These Two Lion Brothers Made A Record-Breaking Swim Through Dangerous Waters In Order To Find Love
Two male lions were observed making a record-breaking swim through a waterway at Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda. Researchers believe that it is the longest documented swim that has ever been made by lions.
Footage of the journey was caught on a high-resolution thermal camera. The lions are brothers named Jacob and Tibu.
They swam for nearly a mile across the Kazinga Channel, which connects two lakes in the park. The channel is filled with hippos and Nile crocodiles, which are known to attack lions.
What makes an already treacherous journey even more remarkable is the fact that Jacob has an amputated leg.
During his 10 years at the park, he has survived many life-threatening situations, including the loss of part of his leg in a poaching trap.
The footage shows the brothers making three attempts to cross the channel, which is 20 feet deep. They returned to shore after the first two tries.
On the third attempt, they were successful. It took them about 45 minutes to cross the river, and they both arrived at shore safely.
Lions are the embodiment of physical strength. Being at the top of the food chain, they have few other predators to fear aside from humans.
However, a Nile crocodile can kill a lion in the water with ease. The crocodiles weigh up to four times more than a male lion.
Andrew Deer – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
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But why did Jacob and Tibu decide to swim across such a dangerous waterway in the first place?
According to the researchers, they were likely trying to find female lions to mate with after losing fights against another group of male lions.
They also may have been trying to avoid coming into contact with humans, as there is a village near the bridge that serves as the main crossing point between the two areas of the park.
“Competition for lionesses in the park is fierce, and they lost a fight for female affection in the hours leading up to the swim, so it’s likely the duo mounted the risky journey to get to the females on the other side of the channel,” Dr. Alex Braczkowski, the lead study author and researcher at Griffith University in Australia, said.
Long-term research has shown that the lion population at Queen Elizabeth National Park is dropping, so the ratio of male to female lions is unbalanced.
A healthy lion population is female-dominated, but currently, there are two males for every female, which is the opposite of what the ratio should be.
It is estimated that in just five years, lions in the park have declined by 50 percent. Male lions have been seen swimming across the river seven times in the span of a year. Compared to other African reserves, Queen Elizabeth National Park has many more threats to lions.
“In Queen (Elizabeth National Park), in contrast, you have 60,000 people living in the park, there are thousands of cows, and poaching rates are high,” said Braczkowski. “When these threats converge, lions decline rapidly.”
Now, park managers and conservation experts need to find new ways to better support the lion community. Stabilizing the female population and stopping the decline of lions overall would be a good place to start.
The study was published in the journal Ecology and Evolution.
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