Scarface - A Great Iconic Male in the Mara
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Scarface

The 4 Musketeers story

The story of the Musketeers started back when 4 young males appeared in Rhino ridge in Masai Mara Game Reserve. This was towards the last half of the year 2011 and the 4 young males had just dispersed and were out looking for territories and prides to take. Towards the end of 2011 the 4 males had already been drawn by the roars coming down from the Musiara Marsh area. It did not take them long to track, fight and dethrone the two dominant males of the Marsh pride namely Clawed & Romeo banishing them for good from the Marsh area and the 4 settled in with the Marsh females as pride Males.

They became star attractions with the local guides naming the 4 Musketeers: Hunter, Morani, Sikio and Scarface. Scarface soon stole the show with a distinctive scar above his right eye giving him that charm and ruggedly handsome look to top it off with an impressive dark mane as he matured.

Sikio, one of the 4 Musketeers
Morani, one of the 4 Musketeers

The Musketeers didn’t stop there as they went on to conquer and take on new territories and prides with them. Some of the prides that they took and sired many cubs which include, The Marsh Pride, The Marsh Breakaways, The Mara River Pride, The Mugoro Pride, The Serena North and Serena North Breakaway Prides, The Rekero Pride and Rekero Breakaways Pride, and the Lookout Pride. It was during these quests and territorial takeovers and fights that the Musketeers started disappearing one by one. Hunter vanished in August 2019 while Sikio succumbed to injuries from territorial fights in early 2020 leaving Morani and Scarface still holding on to the Lookout Pride. 

The 14-year rule of Scarface coming to an end seemed obvious when he was sighted a long way from the rest of his pride and his coalition partner feeding on a hippo carcass in the company of 3 younger males, the Sala’s Boys, who seemed to tolerate his presence maybe owing to the fact he was no threat as was weak and weary. Over the next few days, the MPCP research team kept an eye on him until he drew his last breath at around 1 pm local time on the 11th of June. The last remaining member of the Musketeers is Morani who was seen still hanging around their territory in the Ashnil area.

Compared to the other 3 Musketeers, Scarface was perhaps the most gentle and loving male Lion I have ever seen with cubs. Unlike other male Lions I have observed, Scarface was very tolerant of his cubs as you would often find him babysitting and even let the cubs play with his big fluffy mane. I also observed him and the pride fighting over a small Warthog kill and he was chasing away all the females from the carcass so that the small youngsters could eat as he stood guard.


– Saitoti Silantoi 
Research Assistant – MPCP

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