Field Guide at &beyond Kirkmans Kamp, in the Sabi Sands, Matthew Smith (25), recalls the version of the event:
“The Eyrefield pride have had a torrid 2017, losing 5 pride members to other lions. Only 2 females remain and the future of the pride lies in their hands. They have been continually running away from and avoiding any males, so we were extremely excited to find the younger lioness with a male one morning.
That evening there was a lot of roaring around the lodge and the next morning we found these 3 males with the same young lioness. They had chased off the other male and were now all with the female in quick succession.
I was initially very excited just to see the lioness doing this with the males, because we had been waiting a very long time for this. For a pride take over and hopefully some cubs in the near future. But what happened then was just unbelievable.
I have heard of lionesses doing this with more than one male so as to confuse them who fathered the cubs, thereby ensuring the cubs safety. But I have never heard of or seen a female with more than one male in such quick succession and in the presence of the other males.
The 3 males are brothers and seemed almost content with sharing. My only possible reasoning for this might be because of their age. These males are close to 5 years of age and therefore still fairly young and may not have established dominance amongst one another.
She did this with these males over a period of 3 days, every 15 minutes or so. She did, however, have a preference for 2 of the males, the ones with slightly fuller manes. This was one of the rarest and most unique sightings I have ever experienced. I have never heard of or seen anything like this”.
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