Scar Face: Celebrating a lion with a life well lived

We are all saddened, by the passing on of Scar Face, an iconic Male lion in Masai Mara yesterday, through a natural cause, old age.

I have known Scar Face since September 2011, when he and 3 other nomadic males whom we named Morani, Hunter and Sikio, who were his age appeared near Musiara Marsh. We gave these new males a name “The four musketeers”

Musiara was and still is the home of the Marsh Pride. When the 4 males appeared at the Marsh, the pride in the area was ruled by 2 big males, Romeo and Clawed (Not Claude). There was alot of excitement then and everyone wanted to see a major take-over of the pride by the new Males. However, it took almost 2 months for a full take over.

I remember i was part of the BBC film crew shooting Planet Earth Life. Immediately after this production, BBC had to put together a crew to film the take-over, since the Marsh pride had been a subject of the BBC’s Big Cat Diary since 1996, therefore important to capture this major change-over by the pride males.  Of a major concern to everyone, was some young cubs, whom we knew were at great danger when the new males fully take over. One of the main females at the Marsh called Joy had very young cubs. She ended up leaving the area to save her cubs. 

When the musketeers kicked out the incumbent males, Romeo and Clawed, who were at their prime, their lives ended miserably. They starved after they were kicked out and Romeo later was speared when he started raiding cattle out of desperation. Clawed stayed in the reserve and starved to death. I used to monitor them on a daily basis, and as the their health started going down hill, I started getting insults and  all sorts of social media attacks from people who were not happy with me documenting this. They wanted me at least “Do something” to save the starving lions. 

Those of my friends who remember, i took down my Fb account for a while to escape all the social media stoning.

Scar Face now joins the same rank as other famous male lions, in recent years; Notch of the majestic 6 that once ruled the Mara and Bob Marley who once ruled Barafu Pride in Namiri, East Serengeti.

You can read more of the take over on my blogs posts on the links below. 

1:  http://paul-kirui.blogspot.com/2011/10/new-males-taking-over-marsh-pride.html?m=1

2:  http://paul-kirui.blogspot.com/2011/10/marsh-pride-update-things-ease-off.html?m=1

3: http://paul-kirui.blogspot.com/2011/10/marsh-pride-update-boys-are-back.html?m=1