Researchers from Griffith University and Northern Arizona University have recorded two lion brothers swimming across an African river, a record long distance in a predatory-infested water body. The study follows the breathtaking journey.
Uganda’s Jacob is no ordinary lion: he’s the one who has become something of a local icon, having been gored by a buffalo, his family poisoned for their body parts, and caught in multiple poaching attempts that eventually left him with an amputated leg. “Jacob has had the most incredible journey and really is a cat with nine lives,” says Dr. Alexander Braczkowski from Griffith’s Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security.
The research, published in October in Ecology and Evolution, filmed the brothers’ awe-inspiring crossing of Uganda’s Kazinga Channel with high-definition heat detection cameras mounted on drones. The channel hosts large populations of hippos and crocs, which have claimed the lives of several lions attempting to mimic what these brothers have done. There have been a few recorded swims by African lions of up to tens to a few hundred meters but always ending with a fatal crocodile attack.
The swim by the brothers was about 1.3 kilometers long, a record. Dr. Braczkowski believed that these lions must have made this dangerous crossing in pursuit of females. “Competition for lionesses in the park is fierce, and they lost a fight for female affection in the hours leading up to the swim,” he explains. There is a little bridge connecting either side of the channel, but the presence of people probably discouraged the lions from using it.
Dr. Braczkowski has been conducting long-term research on African lions and other predators in Uganda’s national parks. He is currently the scientific director of the Volcanoes Safaris Partnership Trust’s Kyambura Lion Project and has been collaborating with the Ugandan Government since 2017 to enhance scientific capacity in wildlife management.
The findings of the study would point out the various challenges that wildlife operating in human-dominated landscapes face. “Jacob and Tibu’s big swim is another important example that some of our most beloved wildlife species are having to make tough decisions just to find homes and mates,” said Braczkowski.
There, the lion population has almost halved in the last five years due to enormous human pressures and large poaching rates. The IUCN classifies lions as a vulnerable species, with declining populations documented in most areas. Jacob’s survival and record swim act as testimony to the tenacity of wildlife amidst adversity.
At a time when human activities are increasingly encroaching upon their natural habitats, Jacob and Tibu’s story is a great reminder of the distance animals go to live and prosper in this very same area.