Dark Mane Avoca

Dark Mane was one of the three Northern Avoca males of South Africa’s Greater Kruger, named for his dark mane. He was the dominant male of the coalition, but from 2019 he chose to stay with the five Talamati lionesses rather than roam with his brothers, and when he tried to rejoin them he was not warmly received.

The Northern Avocas were three brothers born in 2013 in the Avoca Pride of the Timbavati, beside Kruger National Park in South Africa, sons of the Avoca or Giraffe coalition; two older brothers from the same pride became the Southern Avocas. Moving south, the three took the male-less Talamati Pride in early 2018 and, in mid-2018, the Nkuhuma Pride in the northern Sabi Sand, which the Birmingham Boys had left. By 2020 they had split: Dark Mane stayed with the Talamati lionesses while Blondie and Mohawk ruled the Nkuhuma Pride; in 2019 the brothers sired nine Talamati cubs.

Alone, he had to hold the Talamati Pride against rivals: in 2021 the Imbali male and the S8 male took several of its lionesses, and in 2022 he followed the pride west before returning north. He is thought to be the father of the Talamati male, who later formed the Nkumati coalition. A Londolozi guide wrote that he survived about three years with a broken foot before his death.