Watch lion looking for sex make record-breaking swim [View all]

[Bayard]

'It's pretty incredible, the guy's got three legs'
Ugandan lion brothers Jacob and Tibu were filmed swimming a mile across the Kazinga Channel in Uganda — the longest swim ever recorded for the species —after getting their "butts kicked" by rival males.

A three-legged lion and his brother made a record-breaking swim across a river teeming with crocodiles and hippos in a desperate search for sex, researchers have revealed. The pair has now been seen traversing the treacherous Kazinga Channel in Uganda six times, including a nearly mile-long (1.5 kilometers) swim that was captured on film.

This is believed to be the longest swim by a lion (Panthera leo) ever documented: Normally, lions' maximum observed swim distances are around 330 feet (100 meters). The Herculean feat is even more remarkable considering that one of the brothers is missing a limb. "It's pretty incredible, the guy's got three legs," said Alex Braczkowski, lead author of a study documenting the encounter.

"He was swimming [at a] much slower speed compared to [his brother]. But he made it," Braczkowski, a researcher at Griffith University in Australia and scientific director of the Volcanoes Safaris Kyambura Lion Project, told Live Science.

Cameraman Luke Ochse filmed the two lions — Jacob, who lost his foot in a poachers' trap, and Tibu — swimming across the channel that connects the George and Edward lakes on Feb. 1 with a drone carrying a thermal camera. The big cats initially attempted the swim three times (the first attempt captured in the footage above) but were forced to turn back after encountering either hippos (Hippopotamus amphibius) or Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus), both of which can kill lions in the water.


Jacob, one of the lions that made the record-breaking swim, lost part of his leg in a poachers trap. (Image credit: Alex Braczkowski)


https://www.livescience.com/animals/lions/its-pretty-incredible-the-guys-got-three-legs-watch-lion-looking-for-sex-make-record-breaking-swim-across-treacherous-river-filled-with-crocs-and-hippos