Here is Why Two Male Lions Swam Across a Life-Threatening, Crocodile-Infested Channel

The crossing of the river filled with reptiles was documented in a study conducted jointly by Griffith University and Northern Arizona University.

Dr. Alexander Braczkowski, from Griffith’s Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security, led a team that filmed the two male lions crossing the Kazinga Channel in Uganda. The nighttime action was captured using high-resolution thermal cameras mounted on drones. The work was carried out under the supervision of the Uganda Wildlife Authority. Let’s take a look at the background and achievement of these swimming lions.

One of the swimming lions only has three legs

One of the brothers, a 10-year-old local icon named Jacob, became famous for surviving many life-threatening situations, one of which resulted in the amputation of his left hind leg.

Jacob has had the most incredible journey and really is a cat with nine lives. I’d bet all my belongings that we are looking at Africa’s most resilient lion: he has been gored by a buffalo, his family was poisoned for lion body part trade, he was caught in a poacher’s snare, and finally lost his leg in another attempted poaching incident where he was caught in a steel trap.

The fact Jacob and his brother Tibu had managed to survive as long as they have in a national park under significant human pressures – including from high poaching rates – was a feat in itself” – said dr. Braczkowski. Their scientific research has shown that this population has nearly halved in just five years. Their crossing of a channel with a high density of hippos and crocodiles is record-breaking. And it truly demonstrates remarkable perseverance amid such risks.

Click on the video to watch the crossing:

Why their achievement is considered a record

Previous reports have indicated that African lions generally swim distances between 10 meters and a few hundred meters at most. In some cases, these swims end in death due to crocodile attacks. In contrast, Jacob and Tibu swam a kilometer, raising the question of why they embarked on this long and dangerous mission. According to Dr. Braczkowski they were on a mission to find 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, so it’s likely the duo mounted the risky journey to get to the females on the other side of the channel. There is a small connecting bridge to the other side but the presence of people was probably a deterrent for them.”

Dr. Braczkowski is conducting a long-term study on African lions and other predators in the Queen Elizabeth National Park and several other national parks in Uganda. He is currently the scientific director of the Volcanoes Safaris Partnership Trust’s Kyambura Lion Project and has been working with the Ugandan Government since 2017 to build scientific capacity in the wildlife department to census lions and other predators.

This behavioral observation is a direct consequence of some of his previous research, which highlighted the skewed gender ratios in lion populations. Jacob and Tibu’s big swim is another important example of how some of our beloved wildlife species have to make difficult decisions just to find a home and a mate in a human-dominated world – emphasized dr. Braczkowski.