Taru:

I couldn't tell you the number of lions in Tsavo. I do know there have always been prides of lions that live near Aruba Dam. Tsavo would be a difficult place to get a lion count due to its thick bush in places.

Several years ago on a game drive I saw a mama and baby hippo chase a male lion, two lionesses and two juvenile cubs up the side of Aruba Dam and drive them quite some distance from the dam. Aruba is almost dry now and the hippos have migrated to the waterhole at Satao Camp.

I know that when I was in Amboseli in August the number of lions there had increased to 50!

Usually we have lions roaring around Satao camp (about 20 miles from Aruba) at night. However, on this most recent trip it was unusually quiet. Only one lioness and two cubs were regularly seen despite having tons of herd animals available for food. A poor injured buffalo bull (with two fractured front legs) was at camp for a week and no lions came to finish him off.

I had lunch one day two weeks ago with Dennis King and Sarah (he is the resident lion researcher) and even he was unable to give me a number of lions in Tsavo. Perhaps a reason is that much of Tsavo is untraveled (north of the Galana) and probably not studied by any lion researchers because the bush is so thick you can't see much from the road.

As you correctly state, in general the number of lions in Africa has decreased.

Well, I am not surprised that exact figures for lions in Tsavo are hard to come by; presumably the number would fluctuate somewhat anyway depending on rains, etc. But your 3 adults and 2 juveniles several years ago doesn't sound like "a lot of lions". Could it possibly be that there are not many lions and that it is the same few being sighted over and over again? Just wondering!

It's entire possibly one might see the same animals more than once as there are several prides living near Aruba Dam and one can usually find some of the members while on a game drive.

The thing that mystifies me is the lack of lions near camp when there were tons of animals of all species; zebra 50 - 100; buffalo, around 350; impala, 100; waterbuck, 40; kongoni; eland. Thus there was plenty of food available for the lions, but they just weren't there this time in any numbers.

You sound like you have some knowledge of Tsavo and the lions there. If this is the case I hope you'll be willing to share some of the information with us. We are all eager to learn as much about wildlife as possible.

Sorry, I know little about lions; only what I've read. But I am interested to know more. One thing that puzzles me is that you say there are several prides in the area; yet I've read that each pride defends its own area. So I just wondered how there could be several prides in the same area and how you know there are when you say it may be the same lions that are seen each time on game drives? I hope you don't mind me asking questions. People have complained before that I think too much!

People who "live" in areas get to know lions very well by thier looks, paterns, scars, behavious etc. For the normal eye they look the same but they really are very different.
Lions are territorial animals with one dominant male. When cubs grow up, the young males leave to find and create their own territory if they cannot "run" out or push out the dominating male.
This is how various prides are created.

In the Tzavo area and especially around Amboseli, their is an increase of lions due to better control and also migrations paths and ways are getting blocked to over farming and fencing. This means Lion prides are competing for land closer to each other rather than spreading out.

I expect to see an increase of "bad" lion behavious in Amboseli area in the next few years with local group ranches wanting to "cull" lions due to their cattle being eaten by lions. Pity but this is a knock on effect when we push the lions closer together and we take over their land for farming.....

Taru:

Don't mind the questions at all - we all learn from one another.

The Aruba Dam area is a unique one. It is a large lake-like area with a dam that has water in it for months at a time, but during the dry season it totally dries up. When there is water there, most of the wildlife, all species, go there for their water source several times a day. For years there has been a nice pride of lions living fairly close to the dam on the Voi side. Another pride lives a little distance away heading toward Satao camp. As far as I know, they don't interact but remain with their own pride. However, if there are no natural waterholes with water, they will several times a day go to Aruba Dam for their water supply.

Tsavo is an interesting park. At one time about 50-60 years ago it was all thick bush, which I understand that due to a heavy tsetse fly population and thus sleeping sickness it wasn't good for anything but wildlife.
Then the elephants started destroying the trees and bushes in the southern sector - thus creating a savanna. Where formerly no herd-type animals were present due to the thick bush - now with savanna they started coming in numbers. When the natural waterholes are dry, Aruba is the last natural watering hole for them. Voi Lodge on one side of the park created a waterhole fed by a borehole as did Satao Camp at the other side. Thus when all the natural waterholes dry up, the animals find their way to either Voi Lodge, Aruba Dam more or less in the center, or Satao Camp. With large numbers of herd-type animals going to either the lodge or the camp waterholes, the lions usually follow behind almost sure of a great food supply.

The lions of Tsavo are distinctly different from the rest of Africa in that they are maneless - just tufts of fur where the manes would be. Scientists haven't yet discovered exactly why this has occurred - but it is supposed that perhaps they evolved that way because of the extremely thick bush they lived in. Of course, we've all heard about the man-eaters of Tsavo when they killed off many of the workers that built the railroads.

You might want to look into "The Lions of Tsavo" by Bruce Patterson; "I Walk with Lions" by Mervyn Cowie (is out of print but I was able to purchase a copy last year); "Ghosts of Tsavo" by Philip Caputo.