Why Did the Lions Cross the Channel?

Lion brothers Jacob and Tibu have crossed Africa’s Kazinga Channel, which teems with Nile crocodiles and hippopotamuses, completing a swim of nearly 1.5 kilometers compared with previous swims of about 100 meters, likely in a search for female lions, according to a paper in Ecology and Evolution. Conservation biologist Alexander Braczkowski, whose team has spotted only one female lion in six months of observation for the study, says the swim highlights lions’ unbalanced sex ratios in the area, noting that Tibu and Jacob’s survival is remarkable because of rampant poaching, and in Jacob’s case, several brushes with death, including the loss of a leg to a trap.