Lion pictures and videos

[The Panther]

(02-08-2022, 11:52 PM)Pckts Wrote:

(02-08-2022, 04:11 PM)The Panther Wrote:

(02-04-2022, 04:04 AM)Pckts Wrote:

(02-02-2022, 04:48 AM)SpinoRex Wrote: 2 monstrous males captured in the Ngorongoro Crater. The left one is absolutely gigantic... look at that body thickness.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Are you sure this is the crater? 
Landscape looks sparse for the crater but the one male has the notorious shoulder mane so I’m thrown.

Also, you should give credit to the photographer whenever possible.

This is simply the dry season. Ngorongoro Crater after all changes depending on the season, so it's at it's greenest during the wet season. Manes like elsewhere vary in size, so some won't be as impressive as others. This is more evident in Ngorongoro Crater, where the cooler high altitude temperatures allows for a greater range of mane sizes, so males with massive manes covering their shoulders and arms can be in the same group as males with more "medium" sized manes that only cover up to the tips of their shoulders.

The crater doesn't have a dry season the same way the surrounding Conservation Area does. Of course it dries out with little to no rain but the cooler temps and lush volcanic soil keep the water holes filled and have much more green foliage year round. 
In regards to Mane size, generally speaking it's the Crater that produces the most shoulder covering manes and while some don't have as much as others, prime males usually have it. What really threw me off about this photo was the lack of green anywhere as well as no visible crater rim as far as the eye can see which is what leads me to believe it's the surrounding Conservation area which was far more dry and open. I could be wrong but I never once got a view like this when I was in the crater.

The Crater can indeed get pretty dry and yellow during the dry season as you can see in these videos. You can also see the Crater rim in the background.

So you can see that it's far from green during the dry season, in fact the top video even says it was filmed in August, which is during the dry season. As for the manes, yes Ngorongoro Crater lions are bound to have fuller manes more often due to the constant cool temperatures, plus it helps that the Crater floor on average is higher than much of the Highland plains in both Tanzania and Kenya. Certain Southern African lions also have impressive manes like that, especially on the Plateaus. The biggest manes would've consistently occurred in the country of Lesotho and the rest of the Drakensberg mountain range of South Africa, but unfortunately lions are no longer found in those areas. Reply