The Lion: In Pictures
Amazing Images Look Inside the Real Life of the King of African Cats.24 July 2019
A lion rests in the grass of the Serengeti plains.
Photograph by Michael Nichols, National Geographic Creative
A close-up of a male lion at Duba Plains Camp in the Okavango Delta reveals scars of old wounds.
Photograph by Beverly Joubert, National Geographic Creative
An adult male lion rests in the Serengeti. Loss of prey species, loss of habitat, and human encroachment have caused their numbers to precipitously decline. They are listed as vulnerable to extinction by the IUCN.
Photograph by Michael Nichols, Nat Geo Image Collection
Social licking helps to reinforce bonds within the pride.
Photograph by Michael Nichols, Nat Geo Image Collection
Vumbi females, stressed and fiercely protective of their young, get cross with C-Boy, an adult male, even though he's one of the resident fathers.
Photograph by Michael Nichols, Nat Geo Image Collection
A lioness from the Barafu pride in Serengeti National Park wrangles her infant cubs.
Photograph by Michael Nichols, Nat Geo Image Collection
An adult male lion, C-Boy, and a Vumbi female relax between matings.
Photograph by Michael Nichols, Nat Geo Image Collection
Members of the Vumbi pride set out on an evening hunt.
Photograph by Michael Nichols, Nat Geo Image Collection
A pair of lion cubs from the Barafu pride play with their mother's tail.
Photograph by Michael Nichols, Nat Geo Image Collection
Lionesses and cubs from the Vumbi pride rest on a kopje, a rocky outcrop, near a favourite water hole.
Photograph by Michael Nichols, Nat Geo Image Collection
Lions take advantage of dust to create confusion in the buffalo herd and make a successful kill.
Photograph by Beverly Joubert
When hunting finally stopped in what is now the Solenda game reserve, there were two lions left. Today there are nearly 100.
Photograph by Beverly Joubert
Two lionesses in Selinda survey the water for danger as they make the first crossing.
Photograph by Beverly Joubert
The lion cubs were reticent to cross at the river at first. Life is tough for these youngsters; most don't reach adulthood.
Photograph by Beverly Joubert
A lion roams in Chobe National Park, a wildlife conservation area near Kasane, Botswana.
Photograph by Frans Lanting, National Geographic Creative
Lions hunt buffalo in the wetlands of Duba Plains Camp in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, where National Geographic Explorers-in-Residence Beverly and Dereck Joubert researched their film and book Relentless Enemies: Lions and Buffalo.
Photograph by Beverly Joubert, National Geographic Creative
Lions play in the Okavango Delta.
Photograph by Beverly Joubert, National Geographic Creative
A lion drinks from a watering hole on Chief’s Island, in the Okavango Delta’s Moremi Game Reserve.
Photograph by Sergio Pitamitz, National Geographic Creative
A lion relaxes on a tree branch at Lake Manyara National Park in northern Tanzania.
Photograph by Skip Brown, National Geographic Creative
Lion cubs rest near a watering hole in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park.
Photograph by Michael Nichols, National Geographic Creative
A lion sleeps in the plains of Serengeti National Park. The picture was taken by a camera-mounted robot car.
Photograph by Michael Nichols, National Geographic Creative
Lions search for prey in Serengeti National Park.
Photograph by David Griffin, National Geographic Creative
A lioness sits with her cub in Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
Photograph by Mark C. Ross, National Geographic Creative
A lion wanders the dry Nossob riverbed in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, near the border of two protected areas: South Africa’s Kalahari Gemsbok National Park and Botswana’s Gemsbok National Park.
Photograph by Chris Johns, National Geographic Creative
A lioness descends a tree at Masai Mara National Reserve, in the Narok County of Kenya. The reserve is contiguous with Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park.
Photograph by Beverly Joubert, National Geographic Creative