Monomogolo on the elephant

After the long lockdown break we look at the beautiful nature with new, curious and fascinated eyes. Like yesterday, when our funny ranger Alasdair, also known as “Captain Redbeard”, found the dangerous male lions – Monomogolo and Kwandwe - which dominate the territory close to Rhulani. The two boys had previously killed a baby elephant, which is a rather unusual sighting.

"Monomogolo must have missed me for all these months," says Alasdair. As always, when our ranger finds this magnificent lion, he stands up, approaches the vehicle, looks threateningly, and then lies down again. Alasdair is certain: "This is a welcoming ritual".

This time, however, Monomogolo was lying on an unusual prey. As if he wanted to defend it. It was a little elephant. What a sight! The guests on Alasdair’s vehicle could hardly believe what they were seeing. You really only see something like this once in a lifetime, if at all.

Alasdair says: “It was kind of weird that there weren't any elephants around. No mother elephant to mourn her little one.”

Monomogolo's buddy, Kwandwe, was only a few feet away. This is also an impressive lion. The two boys are not related, however. They found each other a while ago, were bonded, so they are like brothers. They have always been together ever since.

But every time Kwandwe approached his buddy, he began to growl. As if to say, "Hey, this is my elephant, go away!"

Alasdair tells us: “Usually lions and elephants which are two of the dominating Big 5 live together without any problems. But as the example here shows, it can happen that a lion kills a small elephant.”