Scarface: who was the world’s most famous lion?

By Jonathan and Angela Scott

Published: Monday, 01 August 2022 at 12:00 am

In 2011, Scarface, along with three other young males, invaded the Marsh Pride territory. They were nomads, full of swagger and aggression and pumped with testosterone. They were almost impossible to tell apart, except for Scarface, who stood out straightaway due to his disfiguring wound.

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Musketeers battle over a carcass. © Jonathan and Angela Scott

At four years of age, they bore scruffy, blonde-and-ginger manes that would, in time, darken and spread. We named them the Four Musketeers – Scarface, Morani, Sikio and Hunter.

The Musketeers’ defining moment came in October of that year, when they confronted two Marsh Pride males known as Clawed and Romeo. The duo had already lost the third member of their coalition and were in the twilight of their tenure. Males are considered beyond their prime by 9 or 10 years of age – Clawed was almost 14 and Romeo only a year or so younger.

Hopelessly outnumbered, Romeo ran for his life towards Rhino Ridge. He was later spotted near Little Governor’s Camp, brawling with hyenas over scraps of food, and was never seen again.

Scarface gets shot in the Marsh Pride

Over the next two years, the Musketeers brought stability to the Marsh Pride. Then, in 2013, Scarface’s destiny took a different turn when he was shot during a conflict over livestock. The bullet passed clean through his abdomen and he recovered following veterinary treatment, but the episode left the Musketeers extremely wary of the pastoralists disrupting their territory. So wary, in fact, that they abandoned the Marsh Pride altogether.

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Scarface and cubs in 2013, shortly before he was shot. © Jonathan and Angela Scott

The foursome headed deeper into the reserve, to an area known as Paradise Plain. They spent time in the Mara Triangle to the west of the river, killing buffalo and hippo by night as they consolidated their claim to this new land. The water was no barrier to their ambition and they eventually patrolled a tract of some 100km2.

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A Musketeer shakes off the rain. © Jonathan and Angela Scott

Scarface’s older years

It was perhaps due to his blind right eye that Scarface was more proactive in altercations with his companions, often suffering injuries to that side of his face. But he was a tolerant lion, allowing the numerous cubs he and the Musketeers sired to play with him, burying themselves in his mane as he kept watch on the lionesses.

Initially, he patrolled with his fellow Musketeers, but as he became less mobile, he would often rest alone in the heart of the territory, or close to the females. When we last saw him in October 2019, the years had taken their toll. His tobacco-brown teeth were worn and broken, his nose black as coal, lips slack, chin patterned with spittle.

We knew it was only a matter of time before younger males caught up with him. But when? With long grass blanketing the reserve and the COVID-19 pandemic forcing camps and lodges to close, there have been no sightings.

How did Scarface’s behaviour change?

During their reign in the Mara, Scarface and the Musketeers controlled the Marsh, Paradise, Serena and Rekero Prides, and more latterly, the Ol Keju Rongai Pride. The lions now spend about 70% of their time in the Rekero and Paradise territories while continuing to monitor the Ol Keju lionesses.

Their domination repeated the pattern we had witnessed from another coalition of six males, known as Notch and his Boys, after their own ousting from the Marsh Pride by Clawed, Romeo and their companion in 2007. Notch’s coalition went on to claim the same prides of females that the Musketeers would, with Notch 13 years of age when he died.

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Notch’s Boys on Paradise Plain in 2008. © Jonathan and Angela Scott

That large groups of males – such as the Four Musketeers, Notch and his Boys, and, more recently, the Six Warriors, who claimed the Marsh Pride territory in 2017 – survive for so long as pride males is not just down to strength in numbers. Conversely, their apparent success is a sign that something is amiss with the Mara lion population.

It tells us that young males ousted from their natal pride are not being recruited into new prides as adults as often as in the past. These nomadic males roam widely until about four years of age and view cattle – whose presence has dramatically increased inside the reserve – as easy targets.

Scientists with the Mara Predator Conservation Programme have discovered that some of these young males are being killed by pastoralists. With their rivals removed from the arena, pride males hold their position for longer – but can end up breeding with their female offspring, with obvious repercussions for genetic health.

To counter this, the scientists believe that groups of young lionesses are leaving their natal prides to seek territories of their own – something they otherwise do only when there are too many adult females and not enough resources. This – and the fact that some of these young females are also being lost to pastoralists – would explain why we are now seeing smaller groups of adult lionesses in many Mara prides.

When did Scarface die?

Scarface died of old age and starvation at 1:00pm on the 11 June and his body buried. “He died in peace without any disturbance from vehicles and hyenas. We were the only vehicle on the scene and by his side, hoping to give him any kind of comfort,” said Saitoti Silantoi, research assistant with the Mara Predator Conservation Programme, of whom we are proud Ambassadors.

The passing of a legend had been predicted long before this moment. Yet Scarface defied the odds, relying on his ability to stay close to the lionesses and cubs in whichever pride he was allied to at the time, meeting up on occasion with his three male relatives: Morani, Sikio and Hunter who together with Scarface were known as the four Musketeers. Of these, Morani was spotted within the Reserve in the Ashnil area where Scarface died.

The legacy of Scarface

Characters like Cecil and Scarface help remind us of the plight of lions who have lost 90% of their historical range. That is why places like East Africa’s great Mara-Serengeti ecosystem (25,000 sq km) with its 3,000 lions are so important. With perhaps just 20,000 lions roaming wild we must do all we can to ensure their survival. Saving the last lions is about protecting wild habitat. That is the greatest gift we can bestow on the legend of Scarface.

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Scarface likely got his wound in a fight with a rival male. © Jonathan and Angela Scott

Main image: Scarface silhouetted. © Jonathan and Angela Scott