I am building out a website that is going to focus on African wildlife and I am thinking of having a feature section that will give some background on some of the animal celebrities out there.

Three examples that I have first hand knowledge of:

1) Savuti Boys -- coalition of 3 cheetah males until about late July/early August '05 when one passed on, possibly from a snake bite, and now still running strong as a pair. These boys are well know at every camp in the Linyanti, Selinda, and Kwando concessions and seem somehow to be seen much more often than not by everyone in any of the areas (have to admit I missed them in Duma Tau in 2003 but was able to find them in Lebala in 2006).

2) Selinda Pack -- the large pack of wild dogs with usually about 10 adults plus a surving litter from 5 to 11 more pups depending on the year. Range similar area to the Savuti Boys through at least 3 concessions and possibly well beyond. Interestingly the Duma Tau news is now calling them the Duma Tau pack which can confuse things but I believe they have been commonly known as the Selinda pack for years.

3) Duba Boys -- the dominant males for years in Duba Plains passing on a freakish amount of genes with their uncharacteristically long lasting rule and their mating with at least 3 prides during their rule.

I'm curious what other animals are out there that have become so well known -- perhaps featured in a documentary (Mombo leopard in Eye of the Leopard), perhaps just frequent dependable viewing and well documented by name (like leopards at Mala Mala) or like those that I have listed above -- just reported by so many for many years that they are well known. Please contribute any that you consider to be potential legends from anywhere in Africa.

How about Half-tail and her offspring?

Hi Predator Biologist,

At MalaMala, the most famous on TV would be the Rock Drift Male (leopard) in the documentary known as Tjololo. Saw him in January 2007, and while a little rougher around those eyes, he still poses beautifully for the camera.

Kind regards,

Kaye

Hi Predator Biologist,

a nice idea! (though i don't like celebs of any kind & the fuss created around them...)
Serengeti "Cheetah Watch", has the "wanted"-posters of a good number of named individuals

That's one (random) page: http://www.wcs.org/ben
& u can click on any name (on the left)
see also this http://www.wcs.org/media/file/CheetahWatchv6.pdf

Bill_H
<b>who is (the famous?) &quot;half-tail&quot; ? </b>
I have photographed, a few years ago. a 'half-tail' leopard(ess) with cubs. in the Mara. is it 'IT' ?

cheers

aby

PS
Unfortunately both Rugabo &amp; Maheshe - my host silverbacks have been murdered by so-called &quot;Homo sapiens&quot;
But i'm sure all others are known by name

PB: IMO cheetah in the area would depend on the lion and hyena in the area at any point in time?

i.e.,those two boys can be anywhere- lagoon, lebala, selinda, zib, Dumatau, Savute and maybe Rocco even saw the same two while he was at Linyanti bush camp recently......

BTW Rugabo was a kind of a legend for me, i had read all the gossip about him &amp; his fights with Rogendo (Swara magazine) long before i met him ...

Hallo Everyone,
I would love to help with a project like this if you would like. I have recorded every game drive I have done in the Norhtern Sabie Sand for the last 6 years on most of our celebrity animals and their history. We also started what we called a leopard project with Mark from Tagasafaris, which is still ongoing today. I am not trying to direct traffic to Mark's site, but the info on the animals is great and the project was born out of the passion for the real celebs in life. Animals that have literally provided evry range of emotion to thousands of visitors per year. Please let me know where and when I can sign up, if i can participate off course. GREAT IDEA!
Cheers
Jaco

Hello Jaco,

What is your experience with cheetah in the northern sabi sands?

Hari

PS: Say hello to Mark...we saw his recent videos from Botswana

Don't know if he has a name but the three-legged male lion at Grumeti is the best hunter in the area and a legend in the western Serengeti.

Also Jessica the Hippo is a legend in South Africa. I hope to post a thread about her this week and post a link to some youtube video I'm working on posting.

By the way, some wildlife people I know are very much against naming any wild animals.

Here's a link to a story by Peter Dunning, currently GM at Sossusvlei Mountain Lodge, about the &quot;Grumeti Lion&quot; as well as another local legend, Lightness.

http://www.wildwatch.com/resources/mammals/lions2.asp

Hallo Hari,
By the way, our daughter's name is Lienka, and thanx for your well wishes.

The western section of the north falls in the granite bedrock area, and is thus undulating with mostly dry river beds, whereas the eastern section has basalt creating a flatter, more open vegetation compared to the east. As a cheetah lover, I think you will agree that the section closer to the east was much more condusive for sightings of them. I was there in the beginning of Jan for 6 days and we saw 9 individual cheetah, consisting of 2 groups of mothers with 3 off spring and a single female. Actually saw the one group eat Impala and steenbuck on consecutive days. Just to give you an idea of the huge concentration of cheetah in the Sabie Sand, we consistantly monitored 11 individuals in 2003 and 2004. if one considers that cheetahs need a 450 square km home range and that the Sabie Sand is 650 square kms, we should have only monitored a maximum of 2 animals. Obviously they move around, and you quite rightly mentioned earlier that their movements are largely influenced by lion, leopard and Hyena movements. It also off course helps that we are open to Kruger's 22 000 square kms. where interestingly the annual sensus averages between 200 to 250 individuals. Obviously, with you having been to the Sabie Sand, for once it is people that is landlocked with traversing and 90% of our sightings in the East with the above info resulted in the cheetahs moving north south through our area between the Maneyleti and Mala Mala. I know Djuma and Nkhorho benefits from this immensely. Check out their websites for the latest updates on cheetah if you like. Hope you enjoyed,.
Jaco

Hi Jaco,

Thanks for the info.....appreciate it.

Hari

Thanks everyone for your responses, glad to see the ball rolling.

Bill_H: I'd love to hear more about half-tail. Masai Mara leopard from the early Big Cat diaries I believe.

Kaye: is there a place on the internet that shows the Mala Mala leopard family trees by any chance? A photo and brief description of each and their relations could be really interesting.

Aby: that cheetah watch looks great! I just took a quick look because there is a lot to read through there, I'll go through it later this week but since traveler photos help with the project that is exactly the kind of thing I want to highlight. Profiling all the silverbacks would be interesting too.

Hari: I know you can be counted on for monitoring the Boys, hard to imagine anyone with more admiration of those cheetah than you.

Jaco: I would love to have your help! When you get a chance please shoot me an email at [email protected] and I can bounce some ideas off of you. I love what you and Mark have done with the leopards and I have some other ideas that may be of interest.

Tuckeg: 2 different 3 legged lions in one pride, amazing and certainly legendary. Thanks for the link, I will try and learn more about them. Good story to alert people of snares and the terrible damage they do.

Thanks again to all of you for your contributions! I look forward to what other may come up with too.

Hi PredatorBiologist,

Yes, MalaMala does have information on cats (leopard and lion) that have territories within their boundaries. To be honest, since I have been going there (September 2001) I also keep records of the relationship of the leopards and their offspring. There is nothing like seeing a small cub from a few years ago, now having cubs of their own and knowing a parent, maybe two, and grandparents.

MalaMala has some exceptional lion prides and male coalitions over my time, but that is currently undergoing some changes with males in and out.

Just to comment on a comment by tuckeg - I have no problems with animals being named for recognition - and it can be by territory not a human name. When I have been to most other countries, the places where I stayed, did not have any naming or identification - which drives me nuts, as a young female leopard seen in 2006, will not be recognizable to me if I return in 2008. I need to know the history and that does not happen if records of some detail are not kept - I would think if I was a ranger, I would need to know that detail. For me, a ranger showing me a pride of lions, is only doing half his job, I need information of this pride and any history that he/she can pass on! So, naming of many animals, is a way of identification - and if that is their biggest problem, they are bloody lucky!

Kind regards,

Kaye

You can read about Half-tail on the BBC website - http://tinyurl.com/24uapy
Sadly she was killed a few years ago, after killing stock outside the reserve. But she was 11 then so already quite old.

George: Thanks for the link!!! I may remember one or two trip reports about the three legged lion......

Hari

Hari and PB,

When we were there last fall, the three-legged Grumeti female had not been seen by the CCA rangers for close to a year. They were not convinced she was dead as other lions had disappeared for that long and then reappeared but were worried.

The male, who was 10 as I recall and should be past his prime, was in great condition and was still the best hunter in the area. I'll try to dig up a photo of him.

Unfortunately, we did see poachers' tracks in the area and witnessed a young male zebra die (horribly, over several days) from an infected snare wound.

Thanks everyone for the additional info.

Kaye thanks for bringing up the naming comment from Tuckeg, I forgot to reply to that before.

There is definitely something to scientists not assigning proper names as you don't want to humanize the study subjects and you are not supposed to lose your objectivity, etc. As Kaye points out for record keeping researchers still have to identify individuals so often a simple alpah-numeric code is assinged and thus lions of a pride could be A-1, A-2 etc. distinguished by a dispassionate identifier. Truth of the matter is even most of the best researchers are going to really identify with certain individuals and there will be an 'unofficial' scar or winky or hercules, etc it just isn't shared in the research or possibly with anyone else but when you spend hours alone in the field with the 'subjects' its very hard not to have it happen. At the extreme there are those who don't want to name any animals even on a tourist level but to me I want safari goers to be passionate and attached to individual animals. It helps travelers identify and become attached to the place and the story and that involvement will hopefully lead to them becoming involved in conservation of a species or a place. Tourism and science need to be partners but the rules do not need to be the same.

Pred

Mombo
Lagedima - from Eye of The Leopard.
Martina - the Lioness with the mane (no longer with us)
Steroid Boys - two male cheetah who dominated for years
Matata - bad tempered matriarch of the Matata pride.

Mala Mala
Chellahanga female (d) - Beauty and the Beast, her daughter is the current Harry's female
Trollips Crossing female (d) - enemy of Chellahanga and mother of Kapen and White Cloth females. Grandmother of Hogvaal female, Matshapiri female, Jackalsdraai female and son of White Cloth female (bent tail) Jackalsdraai successfully rasied two cubs to independence and Matshapiri has a cub now.
Nogoboswan female - grand daughter of the leopard featured in early Varty films at Londolozi. Mother of Campbell koppies, Kikilezi. Campbell Koppies has reared 2 cubs to independence, Kikilezi has a 1 year old male.
Tjololo - front cover of NG, father of many Leopards in MM

West Street Males - coalition of 5 male lions who dominated from 99-04. Their story is fascinating and can be read on the MM website.

Eyrefield Males - 6 brothers whose last act at MM was killing a huge buffalo, some video is on Youtube. Then they headed west and have been tearing up the western Sabi Sand, killing anything they feel like, particularly hippo. They are legends in the making, given that the oldest is 8 and most are 5-6.

Masai Mara in Kenya:

Kike, the cheetah that gets on top of safari vehicles to look around for game

The Marsh pride of lions.

Bella the leopard.

All of the above are stars of Big Cat Diary on BBC.

My favorite is Honey, the cheetah near Kichwa Tembo airstrip, with her three cubs (we saw in August).