Mating Kgalagadi lions

By Roxanne Reid
There’s something pornographic about lions making whoopee. They do it so often and are so focused that they don’t give a fig who’s watching, man or beast. And so it is with mating Kgalagadi lions.

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On a recent trip to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park we found a mating pair at Marie’s Loop near Nossob camp one afternoon. Being the wildlife voyeurs that we are, we watched them mate seven times – twice in the bush, then four times in the middle of the road, and once more in the bush on the other side of the road.

Any porn star who needs Viagra should watch and learn; a lion gets it on every 10 to 15 minutes, usually for three or four days at a stretch. And that’s pretty impressive.

Best of all, for most of the time, we had them all to ourselves.

Would this lioness have a bundle of fluffy cubs in three-and-a-half months' time?

Last time we watched lions mate over and over, it was the male who looked a bit knackered; this time the female seemed less than enthusiastic. She lay there and barely moved, not even growling and trying to cuff or bite him, as seems to be traditional among lions.

At the end, she just gave a pathetic small moan before rolling over onto her side, one hind leg in the air. He jumped off with a snarl or half-roar and went to lie nearby to get his strength back. 

Lions will mate up to eight times an hour over a period of about four days

We saw the lovebird lions again the following morning. They were still at it – and they would have been busy through the night. At one point she walked quite far ahead, and he sat down as if to say, ‘Here, now.’ But she just kept walking.

When he realised she wasn’t going to stop, he came bounding after her as fresh as a cub, then followed so close he just about tripped over her feet. And then – you guessed it – they went at it yet again.

There's a lot of snarling and baring of teeth

According to animal behaviour boffin Richard Estes (whose book The Behaviour Guide to African Mammals should be on any keen safari enthusiast’s wish-list):

• lions copulate around 3 000 times for every cub that survives to one year old
• a female in oestrus is a bit of a strumpet who'll allow any adult male to mount her
• many couplings are needed to stimulate ovulation
• oestrus lasts an average of four days, during which couples will bonk up to eight times an hour, each effort lasting about 20 seconds.

One lion researchers studied went at it 157 times in 55 hours, with two different females. Wow. I’m betting no Arnold Schwarzenpecker, Long Dong Silver or other porn star can equal or better that! 

Have you ever watched lions mate in the wild? Share your experience in the comments below.

More about the Kgalagadi

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