Khanyisa

One of the magnificent ‘Golden Girls’ originally donated to our project from the wilds of Makalale Private Nature Reserve, Khanyisa and her beautiful sister, Nyaleti, stole the hearts of the Akeru brothers in their younger days.

Inseparable, they roamed the Heartland territories, but tragically Khanyisa witnessed her sister Nyaleti die in a poacher’s snare on our southern borders. She lapsed into an irreconcilable state of grief which lasted all of four years. She was only revived finally by the arrival of a new sister, whom we named Khanyezi, and who suffered a similar tragedy in the loss of her own biological sister who died of poisoning. Newly bonded, light came back into both lionesses lives with the birth of little Ingwavuma II, who was ‘midwived’ by Khanyisa, and who expressed as much demonstrative affection for his auntie as his own mom.