Lion 🦁 NOTCH | The Eternal King Of Savannah (Maasai Mara)

🦁 Lions of Africa: Notch male [Maasai Mara, Kenya] *1999 - 2013*
Mighty King of Maasai Mara
🔱 Note: If ever, in living memory, there was a lion coalition that ruled over its domain with genuine fear-mongering force it must have been the Notch coalition in Kenya’s Maasai Mara. This incredible coalition was unlike any that had ever been seen before. The strangest thing was that it was made up of a father and his five sons. This was unheard of in the lion kingdom. The young lions might have killed their father, but it goes to show how feared Notch was and how good he was at managing family dynamics.
Notch or Kali (Swahili for fierce) was born in late 1999 or 2000 and formed a coalition with another young lion called Light Male. By 2004, the two were confident enough to challenge the Marsh Pride lions that were made famous by the BBC’s Big Cat Diaries TV show – they dislodged Simba and Blondie from their perch and made the pride their own. As is the custom in the lion kingdom, they killed the cubs and went on to sire their own with the lionesses. In mid-2005, other lions were encroaching on the Marsh Pride’s territory and Notch’s partner, Light Male, was killed by three invading lions. Many predicted that this would be the end of Notch but against all odds, he held onto his territory by staying close to the lionesses and keeping a low profile. The pride had eight cubs when Notch was finally dislodged in 2007. Once again it was predicted that Notch wouldn’t survive long as a nomad, but then he did something unthinkable. When he was chased away from the Marsh Pride he joined his sons, five sub-adult male cubs, who’d barely escaped with their lives when their father was dislodged. They were now nomads in the wild. Notch took care of his sons – Notch II, Mighty Long, Ron, Caesar and Grimace – for more than a year until they were fully grown. Notch was probably nine years old when their reign of terror began in the Mara in 2008.
Within a few years they’d established absolute dominance in the Mara by killing and intimidating lions that stood in their way. They ruled over several prides including Paradise, Mugoro, Serena, Rekero, Rekero Breakaway, Rongai, Olkiombo, Maji ya Fisi and the Lookout Prides. Immortalized in the Disney Film African Cats that was released in 2010, Notch and his sons’ prowess at hunting was well illustrated. Fang, a fierce and mean-looking lion with one of his canines hanging out of his mouth, had his territory invaded by Notch and Notch II. Fang was no match for the two and he ran away. The pride’s lionesses, however, put up a spirited fight. The two Notch boys couldn’t overpower them and left.
The pride was saved. Fang returned, but Notch came back after a while with Caesar, Ron and Grimace in tow. Some of the most powerful moments in the film are when Notch meets his sons and are walking toward’s Fang’s territory as the sun sets. You could almost feel the power, the malice and murderous intent of the Notch coalition and as Samuel L. Jackson narrated ‘together they are the most powerful force in the land’. Fang fled once more, never to be seen again and several months later several Notch cubs were born. Although Notch was an old lion and in an unusual relationship with his five sons, he stood toe-to-toe with them. He was the alpha male and made the boys know that until his age caught up with him.
Due to the incredibly huge territory that they controlled, it seemed they had spread themselves thin with Mighty Long vanishing in the Mara Triangle in 2010, probably killed by other male lions.
By now, Notch was on his last legs. He was more than 14 years old when he died in 2013. He had split from his boys in the last few years of his life, but was always near them for food and security. Jonathan Kaelo was one of the last few people to see Notch alive. “His state had deteriorated and he was emaciated, we could see that he just had a few days to live. His sons had done a brilliant job of keeping him alive over the years. He still had his huge, black mane and although weak he was as defiant and proud as ever.”
SOURCES
▶https://www.facebook.com/NotchTheLionKingOfTheMaraAndHisFiveSons/?ref=page_internal
▶https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-lion-king-notch-and-his-famous-5-sons
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