Africa Wild

http://lowvelder.co.za/248955/lioness-r ... ated-days/



“We came driving down the S114 from Berg & Dal. The lioness was lying on the right hand side of the road and she was roaring. After each roar, she stood still and looked into the bush. She then rested for a few minutes and continued walking up the road roaring. We could see that she was looking for something. After every roar she sat down, rested and looked around. After about 40 minutes of doing this the pride came walking up the road. At first she did not see them as she was lying down next to the road resting again. The pride walked up the road smelling at all the bushes on the side of the road, looking for her scent. After about 15 minutes she got their scent and stood up carefully and went closer to investigate. They then saw each other and recognised each other and ran to greet each other. They then went and laid in and next to the road for about an hour. Each lion had his/her turn to smell, greet and lick the lioness. We also had the opportunity to follow this lioness three days before. She was separated from the rest of her pride during a mating session. We saw her and the “outsider” male for 3 days.”


This is very good, and correct!

suberb

cute little thing... but

MBOMBELA – A large part of the white-lion population resides in zoos and lion parks these days, and that is exactly why visitors to the Kruger National Park (KNP) were recently astonished to see a white-lion cub emerge from the dense vegetation.

SANParks media specialist Mr Isaac Phaahla said they had not received any reports of such sightings in the last 25 years. On February 6 this year, however, a cub was photographed by Alberto Scattolin next to Satara on the S100.

This was in fact the second one noticed in the Satara area especially around the Singita Lebombo Concession.

The pride had been identified as the Shishangana Pride and at the latest sighting they numbered 30. They consisted of four males, eight lionesses and 18 cubs, two of which were white. These two cubs were estimated to be about nine months and a few weeks respectively.

This was a very rare sighting, said Dr Markus Hofmeyr, head of veterinary wildlife services at SANParks. “Visitors to the KNP should enjoy this phenomenon, as I am only aware of two of its kind in the KNP,” he said. “Their white colour is caused by a less-severe mutation in the same gene that causes albinism. However, it’s not exactly the same, but rather classified as leucistic.

Leucism is a condition in which partial loss of pigmentation in an animal results in white, pale, or patchy colouration of the skin or hair, but not the eyes, paw pads, nose and lips as seen in the picture,” said Hofmeyr. Unlike albinism, it is caused by a reduction in multiple types of pigments, not just melanin.

He added that this colouration which ranged from blonde to near-white did not appear to disadvantage their survival, but didn’t have much advantages either. It also didn’t change their behaviour and didn’t affect their acceptance in the pride. There were, however, a few dangers that might be life threatening to these beauties, but luckily their pelt darkened as they got older. “These risks include hunters, but not to such a big extent. The bigger danger is their camouflage while they are still young. This will affect their hunting skills and also make them vulnerable to other animals, which is the only real probable disadvantage.

“The gene is recessive and will emerge now and again in the species. At this stage, it is unclear how many are currently in the KNP,” Phaahla concluded. Over the festive season of 2014, another rare sighting caused a stir when nature lover Mr Dave Johnson photographed a little albino elephant.



http://lowvelder.co.za/257333/rare-sigh ... es-kruger/

this one seems to be an albinos... with blue eyes and very pink paws and tail

The cubs are not albinos...a bit like the white tigers one may see in circus shows.

Here are some others, leucistic, from Timbavati Private Reserve area 2010:














The albinos have pink eyes, and ears, sort of, and that never goes away.

There were a bunch in the Timbavati (Kruger) area and Vutomi, last century, so this is different!

Here is the very old albino one!

sorry why I said blue eyes

it seems it's me who takes too much... months

Don't worry, nana!

It is still a bit of a debate!

Here's an albino kudu, for example:






I know the pink is not so visible, but the age is relevant!