Birmingham Males Coalition

## The Members & Information

Topic **Birmingham** Males Coalition consists of Brothers **Nhenha,** **Tinyo,** **Nsuku (*Blondie*), Mfumo,** **Scrapper** (***Tokoloshe***)

The oldest of the **Birmingham** males, the one who is usually called **Blondie**, is around 4 or 5 years old, so he was probably born in 2010. the **Birmingham** males were expelled from their pride by the **Matimba** males, possibly 1 or 2 years ago (this was as of 2015)

The **Birmingham** males fathers were also called the **Birmingham** males (these males controlled a pride called **Birmingham**, that's why of the same name). Two of them were poached and the last one lived to an elderly age and was also targeted for poaching. He escaped initially, but I think he was also killed.

Mala Mala named them as ***Gowrie*** males, considering the **Birminghams** are spending more and more time in Mala Mala.  They don't name prides or coalitions as other reserves do, but they do it according to where said coalition is mostly seen or in which territory they become dominant. So, whenever you read about the **Gowrie** males, you'll know is the **Birminghams**.

## Naming Guide:

**Birmingham Boy** #1 previously called **Blondie** is now officially named "**Nsuku**" which means Gold. Nick in his right ear. Deep puncture marks on cheek

**Birmingham Boy** #2 has a relatively unscarred face and an equal sign across his nose. He is officially known now as "**Nhenha**" which means Warrior

**Birmingham Boy** #3 Has the somewhat split lip is now officially known as "**Tinyo**" which means Tooth.

**Birmingham** **Boy** #4 who has the distinct crater in his cheek is now officially known as "**Mfumo**" which means Authority.

**Birmingham Boy** #5 (**Scrapper**) was never edited due to passing away before all this.

Video Source

## The Start: (2015)

The Five **Birmingham** males have been seen in Majingilane territory (Elephant plains and apparently the territory where the Othawa pride is), killing a buffalo yesterday.

In 08-06-2015 video **Birmingham** Males are challenging the powerful southern **Matimba** males. Now, I recognize that they are just testing the waters, to see who they're up against, and that they still lack some confidence, but being scent marking *in the* *middle* of **Matimba** territory and roaring directly at them is a big, neon light shining sign that they're for real.

08-08-2015: The action continues in the Sabi sands, with the **Birmingham** males as the main actors. Last night, they killed an adult lioness of the **Nkuhuma** pride and fed on her.

Video In addition to this, something very interesting happened while they **Birmingham** approached the **Nkuhumas**. The young male, who is usually referred as **Junior**, stood up for a while against one (or two) of the **Birmingham** males in a quite fearless way, considering that he could be beaten badly or even killed by the B boys, even more so considering what happened to that lioness.

08-12-2015: today sadly 2 styx lion cubs have been killed by the **Birmingham** males Image Image 2

09-16-2015: A lone lioness (presumably **Nkuhuma** lioness) was hanging around the **Birmingham** Males yesterday afternoon and on various occasions attempted to get them to mate with her. They were having none of it, and chased her. Their behaviour was that of hunting her, with absolutely no interest in mating. As the photographer "Jaci" says, those **Birminghams** are wicked, they are pretty scary and incredibly powerful. It's clear mating is second in place to their interests right now. They are hell bent on conquering, and I think it's great they don't let the females to distract them from their mission.

09-17-2015: Video Flirty **Nkuhuma** lioness with the **Birmingham** males, from today's Wildearth safari live. Apparently, she was seen mating with the older lion, and again she was getting touchy and trying to come closer and closer with one of the other boys.

Oct 8, 2015: It seems to have become a fact that the **Birmingham** males are now the confirmed new territorial males in the Northern Sabi Sands. They have chased the **Matimba** males off, have been mating with females from both the **Styx** and **Nkuhuma** prides and are constantly calling and scent marking without challenge from any other males. The take over started out on a rather rocky road, with the **Birmingham** males killing various lions from the **Nkuhuma** and **Styx** prides, as well as the **Styx** pride cubs, which led to the lionesses leaving the area for a while. After eventually mating with the two different lionesses, we are now seeing the prides settle down back into their previous territories. The **Nkuhuma** pride are resting up on the eastern sector in Buffelshoek, and the Talamati pride (5 of them) have also re-entered their old territory. The Talamati pride are on a wildebeest kill close to our northern boundary and the **Styx** pride have been seen resting up around Djuma dam on Cheetah Plains. The **Birmingham** males have been hunting extremely successfully. After following a herd of buffalo north, they managed to make not one, or even two, not even three, but Four kills last night around three in a row pan on Cheetah Plains. We found them resting up next to the pan, looking very well fed. The kills are two buffalo cows and two calves, and it appears that these males are really prolific hunters. We got word that the **Matimba** males are settling quite far south of our boundaries, but moved off when the **Birmingham** males were close. We hope that the lion dynamics will start settling down again, and that we will see the **Birmingham** males starting to sire their own offspring soon.

11-27-2015: Video **Blondie** roaring on top of termite mound

12-12-2015: video showing one of the **Birmingham** Males a little injured, could be with a fight with an other male (The injury probably came from a fight with any of his brothers, for mating rights) Image Image 2 Image 3

12-23-2015: Video 4 **Birmingham** Males killing 3 buffalos and a fetus.

## 2016:

17 Jan 2016: Video This morning we woke up to one of the **Birmingham** males on our open area near the pan. As we headed out on game drive he began walking to the west of the pan, in search of one of his brothers. He later found his brother, gave him the cold shoulder (didn't greet him) and they lay down near each other. They will probably stay here for the day.

01-28-2016: Video Got this little recording from my phone and the spotlight was my torch!! But this is right now at Nkorho driveway. These 4 boys should be down at the pan sometime tonight. The fifth male is mating with a female not too far away from them. Amazing to hear all of them roar together!

02-07-2016 Image rare to see all 5 brothers together having bush breakfast.

Feb 16, 2016: Video Video 2 Image showing a male lion with an injured leg, most likely is **Nsuku**. (probably got injured fighting with some of his brothers for mating rights)

03-03-2016: Image One of the **Birmingham** Male Lions was located at first rock. He is still limping and looks in need of a meal, but on the whole, he doesn't appear too badly injured.

03-17-2016: Video The **Birmingham** males appear at min 3:00 more or less, they chase away the **Tsalala** youngsters. You will see that Male 1 is still limping a bit, but it seems much much better. Also, you will notice how their manes are darkening.

03-22-2016 Video The **Birmingham** Boys enjoying each other's company

31 March 2016: Image Image 2 Image 3 One of the **N’kahuma** lionesses was honeymooning with one of the **Birmingham** males. They certainly make a handsome couple and I enjoyed watching them in action and how unimpressed she seemed by his performance. **Blondie** is also better now from his paw injury.

22 April 2016: Image 4 **Birmingham** Brothers doing their patrol.

5 May 2016: Image: A **Birmingham** Male was attempting to mate with an **Nkuhuma** lioness this morning. She wasn't overly impressed, and fired back at him.

19 May 2016: Video: The new cubs of the **Birmingham** males with the **Styx** pride.

11 July, 2016: Image A **Birmingham** male lion was located with (who we believe) a **torchwood** lioness!

24 July, 2016: Image Image 2 **Styx** females, 6 Cubs!! and 2 of the **Birmingham** males. All seem to be doing well.

1 August 2016*:* Image Image 2 Image 3 one **Birmingham** male eating a carcass with a Cub.

8 August 2016: Image Image 2 One of the **Birmingham** males having a tender moment with the **Nkuhuma** cubs

11 August 2016 Video: **Nkuhuma** Lionesses (who have 8 cubs) come to blows with three of the **Birmingham** males. The cubs escaped later unharmed.

9 September 2016: Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 **Mfumo** possible injury from a beat up from his brothers. He's been getting quite the rough treatment from his brothers, and I also think the lionesses prefer the other males over him.

8 November 2016: Image **Mfumo** face injury is almost healed and mating with Lioness

12 November 2016: Image **Mfumo** with the **Nkuhuma** pride. it's clear he's also a very tolerant male with the kids, as his brothers. And they like him too in return, it's clear how they are drawn to him & the lionesses are less mean to him when **Tinyo** is not around, even coming to greet him with head rubs.

15 November 2016: Video Big fight between **Mfumo** & **Tinyo,** a few lionesses try break it up. **Mfumo** stayed with the girls.

17 - 22 December 2016: Video Image **Mfumo** has either re opened his wound on his face or this is a new fresh wound.

## 2017:

11 Jan 2017: Video **Tinyo**, **Mfumo** and **Nhenha** on this mornings drive. We haven't seen **Nhenha** for a while. His Mane is magnificent. Was nice to see 3 out of the 4 **Birmingham** Boys.

13 Jan 2017: Video A great way to end the day with three of the **Birmingham** males getting active yesterday afternoon. This morning (not on video) they were chased off a buffalo kill they made by the **Majingilane** males. Nobody was hurt these boys just ran away very fast.

31 March 2017: Image The **Styx** pride and a **Birmingham** male were resting out in the west this morning. There is still no sign of the new cubs moving with the pride, but we will wait and see.

28 -29 August 2017: Video: One of the **Birmingham** Boy roaring after having the buffalo for lunch. Video 2 **Birmingham** Boys on territorial patrolling. Even though these boys not thinking of conquering other territories, but still guarding their territory to find out that is there any intruders.

1 September 2017: Video **Tinyo** trying to be ladies man.

9 -15 September 2017: Video Three **Birmingham** Boys on patrolling. Video 2 Two of the **Birmingham** Boys fighting for the impala kill.

28 September 2017: Image Image 2 Image 3 Image 4 **Tinyo** now has battle scars, not sure how he got them other than from fighting, however **Mfumo** lost his dew claw in **Tinyo's** face a few weeks ago.

19 October 2017: Video **Birmingham** Boy up on the tree, **Nhenha** tried to bring the impala kill down from the tree after he scared and chased the leopard away.

24 October 2017: Video The **Matshapiri** male has over the last 2 days, been enjoying the company of 4 **Kambula** lionesses but 2 of the **Gowrie** males caught wind of them this morning. The 2 males were in hot pursuit near Campbell Koppies when one of the lionesses veered away and drew their attention. As they caught up to her the testosterone-filled **Gowrie** males turned on each other. By the time they’d settled their differences the lioness had disappeared. The **Matshapiri** male got away unscathed. One of the aforementioned **Gowrie** males had been with 2 of the **Kambula** lionesses yesterday. Looks like either temporarily or permanently they have moved south, They've had territory in Mala Mala since the beginning of their reign in 2015. They have dominated the northern part of it after chasing away the **Matimba** males, and one or two of them have always kept an eye on it. now both the **Nkuhumas** and the **Styx** have moved south and haven't been seen around Djuma in ages this forces the **Birmingham's** to push even further south.

26 October 2017: Video **Mfumo** and his cute cubs.

12 November 2017: Video **Tinyo** with his cute cubs

29 December 2017: Video Seems Like **Tinyo** & **Mfumo** making a kill

## 2018:

12 -13 Jan 2018: Image **Tinyo** fighting one of his brothers. Nice to see three of our **Birmingham** Male lions back in the north yesterday after their little holiday to the south of the Sabi Sands. Quite interesting to watch some of the dominance behaviour between the brothers while spending some time with the **Styx** pride. Image 2**Tinyo** with his cubs. **Mfumo** seems to have decided to stay at Mala Mala on his own.

17-22 Feb 2018: Image Image 2 Image 3 **Tinyo** with **Styx** cub & pride, **Blondie** was also around.

3 March 2018: Image **Tinyo** attempting to mate with a **Mangheni** lioness in Singita, that is **Majingilane** controlled land. He needs to tread carefully, because the **Majingilane** won't like it a single bit and as old as their faces might look like, they're still powerful and can shred him to pieces should they catch him alone.

23 March 2018: Image The **Birmingham** males are making more regular forays onto central **Londolozi**. With the threat of the **Majingilane** males steadily waning in the west, it seems likely that they will encroach more and more as 2018 goes on.

2 April 2018: Image This **Birmingham** male and **Ntsevu** lioness were found mating early one morning. Lions will mate between 4 to 7 days and roughly every 20 minutes, and given that all the females who recently gave birth seem to have lost their cubs, it is most likely that the majority of the lionesses in the pride will be mating again.

19th - 30th April 2018: Image Image 2 3 of the **Birmingham's** patrolling together, only 1 week after the successful **Majingilane** fight win. It also seems **Mfumo** is back. Video

11th - 28th May 2018: Image An **Ntsevu** lioness presents herself to one of the **Birmingham** males for mating. 5 females were together on this morning, with the 6th nowhere to be found; we are hoping the missing lioness is still secreting cubs somewhere, but as there has not been a confirmed sighting since of a little over a week ago, our hopes aren’t high. Image 2 An **Ntsevu** lioness and one of the **Birmingham** males stand side-by-side, presenting the illusion of a united front. In reality these lionesses and males have been bouncing between one another, with barely a day going by without a new combination of mating pair being found on **Londolozi**. Having never watched other lionesses raising cubs successfully, and having failed on their first few tries, there are shadows of doubt cast over these females’ ability to raise litters through to independence. Image 3 Image 4 Image 5 Video Two of the **Birmingham** coalition come to blows over one of the **Ntsevu** lionesses, who promptly took to her heels as the fight broke out.

1st - 11th August 2018: Image Image 2 Image 3 **Nsuku (Blondie)** & **Nhenha** mating with lionesses. **Mfumo** has been missing a few months again now, Maybe he is with one of the prides wherever they are, the North is almost completely vacant right now of male lions and prides specially Djuma, prides are all South and the only pride being seen up North is the Talamati pride and **Torchwood**. The **Avocas** strangely enough haven't pushed further even though the **Birmingham** Boys haven't been North for a long while, the last time they were seen was 2 weeks ago on the Djuma Dam Cam, Definitely worrying.. Image 4 One of the **Birmingham** males follows another male and four **Ntsevu** lionesses towards the Maxabene river. We were parked down in the sandy riverbed, and it was impressive having this male descend steadily towards us from above eye-level. The **Birmingham** coalition have been maintaining relatively stable and consistent movements in the east of **Londolozi**, yet we are still waiting for them to push deeper into the north in particular. The demise of the **Tsalala** pride and consequent lack of mating opportunities in that area may well have something to do with this big coalition anchoring themselves to the **Ntsevu** pride. Image 5 **Birmingham**, **Ntsevu** and older cubs.

20 August 2018: Image < Here is a map to show the vast distance between the **Mbiri** males (Blue pin) & Birmingham males (Yellow pin), Some people speculated that maybe **Mfumo** went too far north into **Mbiri** territory and got killed. If **Mfumo** walked 50-60km away from his coalition, that's incredibly far.

3 September 2018: Image Image 2 I couldn’t imagine a more beautiful sighting of a lioness and her cubs. On the rocks, Beautiful light and a whole load of cuteness, **Mhangene** female and **Birmingham** cubs.

## Scrapper Birmingham Death: (24 April 2016)

24 April 2016: Image 1 & Image 2 From watching the **Birmingham** males take over on WildEarth safaris before moving to South Africa to my first game drive at my new home Nkorho seeing these boys for the first time, he was always one of my favourites - for his attitude of a personality and not so pretty looks! We called him *Tokolosh* - which is based on a type of evil mythological character in African cultures who strikes fear into many.. (as he was one of the most aggressive males in the **Birmingham** coalition take over, killing both cubs and lionesses.) He was already looking in bad shape and from what I saw he was really struggling to breathe. RIP to an awesome lion, the runt of the coalition and one who really made an impact on the future success of the **Birmingham** coalition empire.

## Birmingham Fight with Scar Nose Majingilane (Scar Nose Death | April 12, 2018 ):

It seems in April 12, 2018, a fight between **Birmingham** boys happened & they killed **Scar Nose Majingilane** at Singita yesterday. Scar Nose went out like a warrior on his sword. Pretty gruesome stuff. Considering the recent push over the last few months into **Majingilane** territory, this fight was inevitable.

## Mfumo Birmingham Death Speculated (Mid Summer - September 2018)

Unfortunately, I think **Mfumo is** dead. He could have gone into the KNP where there are no updates, but I find this scenario very unlikely. Assuming if he did leave to look for new females, I would think that he would head into the direction that he's been previously. He had been in Sabi Sabi in the past hunting buffalo so would think he would head in this direction.  Also, that area had been vacant for a long time when the **Charleston** left so he must of known so for the lack of roaring from dominant males. Most likely we will never know what happened *(even as of writing this in May 2021)* he has still not been seen again.

## Nsuku/Blondie Birmingham Death (October 16, 2019)

Once 5 members strong, the **Gowrie** / **Birmingham** male coalition is now down to 2. The third king to fall did so overnight. **Nsuku's** last breath was probably a sigh of relief - this male had been in poor condition for some time. The 2 surviving lions **Tinyo** & **Nhenha** are still in firm control of their territory and it doesn’t look like the loss will jeopardize their reign, at least for the time being.

## Tinyo & Nhenha Birmingham killed Othawa Male (May 10, 2021)

Image < shows some injuries that **Nhenha** got from the fight. Shockingly what **Othawa** Male did was close to pretty much suicide, with entering in and out of the **Birmingham** brothers territory and roaring for a fight knowing he would be completely outnumbered. It's a very sad and tragic loss, **Othawa** male was known for letting cubs of other Coalitions live, and was a huge favourite among fans and rangers alike. R.I.P. Last knowing video of **Othawa** male roaring before he was killed

Video Video 2 On more Information

## R.I.P Tinyo: (December 2021)

**Tinyo** has now been announced to have died on 14th December, 2022. (if incorrect, please edit)

On the 14th of December, MalaMala.com posted a blog detailing the end of the Gowrie male’s era on MalaMala, Because even though 2 out of the 3 Northern Avoca Males known as **Blondie** and **Mohawk** have been trying to take over they're Territory, which resulted in back and forth chases like **Mohawk** chasing **Nhenha** like in this Video, Another altercation occured when **Tinyo** was caught by the duo but managed to escape with just a few scratches, then in November, The Dominant Males of The South Known as **The Ndzhenga** Or **N'waswitshaka Males** came up north to conquer new territory, the 2 **Birmingham Males** Found them Selves Sandwiched between 2 coalitions, and fled east towards the Kruger border, Things became disastrous as The Older Male, **Tinyo** Disappeared Mysteriously and is confirmed by Mala Mala that he had passed away.

## Coalition Status:

**Scrapper** (*Tokoloshe*) Hunting Injury in 2016 (Deceased)

**Mfumo** - Went Missing mid 2018 (Presumed Deceased)

**Nsuku** (*Blondie*) - Leg Injury & TB late 2019 (Deceased)

**Tinyo** - Injuries & Starvation 2023 (Deceased)

**Nhenha** - Went Missing Early 2023. (Presumed Deceased)

## Sons:

the sons of **Birmingham males** coming to an age of adulthood,

There's currently 3 males that are reaching adulthood, **Nkuhuma**, **Torchwood** and **Styx young males**:

**- Nkuhuma** young male: Image

**- Torchwood** young male: Image

**- Styx** young Male Image