Why did the lion swim across crocodile-infested waters? It was his only remaining option to find a mate, according to a study in Ecology and Evolution.
That report was based on observations of lion behaviors driven by skewed sex ratios in a Uganda national park. The swim — across a channel over half a mile wide — may be the longest recorded by a lion.
The swim’s length, as well as its obstacles (the waters contained plenty of hippos as well as crocs) shows the lengths that lions will go to find a mate, when the pickings are slim.
