My Thoughts Today

On Lions

Photo by Matthew Kerslake on Unsplash

Lions look amazing. They truly have amazing features, as the male lion is the only mammal in the Animal Kingdom that confidently sports a mane.

When I look at lions, I think about power, survival, fear and frustration. They are beautiful, but also very vulnerable.

Vulnerability is the key word that I found in the latest National Geographic story about lions — “The Hard Reign of Africa’s Last Lions”.

The writers share a fact about lion cubs before even getting into the full story:

“As few as two out of 10 lion cubs live to see their first birthday.”

That’s painful for me to take in. My very first birthday was held in the Bay Area of California. It will go down as the only birthday that stays in my childhood memories as I move forward into my adult life. To know that the majority of lion cubs will not see their first birthday gives me hope that there is a better afterlife for them. They deserve a better life than to be faced with danger by their own kind at birth.

That’s right. Those 8/10 cubs are slaughtered by male lions themselves:

“A 30-year study found that male lions often kill the existing cubs when taking over a pride so they can more quickly father their own offspring.”