Lion ales Have to Fight for Their Lives _ The Lion Whisperer

Very cute. Everyone thinks you're cute. We're still good. Love you very much. Don't fall in. Georgie! Don't tear my new pants. All right, super good morning to everyone. Today I'm going to be taking George and Yami out for a much deserved enrichment walk. Today's topic, guys, is something that I've been reading up on or getting a lot of commentary on. Male lions have an easy life. They're lazy and they do nothing. So today I just wanted to write that sentiment by just enlightening you guys to what you don't see. All we really see when we see male lions on documentary is basically a snippet, literally a little snapshot of a lion's life. And I just wanted to take you behind the scenes of what actually goes on in the lion pride from birth all the way up until adult male lion passes away. So if you are curious to know what goes on, then stick around. Today is going to be the right video for you to watch. Hello, my boys. Yes. Oh, whoa, whoa. Are we excited? Yes, we are. Yes, we are. Okay, but I've got a lot of stuff to do today. All right. So I want you to behave. Are you going to behave? You look like you're in good moods. One, two, three. Hello, my boy. Oh, yes. Oh, yes, my boy. Yes, you've been very loving today. Thank you. And you? Okay, just wait, wait, wait, wait. Guys, it's quite funny because I've been droning. Hello, my boy. They've been waiting for me. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Okay. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. I can see you in a very playful mood today, my boy. Massively playful mood. Very cute. Everyone thinks you're cute. You are cute for a 12-year-old lion. Look at you. Go, Silly. Run. Run, Silly. Your brother's getting away from you. That's nice. Yeah, that's going to be beautiful. Don't fall in. Balance is everything. Nice, Georgie. You're doing a good job. You are. I know it's hard for you because you don't have all the integrity in your hindquarters, but you are George. Be like George. Look at that, guys. Sorry about the camera shadow, but it is what it is. Move. Big butt. All right. The life of a male lion. I hear it all the time. Oh, it must be so wonderful being a male lion like Yama Yama do. Look at him. He's beautiful. He's big. He's good looking. Everyone's scared of him. And he lives the life of Raleigh. He really just lazes about. He gets to chase the hardworking girls off their food and eat it. Eat prime choices of meat and get to mate. Oh, and lie around all day. I think what documentaries have done in the past and certain animations is they've portrayed the lion like that. And they've taken little snippets or little kind of pieces of a lion's life. So we've just taken like a freeze frame and we've kind of, you know, portrayed that for so long that people believe that that is, you know, if you're born a male lion, you're born lucky. You're born into this kingdom, this royalty, this succession. It's easy as pie. I'm not picking on lionesses, guys. I don't think the job of a lioness is easy. I think they just both are presented with their own challenges because they are animals living in the wild. But I want to set the record straight because it's not happy homes and gardens and easy, easy, an easy ride for a male lion. And let me explain why. Lions generally or lionesses generally have between one and five cubs in a litter. The average is four. So for purposes of this conversation, let's say that out of those four cubs and this is what happens is it's a 50-50 sex ratio. So in other If you've looked at lions in the wild, as I have, and I'm sure many of you who follow this channel have too, you will notice that the ratio is very different. It's more like one lion to let's say four to five lionesses. The average is about four. So one to four. But hold on a moment. They born 50-50. So why is that? How can that be? And there are several reasons for why there are fewer male lions at adulthood. Lion cubs have equal opportunity in the first two years of their life. So year zero to year one, they are really suckling on mom moms, towards the end of the year, as they get their teeth, they're starting to nibble on some food, some meat. But they are getting the protection and the nutrition from mom. And then even some of the little naughty guys and girls, when they are over one, will try and get some mother's milk, even as old as I've seen some 16-month-old lion cubs trying to suckle. Because it's free food. Why not? But the critical juncture in a lion's life is when they hit their two to three year period. Now things start to get a little bit tougher for that young male lion. And I'll tell you why. Now dad starts to see that his sons are starting to come into sexual maturity, gone past puberty, and they're starting to become sexually mature. That worries dad, because it means that his sons or nephews can potentially breed. And this is a no-no. So what a male lion, an adult male lion will do, is he will start to pressure those youngsters at the age of about two and a half, three. And he'll start to push them out. And sometimes, not always, but sometimes it can be quite violent and there can be mortality. So already we're seeing an increase in the mortality of young male lions at this age. But when they get ousted by dad, they literally either need to move off or face the consequences. And there's also something else that can happen, which is dad gets ousted by younger, fitter, stronger males coming into the pride and taking over that pride in particular. So if it's dad staying on for another round or another season of breeding, and he's fit enough and strong enough because he's a young dad, then for sure he's going to get rid of those males when they are at an age where he is stronger than them. He doesn't want to wait until they are equal to him in strength, because then if it's him on his own, he has a major problem. Because let's say George and Yami are brothers, which they are, and they got to an age where they felt they can take on dad, then they would be the ones kicking dad out. And that's not good for a lion pride, because obviously then we've got these young males breeding or inbreeding. So breeding with their moms, breeding with their sisters, we don't want that. Nature doesn't want that. It's not we don't want that. Quaid comes up. I just love the way he keeps on coming up to me, to head bump me, to reaffirm our brotherhood. I love that about Yam. He's just continuously saying, hey Kev, what's up bro? We still good. We still good. We are good my buddy. We are good. We are good. Love you very much. So male lions have been ousted. They're between the age of two and three. Now they are what we refer to as nomadic male lions. The lionesses stay with the pride. They've still got that protection of the pride, the ability to lean on the pride. So even if you got a little injury, you you know, porcupine quill in the paw. I don't know why that came into my head, but let's say very possible and you are limping along. You can't actively participate in the hunts, but you can keep up with the pride. No problemo. The pride will gladly support you as you recover from your injury. But a young male lion out there on his own as a nomad, better hope to hell that he has a brother or a cousin to go along with, because let's say two is better than one and three is better than two. So you can only hope that you can go off into the wilderness with your brothers and cousins and or if you are a singleton, so if you are ousted from a pride as a male and you there wandering the plains of Africa on your own, you can only pray that you meet a male lion of a age that you can bond with and become a coalition. That also happens. But in that period when you are between the ages of 24 months and 48 months, when you start to become a big male, okay, you are extremely vulnerable guys. Everything out there is trying to get rid of you, because if you're wandering tentatively and cautiously across the savannas into other lion territories, those male lions are going to be going, hey buddy, we certainly don't want you in here, get the hell out. So they're going to be chasing you like there's no tomorrow. And if they catch you, they're going to kill you. Lionesses or prides are equally not as welcoming of young male lions. So those young male lions have to be careful of other lion prides too. Hyenas don't like them, so hyenas are always trying to ward them off. And guys, they are having to hunt for themselves, so they're not the most astute hunters yet, because they are only young. They're still youngsters, so it's a tricky age. They're now vulnerable, they've left the pride, the support structure of that lovely pride that's given them safety and comfort and security. And now they're on their own in the wilderness, hunting on their own, fending for themselves, all the while trying to stay injury-free to become the strongest version of themselves, so that they too could take over a pride one day, because that's the name of the game. And so during that phase, two to four years of age, there is a massive amount of mortality. And so we see the numbers drop off and male lions fall by the wayside. And those that make it to four, those are your either very lucky ones, or the tenacious ones, the strong ones, the Georges and Yames of the world. Yeah, the guys that can now wander around the savannah, marking their territory and roaming around, looking for a pride of their own. And so what they would be doing, is these males would be doing exactly what George and Yame are doing today, is they would be cruising around, smelling and snuffing and marking and marking over other males and getting closer and closer, and checking out the male that has tenure of the pride that they are interested in, and looking there and seeing for the weaknesses. And then, when the day is right, when the time comes, then George and Yame will make an attempt at a takeover. And they will, you know, rush in and try and intimidate that male lion to leaving that pride, because they actually, truth be known, they don't want to engage in warfare, because that means they could get injured. And an injured lion is really problematic in the wild, because an injured lion can't hunt. And if you are like these males are, having to provide for yourself, you've just made your life that much more difficult. And that's why, when you see these boys, which is what he's doing now, there's three lions in this pride. Here's one of them. There's a barpedal version, called Kevin. And then there's this boy, beautiful Yame. Yame, Yame, Yame. Stunning specimen. Yes, he is. Yes, he is. He's a very stunning lion. He is a very gorgeous boy. And then there's our other brother, Georgie. And we make up a pride of three. So beware lions out there. You don't stand a hope, a chance in hell. If you came up against Georgie, Yame and me, we would chase you off your pride and take your woman and get rid of your children. No, I'm joking. We have far too much compassion for that. But that's what the lions would do. And so they're biding their time, they're biding their time. They then decide, this is the day they go in and they chase away this male. And he doesn't put up a fight, let's say. They are like half, half, half, half. But it doesn't end there, guys. The females are not welcoming. They just go, hey, what's your names? Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. We love you. We like you guys. Our men were getting old anyway. They were like a Robert De Niro and an Al Pacino. They passed their sell-by date. We're so glad to see the back end of them. The girls don't do that. They fight like crazy. They don't want this upset in their pride. So they resist and they tuck into these new males and injury can occur there too. So now they've got this pride. The females have eventually settled down and Georgie and Yame are now able to engage in mating. So they have this real instinctive want and will to protect their pride at all costs. And now they are the ones that are fending off the newbies, the new challenges that are coming and marauding and circling and just wanting to have tenure over their pride. And so this is at the age of about five or six that they are able to take on that pride of their own. So they can remain a nomad for three years guys. So don't tell me male lions don't know how to hunt because for three years they have been doing the hunting. Then it does get to a point when these guys are weather beaten, ragged and tired. And there is this opportunity for the male, younger male to come in and take them on, challenge them and get rid of them. And that is then the changing of the guard yet again. Just thinking now about this life of a male. So once he has tenure over a pride, then there is a period guys where there is peace and a little bit of bliss. And this is the insight that we see. This is the snapshot of a lion's life that we see. And this is what we see on documentaries where we see these big male lions and they are feasting on big carcasses, chasing the females off who have done all the hard work in catching the animal and having sex and sleeping. And this is why we have this whole misconception that male lions are, you know, have it easy. Okay, so there's a male lion doing what a male lion would do. He's busy telling those hyenas to stay away. And that's important because that happens in the wild. And here's his brother coming to support him. And notice they don't really care about the leopards. Two black leopards looking on. Male lions don't really see them as a threat. They see these hyenas as a threat. Okay, nine years comes, eventually your time has come. The new guy, the new kid on the block kicks you out, the new Brad Pitt. He says sorry Mr. Hunky Yame. And let me tell you something, Yame looks like a six-year-old male lion because he's had such a good life with all the best nutrition and all the love and care. And when he's kicked out, he's on his own again. He's back to being a bachelor. And, you know, his brother could have been killed in the ousting. Or let's say he's lucky enough to have his brother still after three years of hard fighting. Sometimes within those three years, one of the pride males gets killed. George and Yame might not make it through to nine. They'd be very lucky to both land up being nine years old and ousted and then back on the road again as bachelor male lions. Except there's a big difference now guys. And if you've stayed this long listening to me drone on about a male lion's life, you're going to definitely stay to the end, I hope. Because, yeah, then it's really tough for a nine-year-old male lion to go hunting on his own. He doesn't have the support structure of the pride. He's a lot less pliable and able than he was in his youth. And so hunting becomes quite the challenge for this male lion that once was able to mark his territory at will, like Yame. And many of them just wither by the wayside pretty quickly after their time in the pride has come to an end. And that's quite sad. Sometimes if they're lucky, the males that have taken over the pride, sometimes it does happen that they allow them to hang around on the on the fringes and scavenge off the pride. The pride that they once had leadership over. It's crazy, hey? Who lives on my boy? Yeah, it's crazy. There we have it guys, the life of a male lion. Isn't it wonderful? So the next time you see Mr Big, that beautiful specimen, walking in the wild in his prime, just spare a thought for what he's been through and spare a thought of what he still has to go through. It's not easy being a male lion in the wild.