Finding a pair of mating lions is not so unusual to spot on a safari to the Kruger National Park. But, finding a pair of male lions trying to have a go at it is a phenomenon that is rarely witnessed.
Klaus, engineer, and daughter, Kira, tell LatestSightings.com the story of how this sighting played out: “In the morning, the H6 road is usually much quieter than the famous S100, which runs parallel to the H6.”
“In a cold winter’s morning, tar roads store the heat from the day before, so this usually attracts cats, like lions, and many other animals. So this road is generally where we started our mornings.”
“During our previous 4 days in the park, we had not seen a whole lot, so, even if these lions had not shown that particular mounting behaviour, we would have been pretty happy with the encounter.
What made this sighting even more special, was that there was only one vehicle next to us. As time passed, more vehicles started to show up, somewhat disturbing the lions. So, the three huge males left the tar road and trotted south into the thick bush.”
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“For regular safari travellers like us, who have been visiting Africa for close to 20 years now, with more than 300 nights in the bushes of 7 different countries, mating lions is not a rare sighting, in fact. we had observed a male/female couple just 24 hours earlier near Crocodile Bridge. However, a male/male combo was a first for us! This behaviour is actually not known as male lions mating, as this was not an expression of sexuality and no penetration occurs, but rather, this is an act of dominance. Dominant male lions, and also other animals, such as elephants, will mount the other males to show who is the more dominant one.”
