Two days after I saw Nashipai, Nabo and Uni, I was leaving camp at 5:45 am when I suddenly heard lions. I drove out of camp quickly knowing that lions were nearby. I saw tracks immediately and followed in pursuit. I drove round a corner and 5 metres ahead of me was a lioness sitting on the road. I had my intern at the time, Jerenimo, who whispered “she is so white”. And that was exactly it. This was Naibor (meaning white in Samburu), the new young female. Naibor was staring intently in one of the bushes at the side of the road and that’s when we realized that there was another lioness there.
Naibor stood up and at the same time we saw another female walk through the bushes. It was Nashipai. This was only the second time I had seen Naibor and I don’t know where she came from. The Koitogor Pride females (Nashipai, Nabo and Uni) all returned recently and I did wonder whether Naibor would show up with them?
Nashipai walked off into the bushes quickly. 15 metres away, Naibor followed in pursuit. Each time Nashipai stopped, Naibor stopped and would peer through the bushes at Nashipai. This walk-follow-stop went on for a few minutes. Naibor did not approach Nashipai too close and Nashipai did not turn around. Eventually Naibor began to run towards Nashipai who turned around and growled her at. Naibor retreated and sank back into the bushes.
There were many impala around at the time. Both females disappeared then and over the next hour tried to hunt the impala. At one point, Naibor (still 15-20 metres behind Nashipai) sat in some grass and waited. Nashipai saw impala in the distance and went round but in the process went running and clashed into Naibor. She jumped over her and disappeared.
Both females disappeared (again!) and I couldn’t see them for hours. I headed back to camp and returned a few hours later to find both females sitting together (side by side!) along the river. It was a beautiful sight to see both girls together.