2025.2.11 玛莎狮群正处于十字路口

The Marsh Pride Status January 2025 - On the Crossroads
Last year the headline of my Status-Report about the Marsh Pride of Lions was “A Chronicle of Disaster” outlining the challenges the Pride was facing and the related consequences. No reliable Pride Males providing proper protection agAInst intruders were contradicting successful breeding of the Lionesses. Massive Livestock incursions day & night were harassing the Marsh Lions while a “Cattle Wall” from Musiara Gate towards Double Crossing was blocking them off their wet season hunting grounds making it extremely difficult for the Marsh Lions to hunt successfully. All Marsh Pride members were looking lean and stressed in March 2024.
The Pride lost 16-18 Cubs between March 2023 and March 2024. Several members of the Marsh Pride were injured or killed by herders invading their territory.
What happened the last 10 month? Well, thanks to the joint efforts of Governors CamPS and the Ranger-Team the situation improved. Until recently there were no reported cases of conflicts between the Marsh Lions and Herders resulting in serious injuries or casualties amongst this Lion Family. The Pride was able to hunt successfully and all members, 7 Lionesses and 1 young Male, were looking strong & healthy over the last alMost one year. And they still do! Hence the challenge of Livestock Incursions has not been solved, the threat still remains. The “Cattle Wall” is still there and we saw large herds of Cattle inside Marsh Pride territory moving in late afternoon and moving out early in the morning (subject to a separate post).

The Marsh Pride still has other factors to contend with, in particular the lack of stability due to determined Pride Males and the ongoing challenge to raise Cubs. The Pride lost more Cubs the last 10 months. Kaleo lost all of her 3 little ones born in August 2024. One was most likely killed by Buffaloes, another was injured but bravely pulled through until it vanished for unknown reasons sometime beginning of November last year. No one knows what has happened to the 3rd Cub vanishing in September/October last year. Enkerai has given birth to her first litter. No one knows how many Cubs were born, she was seen with only one tiny Cub beginning of November 2024 and sadly this Cub was never seen again.

The last Cub of the Marsh Pride still surviving is Nusurika born in July 2022. Not a Cub anymore but a beautiful and strong young Lioness. The “Super Cup” survived against all odds. Dada has fully recovered from the injuries she sustained after herders attacked her in March last year, it took some time but she is back to full strength. Kito had taken over the lead of the Marsh Pride while Dada was recovering. We saw 6 members of the Pride on several occasions, most of the time the Pride was spread out in certain areas or they had split into sub-groups. We never found Kito and Oleku while searching for them intensively. At least Kito was seen by other guests on one occasion, she definitely was around (subject to a separate post). Why is Kito staying away from the rest of the Pride? Is she denning or trying to keep Okeku and Nusurika away from the 7 new Males? Well, we saw Nusurika close to the other Lionesses on a few times (there was a reported sighting of all 8 members yesterday 9th of February and I am happy they are all accounted for and looking very well, if this was indeed a recent sighting) . We also never found Yaya or Simba (subject to a separate post). That does not mean they are not around anymore but simply that we could not find them given the long grass and the at times extreme wet-conditions after unexpected heavy rains kicked in.

With Dada and Kito turning 13 years of age this year (Dada in July and Kito in September) they are still young enough to start another breeding cycle. The good news is that with Lola & Kaleo two very strong 6 year old Lionesses would be ready to take over the lead of the Pride at any time. Naserian & Enkerai, the two Kito daughters born in July 2021, are almost fully grown and integral part of the Pride. Well, there is another Lioness who may become a driving force moving forward, the brave, clever and robust Nusurika. So the future looks bright for the Marsh Pride? Not necessarily!  The future of the Marsh Pride totally depends on the effective protection of their territory which is located INSIDE the Maasai Mara National Reserve. We have seen entire Prides of Lions vanishing in the Mara the last 10 years and human error often was a key factor.

Last but not least let’s talk about “Pride Males”. The Bila Shaka Males seem to have given up on the Marsh Pride after a group of 7 Rookies, the Topi Males, started to invade Marsh Pride territory more and more often towards end of last year. To me Koshoke, Kibogoyo, Chongo and Kiok never really challenged the intruders. There was some standoff and chasing on the 11th of December last year, but the 3 veterans present (Koshoke was not with them) decided to fight another day. This day never came. In the night from the 22nd to 23rd of January there was a remarkable roaring contest between Koshoke & Kiok and the Topi Boys, but the two Big Boys decided to move back to meet up with the Paradise Pride the same day. Probably they only wanted to quickly check if the intruders are still around. You never know what the Bila Shaka Males will be doing tomorrow but I think we can assume that the Topi Males have taken over the Marsh Pride. Is that good news? Not necessarily!
Large coalitions of young Male Lions are fickle. They often establish their dominance over a patch of land to end their nomadic life, they may take over a Pride of Lionesses, they start breeding and soon afterwards they move on. They take over the next Pride and move on etc.. They do not protect their offspring effectively and sometimes Males even kill the offspring of their “brothers” because they are not aware the little ones are “family”. Sometimes large coalitions of young Males split at some point and these then smaller coalitions become successful Pride Males. I doubt the 7 Topi Boys stay for long in the Musiara Marsh. Sooner or later they probably move on to take over the Paradise Pride or the Prides across the Mara River. I hope I am wrong!

I will provide some more details about the Marsh Pride members along with pictures the next days. It is a challenge for the Marsh Girls to deal with 7 young Males all being keen to mate and my impression was at times that the Marsh Pride Lionesses were trying to get away from the pestering Boys. Adult Lionesses know very well that young Males cannot be trusted and if they could choose they would prefer fully grown Males. When the 4 Musketeers arrived as young Boys in October 2011 it took almost a year before the Marsh Pride Lionesses started serious breeding. Actually there were a lot of mating activities going on and some of the Lionesses (reportedly Dada, Kito and Lola) have mated with some of the new Males already back in November last year. Dada is not pregnant, I am not sure about Lola (we saw her teasing one of the young Males only to hammer him once he tried to accept the invite) and as outlined we never found Kito. Are there new Cubs arriving soon in the Musiara Marsh?

最近真的忙，有空补上中文翻译

沼泽狮群现状报告 2025年1月 - 处于十字路口
去年，我关于沼泽狮群的现状报告标题是《灾难的编年史》，概述了该狮群面临的挑战及其相关后果。由于缺乏可靠的雄狮为狮群提供适当的保护以抵御入侵者，雌狮的成功繁殖受到了影响。白天和黑夜的大规模牲畜入侵不断骚扰着沼泽狮群，而从穆西阿拉门到双渡口的“牛墙”则切断了它们在雨季的狩猎场地，使得沼泽狮群难以成功捕猎。到2024年3月，所有沼泽狮群的成员都显得瘦弱且压力重重。
在2023年3月至2024年3月期间，该狮群失去了16至18只幼崽。多名沼泽狮群成员因牧民的入侵而受伤或死亡。
过去10个月发生了什么？
幸运的是，在Governors Camps和护林员团队的共同努力下，情况有所改善。直到最近，没有报告显示沼泽狮群与牧民之间发生冲突，导致该狮群成员严重受伤或死亡。狮群能够成功捕猎，所有成员——7只雌狮和1只年轻雄狮——在过去近一年里都显得强壮且健康。现在依然如此！
然而，尽管情况有所好转，牲畜入侵的挑战仍未解决，威胁依然存在。“牛墙”依旧存在，我们看到大量牛群在沼泽狮群的领地内活动，傍晚进入，清晨离开（相关内容将另文详述）。

沼泽狮群依旧面临着其他挑战，尤其是由于缺乏稳定的雄狮领导以及养育幼崽的持续困难。在过去10个月中，狮群又失去了更多的幼崽。Kaleo在2024年8月出生的3只幼崽全部夭折。其中一只很可能是被水牛杀死的，另一只虽然受伤但勇敢地挺了过来，直到去年11月初因不明原因消失。第三只幼崽在去年9月/10月间消失，至今无人知晓其命运。
Enkerai则迎来了她的第一胎幼崽。没有人知道她生下了多少只幼崽，但在2024年11月初，人们只看到她带着一只幼崽，遗憾的是，这只幼崽后来也再未出现过。

Dada和Kito今年将满13岁（Dada在7月，Kito在9月），它们依旧年轻，足以开始另一个繁殖周期。好消息是，Lola和Kaleo这两只非常强壮的6岁雌狮随时可以接管狮群的领导权。Naserian和Enkerai——Kito在2021年7月出生的两只女儿——几乎已经完全成年，并成为狮群的重要组成部分。此外，还有一只雌狮可能会成为未来的推动力，那就是勇敢、聪明且强壮的Nusurika。
那么，沼泽狮群的未来看起来一片光明吗？未必！沼泽狮群的未来完全取决于对其领地的有效保护，而它们的领地正位于马赛马拉国家保护区内。过去10年里，我们已经看到多个狮群在马赛马拉消失，而人为错误往往是关键因素。

最后但同样重要的是，让我们谈谈“狮群雄狮”。Bila Shaka雄狮似乎已经放弃了对沼泽狮群的保护，因为自去年年底以来，一群由7只年轻雄狮组成的Topi雄狮开始越来越频繁地入侵沼泽狮群的领地。在我看来，Koshoke、Kibogoyo、Chongo和Kiok从未真正挑战过这些入侵者。去年12月11日曾有一些对峙和追逐，但当时在场的3只老将（Koshoke不在）决定改日再战。然而，这一天从未到来。
在1月22日至23日的夜晚，Koshoke和Kiok与Topi雄狮之间发生了一场引人注目的咆哮对决，但这两只雄狮最终选择撤退，并于当天与天堂狮群汇合。可能他们只是想快速确认入侵者是否仍在附近。你永远无法预测Bila Shaka雄狮明天会做什么，但我认为我们可以推测，Topi雄狮已经接管了沼泽狮群。这是好消息吗？未必！
由年轻雄狮组成的大型联盟往往是不稳定的。他们通常会为结束游牧生活而占领一片领地，可能会接管一个雌狮群，开始繁殖，但不久后就会离开。他们会接管下一个狮群，然后继续前进，如此反复。他们无法有效保护自己的后代，有时雄狮甚至会杀死“兄弟”的后代，因为他们并不知道这些幼崽是“家族成员”。有时，大型的年轻雄狮联盟会在某个时刻分裂，而这些较小的联盟可能会成为成功的狮群雄狮。
我怀疑这7只Topi雄狮会在穆西阿拉沼泽长期停留。他们迟早可能会继续前进，接管天堂狮群或跨过马拉河的其他狮群。希望我是错的！

我将在接下来的几天里提供更多关于沼泽狮群成员的详细信息，并附上图片。对于沼泽狮群的雌狮们来说，应对7只渴望交配的年轻雄狮是一项挑战。我的印象是，沼泽狮群的雌狮们有时试图摆脱这些烦人的年轻雄狮。成年雌狮非常清楚，年轻雄狮不可靠，如果她们可以选择，她们会更倾向于选择完全成熟的雄狮。
当4只“火枪手”雄狮在2011年10月作为年轻雄狮到来时，几乎花了一年时间，沼泽狮群的雌狮们才开始认真繁殖。实际上，已经有很多交配活动在进行，一些雌狮（据报道包括Dada、Kito和Lola）早在去年11月就已经与一些新来的雄狮交配。Dada目前没有怀孕，我不确定Lola的情况（我们看到她挑逗了一只年轻雄狮，但当雄狮试图接受邀请时，她却狠狠教训了他），而正如之前提到的，我们一直没有找到Kito。
穆西阿拉沼泽是否很快会有新的幼崽诞生？