11/06/2021
Farewell Scarface
There are moments when words can only hardly express what happened. When they seem to simply fail to catch the deepness of a moment, and the significance and emotional impact it brings along.
Scarface, the most famous lion in the world, has peacefully passed away today at 1 pm local time, and there are simply no words who could fairly do justice to the remarkable life he had lived. A life that in many ways had touched those of many others who had the pleasure and privilege to meet him. It was a wild life. A lions life.
Thereβs a big sadness accompanying me while Iβm writing these words, and at the same time a feeling of happiness that a male lion could live wild and free for long 13 years. Just like his nature intended it.
Of course we could try and list now what he had achieved. Which prides he and his three brothers Morani, Sikio and Hunter had taken over. Which rivals they had chased away. What offspring they had sired. But it has all been written down and shared before. Maybe itβs enough just to say: The four musketeers - as they were named by the Mara Predator Conservation Programme - did enough to make sure that their names will never be forgotten.
Morani is now the last one of the brothers, still looking healthy and great. Physically he has always been the strongest of them and it remains to be seen for how much longer he can hold on to his territory and the Lookout pride before the Maasai Mara will finally close yet another chapter about their magnificent male lion coalitions. A chapter named Scarface and his musketeers.
We honored you in life and so we do in death. Sleep well now king, knowing that you have become immortal long ago. The world may still be the same, it just has less to offer.
Maasai Mara