Updates from the Serengeti, Africa through December, 1999
More information about each of these lion prides in the Serengeti can be found at their individual lion pages
December, 1999: Trojan's leg is still sore, but he's hanging on. All 7 cubs are great. BFW and BFX were seen a couple of weeks ago- no cubs for them.
July, 1999: The Barafus have recently been photographic models for the Serengeti. They can usually be found lounging on Barafu Kopjes, a spectacular place, with the males, females, and 7 cubs. BFV only has one cub, but the six larger cubs think this little guy (BF14 m) is the "cat's meow". Trojan's leg is still bothering him a bit, but he seems to be holding strong.
December, 1999: (Comments by Meggan) I'm still checking the lioness 'Big Girl' for lactation stains, but none yet, so no cubs born yet! Another lioness, "CS55", killed a Thompson gazelle 1 meter from my car the other day. The "tommie" ran around a bush right toward my car and she caught it right under my window! 'Big Girl' (identifed as "CS84") had just caught another tommie 10 meters away and I thought that was close!!
July, 1999: Last month the Campsites had been frequenting strange places, such as the Seronera Staff Village, the Wandamu River, and close to our house at the Research Center. Now however, they are back to "Ker's Dam" and are busy ambushing prey at the water hole, and gorging themselves on the tail end of the migration as it passes through Seronera. Last week tourists reported 3 wildebeest kills by the Campsites- all in the same day! All the subadults are in great shape, and we think Big Girl had her chance to mate last month, as she was spotted with Sean.
December, 1999
In response to a question from a sponsor of the Cub Valley Pride, our researcher Grant writes: The male subadult lion identified as "CVH "was last seen on August 21 with his 2 sisters and his mother near Boma Kojes which is on the edge of the Cub Valley (CV) territory. They had blood all over their faces and were fat so they must have just eaten. He hasn't been seen since, although we've seen both his sisters and his mother. If he is still alive he should be just about to start his nomadic phase ... probably starting this year as the migration passes.
October, 1999
This pride is taking over!! The pride sheet is completely full with 18 cubs!! All the cub valley females except for MK09 and MK13(who hasn't been seen since March) are lactating! (8 females). Truthfully, there could be more cubs. Whisker spots are a nightmare in the tall dead grass.July, 1999
The Cub Valley pride has been expanding as usual. MK11 (Vivian ) pooled her 4 cubs with MK23's two cubs. Unfortunately for me, though, they have recently been doing a good job of hiding up on Masai Kopjes, so I'm not sure if all 6 cubs are still around. MK09 hasn't had cubs yet but MK21 (JB) was lactating and MK18 has three cubs. Noddy and Nerd are still the resident males.October, 1999:
Meggan writes: Here's the BIG news; The GOL Subadult lions have resurfaced after not being seen since last November! The lions identified as: GU40, GU41, 42,43, 51, and 52! No GU9, though. I found them near Sametu looking Very skinny (bs 4) and acting shy towards the car. The GOl females, males, and 12 cubs are still out at Gol Kopjes. The BBC film crew gave me a great data sheet for the month of June!July, 1999
There has been tons of cub action at Gol. GU10 (Guinevere) had 2 cubs at Sametu (GU54, GU55), but then moved them to Gol Kopjes, leaving GU27 and GU30 with 5 cubs at Sametu. But now they are all together with GU31 and her cubs--- a total of ten cubs at Gol Kopjes. G07 (Grouch) and the resident males, Twinkle and Toe, have all been with the moms and cubs and are busy showing off for the BBC film crew.
The film crew has renamed GU10 "Gucci" for her tendency to show off her leather collar for the camera. They think the Gol Pride are eland specialists. GU40 was mating with Twinkle and Toe, but GU9 and the subs have not reappeared yet.
We also just realized that one of the young cubs is blind! The film-makers are catching lots of her behavior on film so she will probably be famous one of these days. Apparently all the other cubs and moms are sympathetic to her plight and come running when she bumps into things.
October, 1999:
Meggan writes: I still think the male lions "Howard" and "Jose" might be resident here. Haven't seen the subadult lions from this pride recently, however, I continue to come across the three lionesses K22,K23, and K34.
July, 1999:
Sure enough, Peaches's (K34) cubs disappeared. The lionesses K22, K23, and Peaches are all doing well, and enjoy hiding from me. The male situation has not solidified yet, as Howard and Jose are still around, but were last seen with the neighboring Loliondo Pride. The Kibumbu subadults have not been seen recently, but could still be around, hiding from these male lions
October, 1999
Fun news here - the lioness L103 still has 2 cubs! Remember I said that she had 3 cubs, then I found the dead one, (probably killed by "Wart"), well the other two survived. After spending 3 hours crossing korongos, I found a funny sight. The lionesses L76, L79, L103 and cubs, L118 and L109 (who have returned from their incredible journey to the Gol Kopjes) were completely gorged on an eland. "Bill", the male lion who looking skinny, was now guarding the empty carcass. Tough guy, eh? Wouldn't let the females close. I think the males "Howard" and "Jose" are resident here as well.
July, 1999
The Loliondo Pride have been quite exciting this past month. First I found the 4 Loliondo subadults being chased away by the male lion "Twinkle" as they were FAR out of their territory, south of Zebra Kopjes. I also saw them later at Gol Kopjes, having moved from the northern end of our study site, to the most southern end.
The reasons for leaving became clear as I found lioness L79 (Pumpkin) mating with a new DARK MANED male, "Shadow". However, last week I found L79 reunited with L76, eating a giraffe with the male lodger "Bill" (still limping) and other male lions "Howard" and "Jose". The lioness L103 had 3 cubs in March, however, I found a dead female cub being eaten by vultures, and a strange male lion, "Wart", looking guilty nearby, suggesting an infanticide attack by this male lion.
October, 1999
This pride is still fat. The male lions "Sean" and "Fitzpatrick" visit occasionally. The Masai Kopje pride seems to be moving into her territory. Especially the young males, but even Mkma and Mko are along the Wandamu river nowadays.
July, 1999
The lioness Masai Missy (MS51) did manage to have one cub, however it soon disappeared. She has been seen mating with the male lion "Masai Mike" again, and wouldn't you know it, the old resident male "Sean" showed up for mating as well. Besides mating, Missy has been found up in trees and always entertaining tourists with her abundance of kills.
October, 1999:
The female lion "MKMa" was mating with the male lion "BFS" and all her previous cubs are definitely gone. I haven't seen the Masai Kopjes subadults recently. Just the coalition of the four subadult males.
July, 1999:
Strangely, the Masai Kopje pride has been a bit elusive lately. The lioness' MKO and MKMa seem to have only managed to raise one female together. The subadults haven't been seen in over two months, but a Hot Air Balloon pilot informed me about 10 lions near the Wandamu River- which pretty much points to the subadult lions!
Mukoma Hill Pride: Lots of baby Mukoma Hills!! 10 in total born to MH03, MH05, and MH13. The cubs are at that cute stage (but when AREN'T they cute!) where they chew on sticks, each other, and rocks. Yesterday they were playing "king of the mountain" whereby the cubs all try to be up on a mound of dirt. Inevitably, one was getting pushed off and rolling off the mound! The fathers, Vulture- Cat and Sten are quite tolerant of the cubs, letting the cubs bite them and play with them. "Puddy" and "Tat" (MH21 and MH22) are playing big sisters to the little cubs. MH19 has still been hanging out by herself, and doesn't seem to have cubs yet.
October, 1999
I found some subadult males and females along the Girtasho River and they were so big I did not recognize them as the Naabi Pride! The lionesses NN06, NN07, "Lily" and the subadults are there, and "Lychee" and gang are in the Moru area, I haven't seen them since last month. I'm not sure what's going on with males and the Naabis, as I haven't seen any male lions in the area.
July, 1999:
Better times came for the Naabis when the migration of wildebeest arrived. The 5 cubs to NN06 and NN07 are quite healthy and Lychee and Lupine's 4 subadults are almost full grown now. The loss of the male lion Snaggle-Puss now leaves Bach and Vivaldi on their own to defend the area.
October, 1999
Meggan writes: I have finally made all 14 ID cards for the Plains cubs!! PN22 was injured with puncture wounds on her rear thigh, but I think she'll be ok. Haven't seen Plains A, B, etc. since March, but PN55and PN54 have been near the main road.
July, 1999:
After disappearing for about a month, the Plains have resurfaced, with more cubs! PN12 had 2 little boys, bringing the cub total to 14, ranging in age from 2 months to 7 months. What a circus! The male lions Shlong and Foo-Jong seem to be the fathers. They normally are with the cubs, except when they have been mating with PN25, PN51, and PN54!
Sangere Pride:
October, 1999
All 5 cubs are still healthy. Still haven't seen the lioness Delilah(NW44) and her cubs yet! The Sangere's are great at hiding cubs from me.
July, 1999
The Sangeres remain elusive as well. However, the Sangere cubs aren't as shy anymore and there are 4 males and one female (born to NW17 and NW06). NW27 was lactating, but I haven't seen her cubs yet. The subadults (NW42, 43, 44) are healthy, but we haven't seen Winston (NW52) since January meaning he is probably dead. The fact that his mother (NW27--Delilah) is lactating also points to his death--mothers don't usually conceive again until their cubs are two, and Winston would still be under 1.5 years old.
October, 1999
Saw the young Simba East subadults chasing S#50 (lioness from Simba Numbers Pride) away from the Girtasho River. Both prides have been there recently. The lioness SB66 was mating with a new handsome male, "Beastie Boy".
July, 1999
After disappearing from view for close to six months following the death of the collared female Soho from disease, the Simba pride was finally found at Big Simba Kopje, as though they had never left! Helen (SB47) was collared and is still with SB51 and the 6 subadults. Helen has recently been mating with a new male, but I'm not convinced that he will actually replace Olivier and Brenaugh.
October
This pride is still huge! And growing. The lioness S#19's 3 cubs are all boys and have been grouped with the rest of the pride now. S#59 I don't think is alive (S#31's female cub), but there are still 4 large boy cubs (to S#12 and S#04). All 6 2 year old subs are still alive, but haven't seen SB2 since Kissui saw her in bad shape in May. This means that SB2 is officially the oldest lion ever recorded in our study! The first to reach age 18.July, 1999
Luckily for the Lion Project, the Simba Numbers have been along the Girtasho River, where we are allowed to drive! Two new males, "Bwana" and "Kubwa" were found with the females and cubs, so we'll wait and see if they become the resident males. As far as the cubs go, S#04 and S#12 have 4 big boy cubs and S#31 has a small girl cub. The poor thing can't walk anywhere without her big brothers swatting at her and playfully biting her! S#19 was just found with 3 tiny male cubs, their teeth hadn't even erupted yet!
October, 1999
All still alive and hanging out with the Young Transects.
July, 1999
The split between the Transects, and the new pride, the "Young Transects" has been exciting to watch. (Most of the time, however, a member of the Young Transects has been with the Transects, so the split is not set in stone.) The eight cubs are big nowadays, and have recently been improving their tree climbing abilities! TRS is lactating, but I haven't seen cubs yet. TR00 is well and TR03 was roaring in my driveway last week. The subadults have been up to mischievous trouble-the young males were chewing on another researcher's vehicle during the night!
Solitary female lions and their cubs:
Hog:
October, 1999:
She is back in her original territory, still with her adult offspring "Hilary" and "Harold."
July, 1999
The mother lion Hog has raised Hilary and Harold who have passed their second birthday meaning that Hog is officially the first solitary female in thirty years to successfully rear a daughter to this age and thus cease to be solitary. Harold hasn't left his mom and sister yet, and he was stalking my car the last time I saw him!
GI Jane (NN11):
July, 1999
GI Jane was spotted by the BBC film crew during a staring match with another solitary female, Acacia. Jane's cubs were not around, so I am not sure if they survived or not. The film crew said that "she meant business" and said the name GI Jane was perfect for her.
Acacia is one of three solitary females who appear to have taken advantage of the space left by the canine distemper outbreak in 1994 to move onto the plains (from no one knows where). She had three cubs late 1997 out at Gol Kopjes (Arnold, Apple and Alfalfa) but they all disappeared. She ranges around Simba, Gol and Naabi. I tried a dummy test (to determine her preference for the color of a mane of male lions) with her and she absolutely refused to even budge! Mimosa has been very successful in managing to raise two boys to age 2 (Davy and Pip) before leaving them to mate. They were subsequently seen trying to "lodge" with the Barafus, the Cub Valleys and then the Plains. Davy was sprouting a nice little mane when he left his mom but six months later he'd been bitten on the head and had lost his mane altogether. Namanga (named because she was always seen in the "border" area along the Girtasho between the Simbas Pride and Simba Numbers Pride). She's currently has two daughters (Nairobi and Naivasha) who were born late 1997. She's a runner up to Hog in the "raise a daughter, form a pride" solitary sweepstakes and we're keeping our fingers crossed. In the rainy season we were seeing her a lot on the main road between Simba and Naabi. These females (along with Hog and GI Jane) are really interesting because they provide a contrast through which to study the costs and benefits of living in a group vs living alone. In the past, females living alone have paid the high cost of almost no offspring, but these females seem to be breaking the rules. The reason for this is doubtless the fact that with so few lions left after the canine distemper outbreak in 1994, and particularly so few adult males left to threaten cubs, these females encountered much less aggression from other lions while their cubs were small than solitaries normally would. Now that the lion population in the Serengeti has fully recovered, the difficulty of raising offspring alone will probably re-emerge. It will be interesting to see whether Mimosa, Acacia and GI Jane have any success next time around. And as for Hog and Namanga, we are really looking forward to learning how solitaries adjust to having adult companions as a Pride!Update from the Serengeti as of March 5, 1999 by Peyton West
The weather is unusually dry out here so the wildebeest have calved quite far north and lots of them are dying.
Kissui left to start his work in the Crater today. We're going to miss him A TON here, but are really excited about his beginning to solve the mystery of the Crater lions.
Work with the lion dummies (being used as part of Peyton's research into male lion manes) is going pretty slowly because all the cubs means less lions to do dummy tests with, but we're giving it our best shot. Results continue to be more ambiguous than I hoped, and sample sizes are still too small to say anything definitive.
I'm beached at the house this am because Meggan found the day-old carcass of the Loliondo pride female lion L75 yesterday and we brought her home, leaking intestinal fluids, in the back of my truck. So I'm waiting for the smell to subside, while Meggan's out trying to find the Loliondos since now there's no collar on that pride--our WORST nightmare since the Loliondos are so hard to find even with a collar due to their propensity to hang out in the bushiest, rockiest, most testse-fly infested and least accessible areas they can find. Argh! We'll be trying to call them in using the playbacks of hyenas at a kill and hopefully we'll find them before the rains start and the Ngare Nanyuki becomes un-crossable.
Update from the Serengeti as of March 1, 1999
Peyton provides the following updates on the lion prides being studied based on her observations in the Serengeti: Barafu Lion Pride: The Barafus are doing great, BFM's three big cubs from August (BF07 (F), BF08 (f), and BF09 (m) are still around and getting big and BFO has three little guys too (BF11--m, BF12-m, BF13-f). Brett and I first saw them when they were about a week old which is pretty rare since they're usually hidden pretty well at that time. They were tiny! When they're that size we call them "beercans" thanks to Grant who observed that week old cubs were the exact size of beer cans. So BFO has been keep her cubs apart from the rest of the pride, but has finally pooled them in with BFM's cubs this week. The big cubs think the little ones are the best toys they've ever seen and can't let one walk by without knocking it over. Lots of fun to watch! BFV has been in a korongo for a week suggesting that she now has some beercans too. I finally saw her this am and sure enough she has tiny lactation stains. The males are fine except that Trojan has an infected puncture on his rear left thigh. He can walk fine, but it's the size of an egg and looks pretty uncomfortable. We're keeping an eye on him. Campsites: The Campsites continue to be the best-fed lions in the park. Now the wildebeest have returned but its still very dry south of Seronera so they are hanging around in Campsite territory with their calves and the Campsites are making the best of it. All six subadults are thriving, and Babe in particular looks great since he is developing a good mane already. It's much bigger than Mickey's even though there's only a month difference between them in age. Sean and Fitzpatrick who are the resident males are almost never with the pride (they much prefer the Transects and Sangeres), so we are wondering when Big Girl (CS84) will get the chance to have her first litter. Cub Valley: As usual, there's tons of action in the Cub Valley pride. We had completely given up on MK09 and MK17 and their six cubs (and collared Vivian (MK11)--another CV female) when they suddenly returned! Only one cub was left, a female which we called Victim since the likelihood of her surviving was nil. Sure enough, Victim has since disappeared and MK09 and MK17 have been mating with Noddy and Nerd the Cub Valley males. The other splinter group consisted of MK19 (Victoria), MK13 (Vanna) and their four subadults from last year (Vip, Verve, Vera and Vox). These guys were hanging out near Sametu, but Victoria left the group and returned to the rest of the pride. Vanna is still with the subs, and they are now hanging out nearer Loliondo kopjes suggesting the she might be leaving them soon too. The subs are just about 2 years old now, so they've got a good chance of making it even without the protection of their moms or dads. The rest of the females are hanging out at Boma kopjes where at least two of them have tiny cubs! Meggan saw MK23 yesterday with two cubs, and Vivian is lactating although we haven't seen the cubs yet. Gol: There are new cubs at Gol too, but we haven't seen them yet. I think they're still beercans since Gu10 (Guinevere) just took to the kopje about five days ago and her lactation marks are also tiny. Some of the other females may be pregnant but its not obvious yet. We haven't seen GU09 or any of last years subs since November, so they may be splitting off. Hopefully when it starts to rain they'll all be back at Gol and we'll be able to figure it out. Kibumbu: "Mwinyi", the Kibumbu male who was looking pretty sick, finally disappeared in November, but not before impregnating Peaches (K34) who now has little cubs. Unfortunately, without fathers these guys are doomed. K23 (Hide) was seen mating with a new male Jose who has a coalition partner named Howard and we're waiting to see if they'll be the new resident males. The three subadults K37 (Karen), K38 (Kim) and K39 (Keg) are doing fine although K39 had a bad limp the last time he was seen. It's still borderline whether they'll make it without fathers around since they're just 1.5 years old. Loliondo: The Loliondos are also being hounded by Howard and Jose although they seem to be keeping them at bay. They've taken on a "lodger" (an unrelated young male) named Bill who has a serious injury to his front left leg and can barely use it. The four subadults (Lincoln, Lorenzo, Liz and Lynne) are thriving although they've been left in the care of L79 (Pumpkin) while the other females look for mating opportunities. Masai: "Masai Missy" (MS51) looks fatter every day since she too can capitalize on the wildebeest in Seronera and doesn't have to share with anyone. She's been hanging out with a new male named Masai Mike and might be pregnant for the first time since she became solitary but we're not sure yet. Masai Kopje Pride: There are so many Masai Kopjes that its almost impossible to keep track of all of them! MKO (the collared female) and MKMa have cubs, four total, but we're not sure if they'll survive since the resident males seem to have moved on. Vultura has dissapeared completely and is presumed dead, while we are seeing Vulture-Cat exclusively with the Mukoma Hill pride which he shares with his son MK08 (Sten). The other adult females were lactating in October, but we're pretty sure that the rest of them lost their litters (possibly to Noddy and Nerd who were nosing around the Masai Kopjes in November and December). The subadults are still doing fine however. They wander up and down the Seronera and into Missy's territory and even as far as Mukoma Hill, so there might be some territorial conflicts looming on the horizon. Mukoma Hill: All the adult females are doing fine including Mint (MH19), who is now almost 3 years old and tolerated by the males. MH04 has two female cubs, MH21 "Puddy" and MH22 "Tat" born in August, and there may still be another cub MH24, born in October to MH14. We haven't seen that one in a while though. The only real news here is the loss of Vultura and of MK16 (Michael) which reduces the male coalition from 4 males (almost invicible) to 2 (only average). Naabi: The Naabis arenot doing quite so well due to the lack of water on the plains--the short rains failed completely, and no sign of the long rains yet either so the wildebeest are pretty far from Naabi Hill. The result has been the loss of two cubs, NN37 (Tweety) and NN33. hat leaves them with five, which is not too bad given the circumstances. The three males still seem to be going strong, even Snaggle Puss who in spite of his incredible journey last year, and his withered hip, still makes long treks away from the Hill (he was recently spotted by a tour group from the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago in Hidden Valley). Lupine and Lychee and their four subadults have been hanging out in the protected Moru area so we have only seen them from the air recently. But they are at least all alive, and in an area with more food than Naabi Hill. Plains Pride: The Plain's Pride are the most confusing pride at the moment. We still weren't sure who the resident males were when suddenly we found 12 new cubs!! We think the fathers are probably Shlong (SB44) and Foo-Jong, but we're not entirely sure because the lactating moms have been seen mating with these males (something they ordinarily do with strange males, to divert their infanticidal tendencies). On the other hand, five females with 8 of the tiny cubs were sleeping peacefully with Foo-Jong the other day, so we're not sure what's going on. We've got a collar on Shlong now though, and are monitoring them daily to try and figure it out. Meanwhile the 12 cubs are providing quite a spectacle for the tourists! Sangere Pride: Yes, there are new cubs here too, six of them, born in November to NW06 and NW17. They're for some reason unusually shy, so we haven't managed to determine their sex yet unfortunately. We think that the young females (NW42 and NW43) might be pregnant too, but we're not sure yet. Simba: Here's the bad news: we hadn't seen SB22 (Soho) since November and assumed that either she was hiding in the Moru area where we couldn't search for her or that her collar was dead. Well, we finally were able to do a radio-tracking flight only to find Soho's collar, still intact out beyond Gol Kopjes towards Barafu! The only explanation for an intact collar is that the lion died, and we're frustrated to have little idea why or when! We suspect that she was sick however, since there's no other explanation for her movement out of her own range into an area with neither water nor food. In any case, we're now focusing on trying to find the rest of the Simba pride so we can collar one of the other adult females. Simba Number's Pride: We're also frustrated with the Simba #s because we've recently been informed that a larger part of their range is off limits to researchers. So while we know that there are cubs here too (born in September to S#04 and S#12), we haven't been able to see them since December. Another question is whether there are still three resident males. We saw Olivier and Brenaugh in October, but haven't seen Rickman since April. Transects: Exciting news is that the Transect pride may be splitting! There are seven young females of mating age whose fathers (Sean and Fitzpatrick) are still the resident males and who would have good reason to leave, and who are never with the adult females these days. We've seen them several times on their own, so we're planning to collar one of them as soon as we see them again. They can be pretty hard to spot however since they range in a fairly wooded area. It seems like they may be taking over the Loliondo pride's original range at Loliondo kopjes. Otherwise, there are eight young cubs in the pride born in August to TRT, TRZ and TRE, four males and four females, who are thriving. I saw them gorging on a young giraffe the other day. TR03, TRS and their four subadults are also doing fine although TRS has stopped spending all her time in this group presumably because she is ready to start mating again. Hog: Last but not at all least! Hog continues to beat the odds and raise Harold and Hilary who have almost reached their second birthday. Hilary suffered a serious wound to her left eye which is now bluish and probably sightless, but she is otherwise fine, and lions usually can survive just fine with one eye. So Hog is now really on the brink of setting the Serengeti record for solitaries and raising a daughter! Harold is doing great too, and sporting quite a nice mane for his age. They were recently spotted with a severely disfigured young male who is missing all the skin from his lower jaw exposing his gums and teeth. Hog and the Hoglets were trying to evade him, but he was persistantly following. The vets are out looking for this male daily now but without much luck. GI Jane: Jane is a new addition to the pride sheets because we only just realized she's still alive! She was born NN11 in the Naabi pride but then disappeared for a year until we found her again in November with three young daughters. Her name was originally Lavender but when we saw her she was holding 19 hyenas at bay while she and her daughters fed off a zebra carcass, so we felt she deserved a re-christening. The cubs were fairly shy so we suspect she is usually in the Moru area where there are few vehicles.
Update from the Serengeti as of October 28, 1998
Peyton provided updates on the Loliondo pride and the Kimbumbu pride, which you can read about by clicking on their respective links.
As far as recent updates go well, both cars are in the shop right now so we're home for the day. Kissui (the Tanzanian who'll work in the Crater) and I were hoping to go to the Crater tomorrow but I just remembered that the people from Africaquest are coming here this week and they're featuring us on their webpage so I've got to be here to meet them. Brett didn't get his visa clearance but his replacement is Meggan Craft and she should be here in a week.
Lionwise, lets see. Well new cubs all over, the Naabi Pride I already wrote you about. So far all 7 seem to be surviving which is great; the Barafus have four, the Transect Pride have at least six, probably more, which is scary since it means that Sean and Fitzpatrick (2 males), between the three prides they control, have a total of 31 subadults and cubs, these males and given their pathetic manes to their offspring. They are the BIG exceptions to the bigger better mane hypothesis!! We've also had reports from tour drivers and the balloon safari people about new cubs at Masai Kopjes and Mukoma Hill, but we haven't seen them ourselves yet.
The males from Simba and Simba Numbers (Olivier and Brenaugh and possibly Rickman although he hasn't been seen in a while) are making moves on the Plains pride. The Simba pride has moved that direction too, presumably to stay near the males, and they've unfortunately moved right into the restricted rhino zone in the Serengeti where no one is allowed to drive, so we can't keep track of what is going on.
Update from the Serengeti as of October 12, 1998
I wanted at least to give you some info on Julius Nyahongo and Bernard Kissui, the two new Tanzanian students. Julius will be working with Karyl in the Maswa, helping her monitor the lions and also working generally on the biodiversity of the area--doing game counts and looking at tracks and getting a feel for what species live in that area and what their densities are. He, like Grant, will be a bridge between Craig's work and Tony Sinclair (author/editor of Serengeti I and II). Julius is married to Lucy and has a new adorable little son named Frank.
Kissui will be working in the Ngorongoro Crater trying to figure out the cause for the decline in lion numbers there. We're very excited about his working there full time as he will be the first fulltime crater lion student since 1983 when there were lots more lions. Using the same techniques as the former student (Sarah Cairns who got her Ph.D. on lions under Craig but through Cornell University), Kissui will try to determine whether disease, inbreeding, encroachment on the rim or ecological changes on the crater floor or some combination of these factors is responsible for the decline. But first he will be in the Serengeti for a couple of months getting trained.
So that's the scoop on those guys, and they both seem great so we're thrilled at how it all worked out!
Update from the Serengeti as of September 5, 1998
I'm definitely ready to send some field updates--my car just had a clutch melt-down so I'm house-bound for the next few days and would like nothing better than to jaw about lions. Trojan and Van-Dyke, the resident males with the Cub Valley pride, have established themselves at Barafu. BFM was last seen lactating so we're looking forward to seeing new cubs out there. The rest of them haven't been seen for a while in spite of some frustrating searches so not much news there. Cub Valley is much more interesting--the collared female (MK09) was seen out of her range at zebra kopjes with another female (MK17) and six previously unseen cubs which are about 5 months old now. They're hanging around nearer to Barafu probably because they need help from Trojan and Van-Dyke who don't seem too keen on providing it probably because they've got more food and mating opportunities with Barafu right now. Meanwhile, MK22 (I think you called her Daffy?) is looking very bad, her back right hind leg is totally degenerated and she may be dead by now since she can't walk very well and was skinny as hell when I saw her a week ago. The weirdest news is that the rest of the Cub Valleys are with two new males, and these guys were born at Barafu! Noddy and Nerd (BFV and BF01) are their names, so the pride, at least for the moment, is kind of split between two resident male coalitions, and the subadults which were born last year are scattered and have hardly been seen although there are at least three of the males still alive (CVE, CVG, and CVF otherwise known as Vim, Vigor and VIP). One of the females (MK23) is pregnant and its hard to know which males are the fathers! The Campsite pride is doing great, all six cubs are still alive and entertaining the tourists along the Seronera river. Their names are Mickey and Babe (males) and Alannis, Gwyneth, Horny and Lizzie (names courtesy of Craig Packer's kids Catherine and Jonathan). The pride will be featured in the documentary associated with a local Minneapolis TV station's (WCCO) work with the Ronald McDonald house (a sponsored climb of Kilimanjaro and visit to Serengeti). We also recently recollared CS55. The Gol pride is in transition--two new males are with them, Twinkle (origins unknown) and Toe (MH16 from the Mukoma Hill pride--cool!) and the subadults are off on their own. There were originally nine subs, but only seven are left together, the two youngest females (GU51 and GU53) are missing. I did see GU53, thanks to information from Sarah Durant the cheetah researcher, all by herself on the main road north of Simba Kopjes looking extremely weak and skinny, but she could be dead now too. Some German filmmakers reported seeing a female matching her description out near Gol yesterday, but it could have been GU51 or even one of the other female subs. Kibumbu and Loliondo Prides Not much news on Kibumbu or Loliondo since we've barely been able to see them, but Grey, the Loliondo resident male, is almost definitely dead since we found his collar on the ground out near Sametu. It was only a year old, so it probably didn't fall off of its own accord... Good news is that we found MS51, the sole remaining Masai female, whose collar had died, and we were able to recollar her and to find that she is still in her old haunts near Downey's dam although moving around a lot and seemingly nervous of the other lions that may be moving in on her (Mukoma Hill and Masai Kopjes). The Masai Kopjes are also doing well although sad news was that Grant found the intact collar of MKN on the ground meaning that she is definitely dead. We recollared MKO (whose collar had died) and are back in contact with them. There are still at least 12 subadults alive, and as far as we know the females MKM, MKS, MKU, and MKMa are all still alive as well. Vultura and Vulture-Cat, their resident males, are also still alive although they seem to be hanging out around the Mukoma Hill pride these days, along with their son from the Masai Kopje pride MK08 (Sten). The Mukoma Hill pride is also fine, at least four adult females MH03, MH04, MH13 (Tic) and MH14 (Tac) are around and one female subadult (MH19). The two older females may be pregnant. Lots of fun news with the Naabi pride, all three males (Snaggle Puss, Vivaldi and Bach) are fine, Snaggle Puss survived his relocation to Banagi Hill and the trek back although he looks a little the worse for wear and his back leg is still withered. Also five females are around and all have cubs--Lupine and Lychee have four between them who are about a year old now, and Lily has a tiny female just two months old, NN07 (Lea) has four (!) little boys all 2.5 months old, and NN06 has two four month olds, a boy and a girl. Craig and I were on our way back from the Crater when we saw the youngest seven cubs for the first time, all of them with Lea--it was an amazing sight, sunset and all these tiny cubs trailing the one lioness whose nipples were so overused one of them was bleeding! Lea ( means "to raise a child" in Swahili) is a noticeably great mom--last year, one of her daughters was fatally injured (a front leg gashed and paralyzed) and it was only thanks to Lea's constant attention that she survived as long as she did (2 months without being able to do more than hop!) It's already raining a bit so we're hoping the Naabi moms will manage to pull it off and keep the cubs. The pride has never done so well! No sign of last years subadults though. Things are a little confusing with the Plains Pride because there are new males poking around here as well, SB44 (Shlong, pardon the name, born in the Simba East pride) and Foo-Jong who were seen mating with PN10 (Panga) the collared female, and PN48, one of her daughters.
This is bad news for the Plains subs but we've seen some of them including PN59 (Panga's cub from last summer) and PN63 (PN12's cub from last summer). More news on them next time. Simba East is also doing great, six of the original seven cubs from last summer are fine including Stumpy (SB74 who lost her tail tip when she was small). The three females SB22 (Soho), SB47 and SB51 are fine. It turns out that SB24, a Simba female who died somewhat mysteriously last summer may have had "Old Dog Encephelopathy" which animals that have survived canine
distemper may develop a few years later. Some of the lions which have died recently may have died from this--Grey of the Loliondos possibly and a few who died last year. The Simba Numbers pride is a bit scattered, we've seen the two collared females (S#13 and S#19) along with female s#14 and the six cubs from last summer all doing fine but no sign of the rest of the pride. Their range extends into the protected rhino area where we are unable to search for them so they may all be fine, keep you posted. Nomadic and Solitary female lions Great news is about PN20 (Hog) our other collared solitary female. For some reason, Hog left the Plains pride with her brother Wart a few years ago and never rejoined them although she still lives in a similar range. Well, last summer Hog had two "hoglets" and, in spite of the near impossibility of solitary females raising cubs out here, both of them are still alive! Even better, one of them is female. In thirty years of studying these lions, no solitary female has ever raised a daughter (thereby actually becoming a pride). Hilary, Hog's daughter, is just under 1.5 years old so Hog's still got some work to do--until subs reach 2 years of age they're extremely vulnerable and can't hunt well enough to keep themselves alive--but we're keeping our fingers crossed. Hog, Hilary and Harold (Hog's son) can be seen along the track from Seronera to Moru and range from the Loyongelani river to as far north as Downey's dam where Craig spotted them last week. There's another mystery solitary female who's been in the study area for more than a year now, and she also has managed to raise two cubs although both are male. Her name is Mimosa, and the subadults are Davy and Pip. There used to be an Oliver as well, but we think he's dead now. We're not sure where Mimosa comes from, but Craig's looking into the cards of females we thought were dead (which are back at the University of Minnesota) and hopefully we'll be able to figure it out. We suspect that the unusual success of Hog and Mimosa in raising cubs alone (previously only two solitary females ever raised cubs and each only managed one son) may be due to the fact that in the aftermath of the canine distemper there have been fewer males to contend with. This is going to change soon though since many of the cubs born after the canine distemper in 1995 survived, and they're reaching the age at which they start to look for prides of their own. We've also spotted some large coalitions of young males already. I'll leave the remaining prides (Sangere and Transects) for next time.
Other General News Other random research type news, there have been huge fires but its rained a bit so the new grass is growing and things are getting green and even more beautiful. My Landrover died on me, its the clutch plate and pressure plate, and I had to be towed home by our crazy neighbor Greg who studies riverine forests in the north (on foot, his exploits include being chased up trees by buffalo, elephant and poachers!).
A "Life in the Serengeti Update" from Grant Hopcraft, a Graduate Student currently conducting field research in the Serengeti.
Information provided as of January 14, 1998.
"Here in the Serengeti we've been close to drowning. The roads have been washed out everywhere, and rivers flooded. A number of safari companies are canceling trips to the Serengeti and Ngorongoro. They are also talking about closing the Ngorongoro crater for a short time as you can't even drive on the main roads without getting stuck.
It didn't rain this afternoon, and if it holds off all night I'm going out tomorrow am to at least find the Transect lions. Its been good for catching up with pictures, letters, pride sheets, and doing all those rainy day jobs.
The cheetah project researchers' vehicle got washed away trying to cross a river before Christmas. We worked from 11 p.m. until 5 am before we finally got them out but there was a fair amount of damage to the vehicle and some of their equipment.
Well, the weather's clearing so I'm going to try and get some work done.
Have fun!"
Grant
Project Life Lion Update from Dr. Sarah Cleaveland in the Serengeti
This information was provided on December 13, 1997.
Dog Vaccination program Update to Prevent Further Outbreaks of Canine Distemper:
During the first phase of the Vaccination campaign (Oct 96 to May 97), we vaccinated about 9,500 dogs in Serengeti District (about 67% of the population) and in the second phase (Sept 97 to present) we have so far vaccinated about 4,500 dogs. We need about 10,000 doses of vaccine a year to allow us to continue to extend the vaccination zone further around the Serengeti and prevent further outbreaks of canine distemper in the lion population.
