Scrapper

Scrapper, also called Tokoloshe or Male #5, was the youngest of the five Birmingham Boys of South Africa’s Sabi Sand, judged by his less developed mane when they arrived. Like Tinyo he was known for aggression.

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.

Scrapper was the first of the five to die, in April 2016, only a year after the takeover. He is thought to have died from a stab wound to the chest and lungs caused by a buffalo’s horns; some followers instead suggest disease.