attack intruder females, again that is a given. They will also attack males if there are cubs around or if a new coalition of males is trying to take over the pride. The strange behaviour is why would two different sets of males attack this lone female??? As you said males not only defend a territory but rather the resources (Females) it contains. So why attack a possible "resource"? In countless documentaries and personal experience I have witnessed males that have already got a pride mating with lone lionessess (Nomads). I must make it clear that in this case the female was entirely submissive and any aggression from her part was purely in self-defence, and for this reason I do not believe that she had cubs because she was never the aggressor...

@maiper - Thats them!!!!!

Mlambane, isn't that the truth about nature? We think we know based on past experience and observations, and then they come... I've actually seen documentaries as well where they do state that males may mate with the nomads that are in heat. But, if she's not in oestrus then there's a good chance that she will be attacked and driven off. But sometimes they are accepted into new packs. So, just as with people, it just depends... on the sun, moon, position of the stars, amount of dust in the air, direction of the wind, whether there's a fly on the other's nose or not... In other words, most often just quite random. As I always say, they don't read the books and watch the documentaries, thus they don't know what they're supposed to do.

Maiper, thanks for those photos. Just one thing... 14?? are you saying that there were fourteen males in that group!! Holy mackerel!

If I were taking an educated guess having grown up with the large savuti prides this is what I think happend.

The female was an out of season nomad - or for some reason away from her pride. The males were subadults and the/one of the pride male/s from the resident pride.

The female was attacked as a stranger.

The interaction between the males was probaly because of the age of the youngsters. They are of an age where the pride male/males are pushing them out of the pride (difficult with so many at one time) and with adreniline so high after the attack the big male probably saw the need for some disapline - he probably survived because even in those numbers the youngsters should instinctively be quite submissive still.

Great pictures maiper and very interesting discussion you all!

It is a very interesting discussion

Jeanus's theory seems very possible

It is very strange to see so many young males together