The Beginning of the End for the Majingilane
by James Tyrrell on February 5, 2017

It was always going to be the Hip Scar male.
The outsider. The one with the limp. The one whose calls often went unanswered by the rest of his coalition.
I remember a morning in which we found him roaring not far from our western boundary. He was slowly moving westwards, stopping regularly to listen. We had heard over the radio that the Scar-nosed and Dark-maned males were a couple of kilometres away, further west, marching relentlessly back into what had become their newly established territory after the foursome had vacated Londolozi, but nary a call did we or the Hip-scar male hear from the two of them. They continued on in silence, seemingly intent on ignoring the distant vocalizations of their brother trailing far behind them.
It had often been like this over the preceding months. As the four Majingilane had slowly released their stranglehold on the central Sabi Sands, moving into the western sector and overthrowing the younger Selati males, the Hip scar male had often found himself isolated, and if three members of the coalition were found together, he was invariably not one of them.


一直以来都是疤臀。
他像一个局外人，他走路有点跛，他的召唤经常得不到兄弟们的回应。

这样的情形在过去的几个月中经常出现。在保卫者逐渐让出了对撒比森中心地区的统治权向西部进军推翻了更年轻的塞拉提雄狮的过程中，疤臀雄狮经常被发现独自一人，如果有三头保卫者雄狮在一起，他几乎从来不是其中之一。


Why this was we have no way of knowing for sure. I know lion dynamics can be complicated at best, and the what and why are often obscured behind layers of conflicting factors, but the fact remains that the Hip-scar male was more of a loner than the rest. Maybe his chronically injured ankle rendered him less effective on patrol; perhaps this weakness was sensed by the other three and they chose to keep him in a state of semi-ostracism. Who can say for sure?
Whatever the case, the Hip-Scar male, when I saw him last, was all alone and to be quite frank, teetering on the brink. He lay with ribs showing, a severe gash stretching from his hip into his groin, with his face pressed into thick grass, not lifting his head when our vehicle arrived.
为什么我们对此无法确认。我知道狮子的生态系统可以极度的复杂，是什么和为什么经常被看上去并不一致的表象所掩盖，但是事实是疤臀比其他兄弟更加的孤独和虚弱。也许是长期受伤的脚踝使他在领地巡逻中起不到太多作用，又或者他的虚弱被他的三个兄弟所察觉，它们选择将他置于一个有点被排斥的状态。谁能确定呢。
无论如何，我最后一次见到疤臀，他独自在一起，坦白地说，他在消亡的边缘挣扎。他躺在那里，肋骨凸显出来，从他的臀部有一个严重的伤口一直伸展到腹股沟，他的头扎在茂密的草地上，我们车到达时他也没有抬起头来。

His breathing was shallow, and his gaunt hips were sure indicators of his weakened state
This was over 72 hours ago, and although he has recovered from being in very poor condition before this, his advancing age would make each successive recovery harder and longer, and sadly I don’t see a way back for him this time.
I have not heard an update yet, but as I write this – and I hope that I am wrong – the Hip-Scar Majingilane may well have already become the first of this mighty coalition to die.

他的呼吸很浅，他萎缩的臀部是他虚弱状态的表现。这是72小时之前的事情了，尽管之前疤臀曾经在很差的状态中恢复过来，但是他的年龄让他的每一次恢复都更困难也需要更长的时间，难过的是这次我看不到他恢复的希望了。
我还没有更多的进展，虽然我写了这些，但是我希望我是错的（我也希望！！）—也许保卫者的疤臀雄狮是这个强大的联盟损失的第一个成员。

I wasn’t in the sighting, but a couple of weeks ago he was found very close to a buffalo kill that the Matimba males were feeding on, with the Mhangeni pride nearby, and he was already looking the worse for wear. No-one saw it take place, but fresh wounds on his spine and flanks seem to indicate a clash during the night, most likely with the two Matimba males. So much of lion behaviour takes place under cover of darkness when there is no one around to witness it, so we cannot make any firm statements, but it is certainly possible that it was the Matimba males that have pushed him towards his final demise.
I will wait for an update on his condition, but given that the rest of the Majingilane were nowhere near him and the Mhangeni pride was also not in the vicinity, it is extremely unlikely he will be able to get a meal that will help him to recover this time.
The unpredictable nature of things in the bush ensured that there was no way we could have guessed that seven years after their arrival, the Majingilane would still be here. We did hazard a guess, however, that when the end came the Hip Scar male would be the first to go.
As is often the case with lion predictions, I hope I am mistaken, and even as I pen these words he is feeding on a buffalo and slowly regaining his strength.
My heart though, tells me that his luck – and time – have run out.
我并不在现场，但是几周前他被发现与马蹄吧正在进食的野牛尸体离得很近，曼海尼狮群就在附近，当时他看上去已经非常虚弱和破损。没有人看到打斗，但是在他脊椎以及体侧的新鲜的伤口似乎显示了一场发生在夜晚的斗争，更像是在他与马蹄吧雄狮们之间发生的。在夜间狮子会发生很多行为，但是并没有人可以目击，所以我们无法给出肯定的表述，但是确实可能是马蹄吧雄狮们将它送上了最终的死亡之路。
我会继续等待疤臀情况的新消息，但是目前其他的保卫者雄狮并不在它附近，曼海尼狮群也不在周边。他此时极有可能无法得到能够帮助他恢复的食物。丛林中的自然世界是无法预知的，七年前他们来到这里时我们绝没想到七年后他们依然还在。不管怎样，我们冒险猜测，结束到来时疤臀会是第一个离开的。
希望我的预测，像对于狮子的预测的通常情况那样，是错的。也许我在写这些文字的时候，他正才进食野牛，慢慢的恢复他的力量。
告诉我他的幸运和时间，都已经耗尽了，我的心好痛。