Marsh pride brief

I apologize i have notbeen able to update my blog fro sometimes. i have been busy in a different location with guides training and examining.
however, i have been following what is happening in the Mara, especially with the Marsh pride.
the 4 new males are around teh marsh but have failed to this point to bring together the former pride members. Currently the pride has disintegrated, with Joy and her 4 cubs plus one adopted together with her subadult males are now on Topi plains. as of yesterday teh 3 females, Bibi, Charm and white eye were at Bila shaka.
some the rest of teh pride have been crossing the Mara river west into Kichwa Tembo airstrip area, obviously with the absence of the former pride kings, Romeo and Clawed, they now feel vulnerable. of course with a few subadult males in the pride, tehy know that the new males will not tolerate them so they have to move away.
Clawed was seen last week near paradise crossing, but have not been seen since then. Romeo has not been seen, and this raises concerns.
i will keep updating as usual.

The Marsh pride- JOY'S story (June 2011)

Joy’s story (June 2011)

While so much has been happening lately with the Marsh pride, there is one individual that stands out as my favourite. That is Joy.

When she had her now sub adult sons in early 2009, she separated herself from the rest of the pride since she was the only with cubs at that time. The main reason was to feed her cubs away from the rest of the pride where competition may not have allowed them to eat enough.

She would always be found on the fringes of the prides home range. As some other cubs were born in her absence, they grew up not seeing her with the rest of the pride, and this was why when she tried coming back in June this year with her now 7 month old cubs, they could not accept her. Her only link to the pride were the 2 males Romeo and clawed (at least one must be the father of the cubs)

I observed her trying to bring her cubs into the pride but none of the other members, except the males would  allow her. I saw her fight a lot with them especially when there was a kill. What was interesting to observe when all this was happening, was that her sub adult male cubs would always come to her aid whenever she had a confrontation with any other pride. The boys have also been assisting her in hunts lately. Towards the end of last month, the boys had left her, obviously to start nomadic life. I saw them once fighting fiercely with hyaenas that wanted to take their kill.

Whne the new males came in to the marsh recently, she has managed to keep her cubs safe. She has now moved further away from the new males and the rest of the pride. Though her cubs may be safe for now, they are still in danger if she encounters any other males outside the marsh territory. she was seen today near double crossing area and that is not far from where notch and gang have been roaming. there are also some nomadic males that transits through the area.

She has also adopted another much younger cubs from another female from the marsh, sienna. She had lost the cub 2 days ago when she moved to her new location, but the rangers yesterday found the cub alone and took it to her and are now united.

NB: the 4 new males are still at eth marsh. While the other 3 are still with Bibi, Scar face this morning was seen with one of white eye’s daughters, with white eye nearby. Clawed and Romeo and the lone female are still on the rocky area of the Ridge, looking a bit better after the rangers fed them 2 days ago.

One of the younsters from the main pride approaches Joy to feed on a wildebeest she killed

Joy runs to fight off the unwanted visitor. she ignored the youngsters' submissive behaviour:

Joy's sub adult son rushes in to mum's rescue and badly fought the intruder

The intruder got a real beating from the two

With the help of her son, they saw the intruder off

Romeo came to investigate  what was happening and the young male obligedly left to avoid confrontation with dad, who may thing he is the trouble maker; but Joy and the young cubs had no problem