The Short Happy Life of a Serengeti Lion

Death is always near, and teamwork is essential on the Serengeti—even for a magnificent, dark-maned male known as C-Boy.

Photographer Nick Nichols made several extended trips to the Serengeti between July 2011 and January 2013, determined to break new visual ground in the coverage of the Serengeti Lion. Here, C-Boy, a dark-maned male lion defending his interests, confronts the peril of lion-on-lion violence on a daily (and nightly) basis. Four years ago, C-Boy barely survived a fight for dominance with three other males.

The Vumbis rest on a kopje, or rocky outcrop, near a favorite water hole. Lions use kopjes as havens and outlooks on the plains. When the rains bring green grass, wildebeests arrive in vast herds.

C-Boy and a Vumbi female relax between matings. During estrus a female may be monopolized for days by a single male consort. Dark manes correlate with robustness, and dark-maned studs like C-Boy are preferred. 

Large cubs of the Vumbi pride and a grown female (fifth from left) feast on a wildebeest. The darkest, moonless hours are prime hunting time because the cats can see better than their prey. These black-and-white photographs were made with infrared light to minimize disruption to the lions.

C-Boy mates with a Kibumbu pride female. After fathering cubs, a resident male can be displaced by other males. His young offspring will then be killed by the new males or left to die. 

Cubs of the Simba East pride: too young to kill but old enough to crave meat. Adult females, and sometimes males, do the hunting. Zebras and wildebeests rank high as chosen prey in the rainy season. 

C-Boy (front) and Hildur lie side by side during an afternoon rain shower in Serengeti National Park. Adult male lions form coalitions with other males, often their brothers. C-Boy and Hildur—who are unrelated—have been a duo for years.

Hildur shakes the rain from his mane. He and C-Boy work together to retain control over two prides: the Vumbi, consisting of five adult lionesses, and Simba East, a pride now also with five.

A playful 20-month-old female takes a flying leap across Hildur’s back on the rain-soaked plains. The young lioness is either Hildur’s or C-Boy’s offspring. While the males spend some of their time with the pride—and put up with youngsters’ antics—they mainly devote themselves to defending the territory against other males.

In 2009 a gang of lions called the Killers attacked C-Boy. Ingela Jansson, then a research assistant with the Serengeti Lion Project, photographed the fight. C-Boy survived, but the Killers drove him away from the Jua Kali pride—where he and Hildur had been the resident males.

Infrared light illuminates Hildur and a lioness from the Vumbi pride as they rest after mating. The females in a pride sometimes reproduce on the same cycle. This allows the pride to protect and feed their young together.

Lionesses from the Vumbi pride take an afternoon nap near a favorite watering hole. This lion-level shot was made using a robot that photographer Nick Nichols and his team designed for close-up photographs of the felines.

Dusk is a busy time for the Vumbi pride. As the moon rises, the lionesses rouse themselves from their afternoon naps, tussle in the grass, and set out on the evening hunt. Nichols made this photo using natural light; soon after, he switched to infrared.

The Killers, a male coalition of four, earned their name with lethal attacks on females. They almost killed their rival C-Boy too. Because good territory is a precious resource, fighting and displacing competitors are part of the natural struggle.

A female wrangles her infant cubs. During the first few weeks, when they’re too young for the competitive jumble among older cubs in the pride and so vulnerable to predators, she keeps them hidden away in a den. But these will soon join the group.

Older cubs like these Vumbi youngsters are raised together as a creche, or nursery group. Pride females, united in the cause of rearing a generation, nurse and groom their own and others' offspring.

The Vumbi females -- their pride name is Swahili for "dust" -- kill a warthog they've dragged from its burrow. Such small meals help bridge the lean, hungry, dry season, when cubs may otherwise starve.

Dry season is hard on everyone. Vumbi females, stressed and fiercely protective of their young, get cross with C-Boy, though he's one of the resident fathers. 

A male often asserts his prerogatives. C-Boy feasts on a zebra while the Vumbi females and cubs wait nearby, warned off by his low growls. Their turn will come.

Hildur, C-Boy's partner, frequently makes a long run to visit the Simba East pride. A coalition that controls two prides must maintain vigilance over both.

The Serengeti Lion: Life on the Plains with the Vumbi Pride. A marriage of Nick’s photographs, Nathan Williamson’s video, voiceover from ecologist Craig Packer, images and voiceover from Brent Stirton, and text by David Quammen. An immersive look into the life of lions.

The Robot

The Robot

The Robot

Awakening

Blood And Bones

Consort

Hunt

Hunt

Hunt

Hunt

Consort

Cubs

Twilight

Cubs

Cubs

Cubs

Cubs

Cubs

Twilight

Twilight

Black Mane

Playtime

Pride

Pride

The Killers

Coalition

Playtime

Pride

Playtime

Thunderstorm

Hildur slumbers undisturbed as a storm crosses the Serengeti Plain

end

cast National Geographic Photographers: Michael Nichols The Short Happy Life of a Serengeti Lion

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