Unlike jaguars or tigers, lions are not known to be fond of water and it’s a rare sight to see them frolic in it like this family.
The footage of the water-loving lions was shot along the Sand River by Mike Kirkman, a 37-year-old head ranger, in MalaMala Game Reserve in the Greater Kruger.
Mike told Latest Sightings, ‘These are the only lions and indeed the only cats that I have ever seen in the wild just plop down in the river to cool off and have fun in the water. It was a very rare sighting and I have never seen any other lions doing anything like it in 15 years of guiding, nor do I really expect to ever see it again.
‘I have no idea why these lions don’t have a dislike to the water like most lions do. The only theory I have it that for some reason the lioness learned to do it and then passed it on to the two males (they were her nephews which she had raised after their mother was killed and she was the last lioness of her pride, the Charleston Pride), which she had raised, and then onto her cubs as well as they were growing up.’
Image: Mike Kirkman/YouTube
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