This morning held a lot of excitement for guests occupying the nThambo Tree Camp game viewer as Matt pulled up to a sighting of the Ross Pride doing what they do best: specialising in warthog hunting! This pride has a lot of history with the ferocious hogs of the Klaserie; sometimes the lions walk away with full bellies, and other times a 4-hour-long struggle sees the warthogs escape with their lives!
This morning we just missed the action and found the happy cats chowing down on their kill. One warthog between 4 hungry lions does not go very far and they didn’t take long to devour it entirely. One lioness and 3 sub-adults lay in the semi-shade in great view of the nThambo guests and gnawed and crunched and licked noisily at their breakfast. The one and only sub-adult male is growing a teenaged mane (1.5-2 in lion years) and he seems to have dominated the kill, getting the prime piece of warthog.
The adult lioness looks worse for wear and it’s good seeing her get a good meal in her. She was so over-enthusiastic about eating that she spent a good amount of time choking on a bone she had accidentally swallowed. Two young females lay near their brother and one looked at his piece of meat eagerly after she seemed to have finished her own.
Originally, this pride used to be a mega pride with over 20 lions, but now only this unit remains close. The 2 young males of the Ross Pride, who have grown up and left their home pride, are not far away and were seen in the area last week. The Trilogy males were seen last night, as were the 2 Ross Pride breakaway lionesses, so lion activity is at an all time high in the Klaserie!
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