Romancing Lions

Though NOT one of the items on my bucket list, watching lion romance unfold right in front of our eyes, in the open - only feet/yards away - was incredible.

First, some background: Lions do not have a specific breeding (and therefore, mating) season, but females of a pride often breed synchronously.  Male lions typically become ready for mating at 26 months, although they are not likely to breed until 4 or 5 years old.  Reproduction generally starts to decline at 11 years, but female lions are capable of breeding until they are 15 years old.

Being a fearsome carnivore with virtually no predators to be concerned about, lions are given to a lifestyle that essentially involves hunting, eating, playing, sleeping, and having lots of sex — it's definitely a lifestyle to be envious of.  

Unlike all other cats who lead solitary lifestyle, lions have developed to live in groups.  Their pride could be as large as 30 lions including cubs - typically with one dominant male and several mothers/sisters/daughters - none his progeny.  In most prides, lionesses do the hunting by stalking and launching a surprise attack at close distances, preferring wildebeests, impalas, and zebras.  Adults will eat anywhere from 5 to 7 kg (11-15.5 lb) of meat each day.  When the food is plentiful, lions only need to hunt every 2-3 days depending on the size of their pride. 

But when it comes time for sex, that's when the fun really starts. A lioness often mates with more than one male (if there are any) when she is in her estrus ("heat,") and mating bouts can last up to several days — with couples sometimes doing the nasty up to 20 to 40 times per day.  In fact, they have sex so frequently that they basically stop eating. 

We saw eight females on one kopje (a rock outcropping), another two with 4-5 cubs in another location, 3-4 male lions (brothers) under one tree, spread around in their territory.

Close up

Lions on a kopje

Lionesses in a tree

Lions happy under another tree

Babysitting cubs

While the rest of the pride is resting elsewhere, the alpha male (below) is only with one female who is in heat.  With the mating cycle repeating itself almost every 20 minutes, Lions are go on for a long time - watch how exhausting that can be for both.  Each mating lasts a couple of minutes and after mating, the female turns to the male and bares her teeth - signaling that she is done. Then after a short break, they go at it again.

She is ready and waiting; he is not.

Lion Romance shows two separate episodes in two locations.  

In the first one, the lioness is ready (again), pacing around and approaching him to let him know that.  But he is too tired to even get up.  

The second was even more elaborate.  When we first saw them, they (probably the female) had just killed a wildebeest, and were resting in shade under a tree catching their breaths.  Under normal circumstances, male eats first, and only when he is finished, the female(s) and cubs get a chance.  Whatever is left over then feeds hyenas, vultures and other scavengers.  But this was a meal just for themselves.

While they were resting, we drove around to other areas of the park before returning a couple of hours later.  At that time, they had just finished another mating session and were seen staggering away.  They both sat under another tree and rested.  Just when the male lion seemed ready, they were rudely interrupted by a passing large elephant.  The elephant wasn't interested or afraid of the lions, but wasn't about to change his course either.  At the closest, he passed within feet of where the lions were resting.  

Watching Elephant go by ...

Close encounter

Now back where we were

Romance re-begins

Staring in each others eyes 

The law of the Jungle can also mean that the King of the Jungle yields to a larger animal.  They did.  The lion wisely moved away several feet as he noticed the approaching elephant.  Lioness, however, waited as long as she could and got up to move away just far enough at the last moment.  Watch lions and the elephant eyeing each other as the elephant passed by.  Notice how tiny the lions look in comparison.

As soon as the elephant passed by, the lions returned to their shade and resumed their romance - gazing in to each other's eyes at one point.

Even lions have to guard their meal

Finally, round number ???

Then another interruption - a vulture and another bird got impatient and started nibbling at the carcass.  Laws of the Jungle were being broken.  Even lions need to guard their meal.  The lioness charged to shoo the birds away and then had to rest some more.  The lion also joined to protect their meal - although they had not desire to eat just yet.  A few minutes later, it happened.  

It was 5:30 in the evening and we had more things to see before returning to the lodge before dark.