The Marsh Lions The Story of an African Pride

by Jackman, Brian; Scott, Jonathan

• ISBN13: 9781841624280
• ISBN10: 1841624284
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-05-01
• Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Summary

A bestseller when first published in 1982, The Marsh Lions portrays a vivid picture of life and death on the African savannah through the story of a pride of lions in Kenya's world-famous Masai Mara game reserve. The story is essentially a true one. All the central characters are real, and most of the incidents described actually happened.For five years, Brian Jackman and Jonathan Scott followed the Marsh pride and their progeny, painstakingly recording the daily drama of life and death on the African plains. In time they came to regard them as old and familiar friends and real individuals - the big resident males, Scar, Brando and Mkubwa and three lionesses known as the Marsh sisters. Their lives, together with the leopards and cheetahs that shared their wild paradise, offer a unique insight into the unforgiving world of these magnificent carnivores.The Marsh Lions were the most successful group to be filmed for Big Cat Diary, the BBC's hugely successful TV series. With Jonathan Scott as co-presenter, The Big Cat Diary camera teams allowed millions of viewers to observe the ongoing saga of the Marsh pride at a time when lions are fast disappearing all over Africa. The Marsh Lions is a powerful reminder of what the world stands to lose if the big cats were to vanish forever and highlights the need to cherish the Mara as one of the most beautiful of the earth's wild places.The book is illustrated with photographs and drawings by Jonathan Scott.

Author Biography

Brian Jackman is an award-winning journalist and Britain's foremost writer on African wildlife safaris.

Table of Contents

An Introduction to the Maasai Mara Game Reserve 1 January 1978: Dark Mane's Pride 2 February 1978: A New Alliance 3 February–May 1978: The Long Rains 4 February–July 1978: The Great Migration 5 July–September 1978: The Murram Pit Clan 6 October–December 1978: The Departure of the Herds 7 January–May 1979: The Mitt Mbili Pride 8 June–August 1979: The Dogs of Aitong 9 September 1979: Summer Slaughter 10 October–November 1979: The Spotted Assassins 11December 1979 January 1980: The Nomads Epilogue:   February 1980–September 1981 Family Tree of the Marsh and Mitt Mbili Prides Author's Note Photographer's Note Acknowledgements

Excerpts

‘Scar, too, was ill at ease. Increasingly he was torn between the need to remain near his lionesses and his urge to drive out the nomads. Night after night he patrolled his territory, reasserting his ownership by visiting all his regular scrapes and scent-markings, until hunger compelled him to look for his pride. But the Marsh lionesses were no longer so easy to find. They, too, could sense the rising tension as pride males and intruding nomads manoeuvred for dominance, and they seldom remained in the same spot for long. They behaved like fugitives in their own territory, and Scar went hungry when he could not find them at their kills.

The task of guarding the entire range was becoming too much for Scar on his own. Some of the younger challengers had retreated without a fight, backing down the moment they glimpsed his massive frame trotting towards them. But the four Wageni were still there. Recently, too, Scar had begun to be aware of two more arrivals. These latest newcomers were not inexperienced sub-adults, but a pair of mature lions whose heavy pug-marks could only belong to large males well into their prime. Their presence added to his growing discomfort. He was tired but he did not sleep. Oblivious to the heat, he would lie out in the open grasslands, not bothering to seek the shade, twitching irritably at the crawling flies and gazing stonily into the distance with eyes that seemed to close less often. Unconsciously he missed the support of Mkubwa and Brando – still pursuing their amorous adventures on Miti Mbili Plain. For the first time in two years, his confidence had begun to waver. The nomads were all around him; their spoor was everywhere. But he was a pride male. This was his territory, where he belonged, and he would not relinquish it easily.’