The Marsh Pride go Camping

The Marsh Pride are well known by many people, making their way into the living rooms of millions of people each year as they follow the BBC’s Big Car Diary. Many people will also know that the infamous Marsh Lionesses and their nine cubs tend to keep themselves within a relatively small range, encompassing Musiara Marsh and Billa Shaka. Rarely do they venture out of the park gates.
Recently, however, they’ve been rather adventurous, making their way to the Windmill and up the lugga adjacent to the gates to a patch of trees known as No Camping. For the past few nights, they have remained close to this area along with the two males, Romeo and Mpengo.

Lispy greets Mpengo

The cubs are growing up to be real superstars – most of the young boys already have manes much bigger than I would expect for their age. Some of them would put Marley and his brothers to shame!

Three of the young boys

The pride were spread out over a long stretch of the lugga, with Red as usual taking the lead and always on the look out for a potential meal. Next to follow was Bibi, who was not too happy about being left with the kids. Each cub that walked past got a swipe on the nose from mum!

Mama gets khali!

It looked as though Lispy had been left behind with the two males – after greeting the pair, she began calling softly for the rest of the pride. She slowly made her way down the lugga, climbing each termite mound to scan for her family. Eventually she spotted the cubs and bounded over to greet them and her sisters.

Lispy looks for her family

Yesterday the males had moved on without the pride, possibly on the look out for other females. They were found relaxing in the evening sun at the edge of Kichwa Tembo with full tummies.

Today I am heading down to Offbeat Mara, to have another look at their lions. There is news of some new cubs, so I am hoping they will make an appearance.

Sara