Caesar II

Caesar II, usually written Caesar 2, was a male lion of Kenya’s Masai Mara and one of the Rekero males, a coalition of young males born in the Rekero Pride along the Talek River. They were fathered by the Notch males, the rare father-and-sons coalition that dominated the Mara for about a decade, which made Caesar II a grandson of the legendary Notch. He was named after Caesar, the giant among Notch’s sons, but whether Caesar was really his father has never been confirmed.

The Rekero boys were still sub-adults in July 2013, when rival males took over their birth pride and drove them out. As young nomads they moved east out of the reserve, and in 2016 the Mara Lion Project reported that four of them, Caesar 2, Drongo, Ron 2 and Blue Eyes, had taken over the Enesikiria Pride of Naboisho Conservancy. Like most incoming males they killed most of the cubs they found and then mated with the lionesses, and over the following years they ruled several prides in Naboisho and neighbouring Ol Kinyei. The same researchers noted that Caesar 2 was the father of the young Fig Tree males, and in August 2016 he was seen on a giraffe kill beside two of his own sons.

In 2020 the Rekero males were still checking on the Sampu Enkare pride in Naboisho, and Caesar 2 and Green Eyes were reported driving off intruding males who were no match for them. Lion followers remember the two as an inseparable pair. Both later disappeared and were never seen again; by late 2022 lion followers believed they had been lost in the conservancies outside the reserve, possibly in conflict with people. What happened to Caesar II has never been confirmed.