African Wildlife & Environment Issue 85

WILDLIFE CHRONICLES

Ultimately, I had individuals from ten neighbouring prides all fitted with collars, but during the earlier part of the study, there was one pride that I had not been able to access. Although I had seen them on a few occasions, they were skittish and unapproachable. But eventually in April 1983, using a bait, I managed to entice them into darting range, and I fitted collars to an adult male and an adult female. Their range was on the eastern end of the Sweni Spruit near the Lebombo Mountains and as the confluences of a few of the larger tributaries to the Sweni (Muhrunzuluka, Guweni, Makongolweni and Nungwini spruits) all fell within their home range. I knew them as the ‘Confluence Pride’. Ian Whyte Photographs: John Wesson (unless otherwise indicated) THE MIXED FORTUNES OF A VERY LARGE LION PRIDE

At that time the pride consisted of two adult males, four adult females and a partly disfigured young male of about 18 months of age. His spine was strangely arched from the shoulders to the hips, and he always seemed rather scruffy. We fondly referred to him thereafter as ‘Rubbish’. The composition of the pride seemed unusual. Not knowing their previous history, I can only speculate that the males had recently evicted the previous males and taken over the tenure of the pride. In this situation, the new males almost always kill the cubs, because it makes no evolutionary sense for male lions to rear their predecessor’s offspring. The evolutionary imperative is to ensure that their own genes are carried forward into future One aspect of my studies for a Master’s degree (MSc) was to determine the impact of lions on the wildebeest population of the Central District of the Kruger National Park (KNP). This population had suffered a 65% decline from an estimated 14 000 in 1969 to around 4 800 in 1979, and it was believed by many that lions were mainly responsible. I started with a telemetry study in December 1981 with the first fitting of radio collars to lion prides in the area covered mainly by the Sweni drainage system between Satara and N’wanetsi.

A large group of young lines (not the ones referred to in the article) (Photograph: Helena Atkinson)

33 | African Wildlife & Environment | Issue 85 (2024)