I guess it's all about definitions...... It's relatively unusual for a female to be alone - but not impossibe and that female may have teamed up with a young (probably nomadic?) male.... then if they breed, I guess they are the beginnings of a new pride.

Without seeing a pic of the Lion you mention, it's difficult to give you an age - esp as it's not an area I'm familiar with - but from what you say, my guess is probably around 3 or 4 years or so...

Zim has a different system to most of the places I operate in that a hunter can take extra animals on short hunts that haven't been taken by a previous hunter or haven't been sold. I guess it's a good selling point for the outfitter and good for the hunter, but I'm not so sure it's so good for the general management policy of the area or for long term profits.... but thats a whole different conversation

If these two were in the same territory of a seperate pride, I'm suprised your PH didn't try a bit of calling....... it's often very effective in those situations. A Lions downfall is his arrogance and a pride holding male will be very aggressive if he thinks there's an intruder in his area...... a bit of calling will often bring them in very quickly and looking for trouble.........

I guess Zimhunter's Lion could well have been the one of the ones you saw...... if it was the same area then its more than possible.......

Funny how memory plays tricks on me...... I've just remembered an incident that happened to me a few years ago........ I was in the Selous hunting with a client on a 21 day licence and we shot a big Lion and did all the usual precautions after the shot...... we approached the downed animal from behind, the tracker threw rocks, then twisted it's tail and then I kicked it's ass and had no response to any of it all..... then I moved up to it's head (all this with my rifle in my shoulder and the safety off and ready to shoot) and touched the closed eye with my muzzle a few time..... again nothing, another nudge on the shoulder with my foot and still nothing..... so that was that I thought.... one ex Lion. I put the safety back on while I was congratulating the client (I unload a bit later) and then knelt down and peeled back the eyelid with my face about 6 inches from the Lion's face..... I actually don't know why I do this bit, but I do..... Then when I looked into his eye, it suddenly blazed bright orange with malevolence for a second and I felt the whole body tense up..... and then as the eye faded to dead the muscles slowly relaxed for good....... frankly, all I could think of at that moment was "Oh Fuck!" - I've often read about people who say at a certain moment, their blood ran cold...... now I know what that means... and it's not a nice feeling.........