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A three - legged Leo and his comrade made a record - breaking swim across a river pour with crocodiles and hippos in a despairing search for sexual practice , researchers have revealed . The pair has now been seen traversing the treacherous Kazinga Channel in Uganda six time , include a nearly mile - long ( 1.5 kilometers ) swim that was captured on pic .
This is believed to be the longest swimming by alion(Panthera leo ) ever document : Normally , Lion ' maximum observed swimming distances are around 330 feet ( 100 meters ) . The Herculean feat is even more remarkable consider that one of the brother is missing a limb . " It ’s moderately incredible , the guy ’s get three wooden leg , " saidAlex Braczkowski , result author of a subject field document the encounter .
Jacob, one of the lions that made the record-breaking swim, lost part of his leg in a poachers trap.
" He was swimming [ at a ] much slower speed compare to [ his crony ] . But he made it , " Braczkowski , a research worker at Griffith University in Australia and scientific conductor of the Volcanoes Safaris Kyambura Lion Project , tell Live Science .
Cameraman Luke Ochse film the two Lion — Jacob , who fall behind his foundation in a poachers ' ambush , and Tibu — swimming across the channel that connects the George and Edward lakes on Feb. 1 with a drone carrying a thermal camera . The big Caterpillar initially attempted the swim three meter ( the first attempt captured in the footage above ) but were forced to turn back after run into eitherhippos(Hippopotamus amphibius ) or Nilecrocodiles(Crocodylus niloticus ) , both of which can shoot down lions in the water .
The subject , which was partially funded by Northern Arizona University , is due to be put out in the diary Ecology and Evolution .
The brothers Jacob and Tibu are believed to have initially crossed the river in search of females, before losing fights to rival males and having to make a return journey.
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Jacob and Tibu are in a shaky position in their homeland . The Leo the Lion universe in the region has been decimated over the last few decades , mainly driven by human - wildlife conflict and poaching , Braczkowski said . There are estimated to be around 40 lions left in the Queen Elizabeth National Park , and the universe is under pressure sensation from a sex ratio problem . In a sizable king of beasts population , females outnumber male person two to one . But among this Ugandan population , there are two times more males than female , putting huge pressure on the male to find a match .
The crony made the initial swim because there were no females in their territory . They then had to make a reappearance journey — which was captured on celluloid — after a clash with two other groups of males . " They come in in and were trying to challenge for territory and got their butts kick , " Braczkowski say . " So that ’s why they swim back . "
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Jacob and Tibu are tight supervise and are seen on a everyday basis . Since the footage was fascinate , they have swum back across the groove once again on their pursuit for sexual activity . " The guy are like ' screw it , we have to swim , we have to witness female , this is the only way we ’re going to reproduce … it ’s either our genes survive on or we die , ' " Braczkowski allege .
