Why did 2 male lions cross croc infested waters in the middle of the night?

In Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda, 2 male lions swam over 1,5 kms across a river in the cover of darkness to reach the other bank. Why? Researchers are not 100% sure why but can only muse it’s because they heard females calling from the other side.

The massive swim – equivalent to the aquatic leg of an Olympic triathlon – was the pair’s fourth attempt to cross the Kazinga Channel in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda, and was recorded by a drone-mounted thermal camera at night.

Currently the lion population in this park is two males for every female, as humans and lions battle for territory and living side by side. Tragically, the lion population has been reduced to just 39 lions.

Females have been hit harder because they hunt in a pride, so if people set a poisoned carcass, there is a greater risk of multiple deaths.

Miraculously, the one lion that made the crossing has only 3 legs and still made it, when the odds have been stacked up against him time and again.

“The brotherly bonds of lions go way beyond the limitations of an injury like a missing leg,” says Braczkowski, a scientist from Griffon University, Australia, who’s been monitoring the lions to see whether the one has been providing for his 3 legged brother.