Brave lions in search of love

by Imma Perfetto

A swim away, a swim away. With apologies to Solomon Linda, and The Tokens from 1961, but amazingly a pair of lions – one with 3 legs – has been documented swimming 1.5 kilometres across the predator-infested waters of Kazinga Channel in Uganda in the pitch-dark night. (snip-video on the page)

“I’d bet all my belongings that we are looking at Africa’s most resilient lion,” says Alexander Braczkowski, from Griffith University in New South Wales, who witnessed the feat. “He’s 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.“

Previous reported swims by African lions have ranged from 10 to a couple of hundred metres, some of which resulted in deaths by crocodile attacks. 

The lion brothers’ daring feat was captured by drones using high-definition heat detection cameras, which were operated by researchers co-led by Australia’s Griffith University and Northern Arizona University in the US.

(snip-more on the page)

https://cosmosmagazine.com/nature/animals/extraordinary-tale-of-two-lions-who-swam-across-croc-infested-waters-in-search-of-love/