Nsuku

Nsuku was one of the five Birmingham Boys of South Africa’s Sabi Sand. Known at first as Blondie or Male #1, he was later named Nsuku, “gold”, by the safariLIVE team for his blond, golden mane. Followers consider him the eldest of the five, as his mane was already the best developed when they arrived.

The Birmingham Boys, also called the Gowrie males, were born in 2010–2011 in the Birmingham Pride of the Timbavati, beside Kruger National Park in South Africa, sons of the older Birmingham males. Around 2014 they moved south, and in 2015 the five drove the ageing Southern Matimba, Hairy Belly and Ginger, out of the northern Sabi Sand, taking the Nkuhuma, Torchwood and Styx prides; the takeover cost the lives of several cubs and lionesses. By late 2017 they also ruled the Tsalala, Mhangeni and Ntsevu prides further south, and they held the Sabi Sand for about seven years, alongside the Mapogos, Majingilane and Matimbas in its history.

In 2019 Nsuku was in poor condition with a leg injury and, it is believed, tuberculosis. In his last days he was filmed standing his ground over a hippo carcass against a clan of spotted hyenas; he died of his injuries a few days later, in late 2019, at about nine.