The Birmingham Boys

The Birmingham Boys, known at MalaMala as the Gowrie males, were a coalition of five brothers born in 2010–2011 in the Birmingham Pride of the Timbavati, beside Kruger National Park, sons of the old Birmingham males: Nsuku, Nhenha, Tinyo, Mfumo and Scrapper. Londolozi’s guides report that they left home as six and lost one to older lions on the way south.

In 2015 they arrived in the northern Sabi Sand and drove out the ageing Southern Matimba, Hairy Belly and Ginger, taking the Nkuhuma, Torchwood and Styx prides. The takeover was violent: several cubs and adult lionesses were killed. By late 2017 they were also the dominant males further south, ruling the Tsalala, Mhangeni and Ntsevu prides, and they fathered cubs across much of the reserve.

They fell one by one: Scrapper in April 2016, probably gored by a buffalo; Mfumo, who disappeared around 2019–2020; Nsuku in late 2019, weakened by injury and illness; and Tinyo at the end of 2021. The last, Nhenha, teamed up with his son, the Nkuhuma male, fled the arriving Ndzhenga males in 2022, and was mourned as the last Birmingham male in early 2023. Fans place them in the Sabi Sand’s history alongside the Mapogos, Majingilane and Matimbas.