Marakele: Lions

[Evel]

I just spend a great weekend at Tlopi camp. We heard lions calling Saturday evening and this morning. We went looking for them and saw the paw prints on the road. I was just wondering if anybody has had any sightings of the Marakele lions to share with us? Has anybody ever seen them from Tlopi camp?

[Grantmissy]

We have been to Marakele as day visitors and have never seen or heard any lions. Good news that you have heard lions roar from Tlopi Camp Evel. Maybe it is a sign that the lion population in Marakele is on the increase?

[PNF]

Stayed at Tlopi a couple of weeks ago and also heard lions roaring - very close to us! Saw pawprints not far from our car................ So the roars definitely did not come from the predator park.............
But actually see the lions? No

[Hippotragus]

We have stayed at Marakele three times and never actually seen lion.

In February this year we stayed at Motswere Guest House and heard lion roar close by one night. The next day we saw tracks on the 4 x 4 road leading to the house.

[Div]

Just saw the media release- 2 new lions released in Marakele. Any further lion or other sightings from Marakele?

Did the park get good rain during the summer?

[africawildlife.nl]

Yes, there are still lions in Marakele... We've visited the park between 25-april and 29-april. Rain has caused lots of damage to the roads, but park management is working on it. Not all roads are already accessible by 2WD. I'll try to upload some nice pictures later this week.

[MNEL]

Hi guys
just back from fantastic weekend in Marakele - stayed at the cottage - and fell in love with this place. Regarding lions.....yip, they are definitly there! We had lots of tracks around our camp on Friday morning - seems like the pride that had babies earlier this year! And we were woken on Sunday morning by the mighty roar of the LION! We went looking for them but again could just find the tracks. So we will go back to go looking for them in the not so distant future!

[Hippotragus]

We have just spent 3 nights at Motswere Guest Cottage. We heard lion roars a few times whilst there.

Yesterday (Wednesday 1st April) we were awokened to roaring very close by. On getting to the gate (to the cottage) we saw a beautiful male about 50 metres from the gate. He looked at us, roared again, and then went behind some bushes. He roared a few more times.

When we went along the track to the cottage we could see that he had walked up and down there during the night.

[Eddie Lubbe]

I am new on this thread and have never been to Marakele. Does anyone have an estimate on the lion numbers and in what sections of the park are they most likely to be seen?

[Laeveldkind]

Hi Eddie
It seems most forum members that have seen or heard lions did so around Tlopi camp or Motswere Cottage. Lions are restricted to the eastern side of the park only. I know there were two young males released mid last year and have heard about one pride having had cubs a while back but do not know more about their numbers inside the park. Would be interesting to find out though. Maybe you should try and send a mail to the park itself?

[Laeveldkind]

Hi Eddie
After your question I got curios myself and decided to do some research. I found the website of a lodge that has a concession just north of the eastern half of the park. They are open with Marakele and some unrelated good news is that there were 2 cheetah's released on their concession in December of last year and these cheetah's have already started wandering over towards the public access part on occasion. There are more cheetah on the way as well.
They also have some great info on the lions of the park. Apparently there are about 19 lions on the reserve excluding recent cubs that have not been counted yet. These lion's have formed at least 3 distinct prides with another male and female possibly making up a fourth it seems. You can have a read on this site-http://www.marataba.co.za/2015/05/introduction-to-the-lions-of-marataba/

[Imberbe]

We stayed at the environmental education centre three weeks ago. It is near Tlopi.

We had a big male and a female visiting two nights in a row.

[TornaDouw]

We stayed in Tlopi tented camp last weekend and Saturday morning we were woken by roaring lions. I jumped out of bed and had a glimpse of a lion across the dam.

Later that day we were very fortunate to see the lions close to Tlopi!

[Philip1]

Thank you all for sharing "Marakele: Lions" with us that still have Marakele on our wish lists.

[Hippotragus]

Great photos! It is good news that the lions are being seen more frequently in the Tlopi/Motswere/Environmental Centre area. I have a feeling that they wander in and out of the park somewhere up near Motswere - there is a lot of land beyond the cottage, with no fence but signs telling visitors that it is "no entry".