Earlier this week, a remarkable scene played out at Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area. An orphaned leopard cub, desperate for a meal, approached a lioness who happened to be lactating. It’s a rare—and extremely precious—example of cross-species nursing in the wild.
In 1898, a pair of lions feasted on the most fearsome of predators: humans. Some think they could have killed 135 people constructing a railroad bridge over the Tsavo River in Kenya, though research lowered that number down to 35 human lunches between the pair.
As the new Planet Earth series has us remembering, nature is awe-inspiring, and unparalleled in its complexity, diversity, or cruelty. Observing the eternal arms race of species competing to claim a limited number of resources as it plays out through specialized biology over the course of millennia is humbling…
We’ve all seen the videos of people who keep tigers or panthers as pets in their homes, or of these animals playing, and it’s easy to forget that these large animals are some of the most deadly predators out there.
“Before, when there was hunting, we wanted to protect those animals because we knew we earned something out of them.” That’s the story a man from a small village in Botswana told the New York Times; his country banned trophy hunting two years ago. How have the animals managed since?
These are the famous Tsavo Man-Eaters. In 1898, they killed over 135 people, and stopped work on a railroad before they were finally shot. Like many male lions in the Tsavo region, they have no manes. A 10-year study shows us part of the reason why.
Here’s a perspective the #CecilTheLion outrage didn’t consider. That of the people of Zimbabwe who live alongside the dangerous predators. The New York Times is running an excellent op/ed from just such a human.
Lion murderer Walt Palmer is an asshole. But, he’s also an asshole who’s contributed more money to animal conservation in Africa than pretty much anyone else. In fact, trophy hunters like him are a large part of the reason we still have animals like lions at all.
The sounds of fireworks and revelry echoed through the warm Oregon night as people throughout Portland celebrated Independence Day. It was July 4th, 1970. And among the crowds were three young men enjoying the triple pleasure of a holiday, a summer evening, and the vigor of youth.
Pakistani nature photographer Atif Saeed managed to capture this stunning shot of a lion — just before it leapt at him.
I remember always being a little intimidated by MGM's Leo the Lion logo as a kid (big cat! the roar!) so whenever I see the roaring lion logo pop up these days, it always gives me a tinge of nostalgia that no other movie studio logo does for me. It's also the logo that has probably changed least over its nearly 100…
Clear photos of wild mountain lions are pretty rare. Crystal clear photos of an entire family — a mother and her two cubs — are unprecedented. These cute little guys live in the Santa Monica Mountains above Los Angeles.
Look, I don't want to promote fear of lions, which are amazing creatures. But they can open car doors, and that's just terrifying.
Every few years, we see cases of people going into enclosures at zoos, wanting to "make friends" with animals. It always ends badly. And, as it turns out, this is not a new phenomenon.
Last month we brought you footage of an African painted dog pack taking down a pregnant impala. Today, we bring you lions hunting a baby buffalo.
Jason G. Goldman is currently in South Africa, getting up close and personal with the animals there. He visited the Nambiti Private Game Reserve, where he snapped all these beautiful photos of the lions there. Read all about it, and learn the lions' names, below.
I always thought it was odd that lions were called the King of the Jungle when, in truth, they live on the savannah and in the bush. Still, they're definitely royalty among the African megafauna.
Lucien Beaumont, a guide at the Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa, was observing a pride of lions on the move, when they surrounded something. "My imagination started to race, trying to figure out what they had found," he writes on his blog. He never imagined it would be a porcupine—or what would happen next.
Kevin Richardson, the so-called Lion Whisperer of South Africa, is known for his use of GoPros to film intimate videos of himself interacting with lions. But this time he strapped the device onto the back of Meg the lioness, allowing him to capture the intense moments as she took down a wild buck.
There aren't many predators that can kill a fully grown elephant, but a juvenile elephant is a different story. When they're young, lions can take down an elephant if they need to. And it isn't a pretty sight.
