When you purchase through link on our situation , we may earn an affiliate charge . Here ’s how it works .
Lions by the car
Male lions in the Okavango Delta , a lush wetland where the Okavango River collides with the Kalahari Desert , are the largest king of beasts on Earth , said filmmakerDereck Joubert .
Dereck and his wife , Beverly , both National Geographic explorers - in - manse , made a plastic film abouthow these manlike Leo the Lion outlast , squall " Game of Lions , " which premiers Sunday ( Dec. 1 ) at 10 p.m. ET on Nat Geo Wild .
Walking through water
Lions in Botswana ’s Okavango Delta are probably the large lions on the satellite because there is an teemingness of buffalo and other animate being to prey upon in the part , and the fact that the animals often take the air through water in the delta ’s many stream , build up up their muscleman , Dereck say .
This distaff lion , which just banquet upon a numb Bison bison , is consider walk through one of the many current of the Duba Plains camp , a wildlife grant in northwestern Botswana .
link up : What are the biggest cats in the mankind ?
Walking through water
The Jouberts
Dereck , 57 , and Beverly , 56 , seem to belong here in the bush of the Duba Plains camp , where they made other films aboutlions , including " The Last Lions " and " Relentless Enemies . "
Not yet huge
It ’s no light effort determination Leo the Lion . But under the guidance of the Jouberts and a guidebook , it ’s a picnic . On the first good afternoon of a three - day safari in Duba , the couple located a group of five lions , including two cubs , as a chemical group of four journalist drove to see them . Only about 1 in 8 male Leo the Lion come through to maturity .
Getting ousted
When manlike lions get to reach sexual adulthood around historic period 2 , the older male person within the pride kick them out , Dereck say . The female king of beasts , which are usually all link up to some degree , typically stay behind .
For a young male person , " the treason by his own pedigree must be confusing to him , but this is an ancient rite — the cast out of young Male into a world of unknowns — a earth where he will be capable make it , or pall , " say Dereck .
After being kicked out , the young males range the countryside solo or in small banding , often with their brother or cousins , negociate the no - cat’s - land between territories of other lions .
Walking through water
Chowing down
If lion make it long enough to find a hopeful new field , the next step is to take over another pridefulness . But of course nonmigratory males will have none of that , and so they stop up fighting , often to the end . They usually do this as a coalition , often dwell of three or four big males .
come to : What labour Tsavo lions to wipe out mass ? one C - honest-to-goodness enigma solved
Up close
Only physically firm , intelligent and primed males survive to become adults in charge of a pride . Females mostly dwell longer than their vis-a-vis . manly lions , for all their hardships , are sought after by prize hunting watch .
" Every now and then , a cub emerge as a battle - frightened warrior , and then gets shoot for the very qualities that have allowed him to be a survivor , " Dereck said .
In decline
There are only about 20,000 lions leave behind in Africa , Beverly sound out . Other estimates put the numeral slightly higher , close to 30,000 . irrespective , their numbers are declining at an alarming rate , experts fit . About 50 years ago , there were 450,000 Leo — a decline of more than 95 percent , Beverly impart .
Poaching troubles
prize hunter , mostly Americans , shoot down nearly 700 Panthera leo per class , typically males , Dereck said . Perhaps an even bigger trouble is the use of conducting wire gin traps by expand rural population in Africa . These traps trip up a sort of animals , which then buy the farm , attracting lions , which then fall target to the trap themselves , he tot up .
Hanging out
— Lion facts : everything you postulate to live about the " baron of beasts "
— Why do social lion have manes ?
Here , Leo take tax shelter in the ghost created by the car , and on the left field is Dereck Joubert . The Jouberts said they hope that the moving-picture show will help people appreciate how difficult it is for virile lions to survive to adulthood , and in crook discourage hunt of these fauna .
Filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert, in their natural habitat, in Duba Plains camp, Botswana.
Viewing the animals up faithful display just how easy it is to go about them , and stimulate it unclouded that lion hunting would n’t be particularly intriguing .
Taking a leap
Here a female can be see to it hop-skip across a stream . The violent death of an adult male in a pridefulness can throw the group into chaos , Dereck said . For example , this make the pride more vulnerable to attack from an outside group of male person , leading to upheaval and the almost certain killing of any young cubs , Dereck say .
When manly lions take over a new soil , they almost always obliterate the prides ' cubs , since they are not biologically related to and do not want to drop vigour ensuring that other lions ' genes will be passed on .
Life is tough for lion cubs, but especially males: Only about 1 in 8 male lions survive to adulthood.
