Lion expert Craig Packer, who was not involved in the study, agreed.
“If there’s nobody to mate with, what are you doing? You’re a male lion. You don’t have a very long lifespan, so you have to get on with it, especially if you’re wounded.
“If they can tell that there are females over there and no males, it would be, ‘Sign me up! Sign me up!’”
Jacob, one of Uganda’s tree-climbing lions, has come close to death at least four times in the past,
He has been snared, trapped, poisoned and even gored by a buffalo. He lost a leg when he was caught in a wheel trap in August 2020 in Virunga National Park, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Having been treated by vets, Jacob somehow worked out how to get around on three legs, joining the rest of the pride as they roam around the park.
Fitted with a radio-tracking collar, his movements have been followed by the Uganda Wildlife Authority, which is ready to come to Jacob’s aid if he runs into trouble again.
Lions do not like water. They are known to have swum in the Okavango Delta in Botswana but over far more modest distances.
They have little option there because the delta is subject to seasonal floods. According to experts the Okavango lions are adept at avoiding the deepest parts of the river.
Other sightings of swimming lions have occurred in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania.
Until Jacob’s and Timu’s marathon, the furthest lions have swum is believed to be 0.6 miles from the shore of Lake Kariba, on the Zambia-Zimbabwe border to one of the islands.
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