Lionesses With Manes Spotted In Botswana In Bizarre Turn Of Nature

In a bizarre turn of nature, five lionesses in Botswana's Moremi Game Reserve have been observed to look and behave like males. The lionesses reportedly have manes, act like lions, roar, mark their scent and even try to mount other females. It is unclear why the lionesses exhibit male traits or look like lions.

In addition, one among the five lionesses has also been seen killing two cubs from another pride, a behavior that is most commonly linked to males. A paper published in the African Journal of Ecology describes the odd behavior, as per a report.

Simon Dures, a conservation ecologist, shared a photo on Twitter of one of the rare lionesses walking beside a lion. At first glance, the two may look like two lions, but on observing again, it becomes clear that the larger one is a lion and the smaller one is a lioness.

Mombo's maned lioness with male. huge size difference! Photo: Jamie Thom https://t.co/12s5hXexga. @WeAreWilderness pic.twitter.com/n1g5rQkF5o

— Simon Dures (@SimonDures) May 16, 2014

The five lionesses have been observed since 2014 by a group of researchers, who tracked the movements and traits exhibited by a particular lioness among the pride that has a small mane, known as SaF05. "While SaF05 is mostly female in her behavior - staying with the pride, mating males - she also has some male behaviors, such as increased scent-marking and roaring, as well as mounting other females," said Geoffrey D. Gilfillan, one of the researchers.

At the moment, researchers have suggested that the cause lies in high levels of testosterone, which also implies that the rare lionesses are infertile. The five rare lionesses at Moremi Game Reserve seem to be healthy but none has become pregnant so far, supporting the theory that they have a high level of androgen.

Since all the lionesses belong to the same pride, genetics may also play a role the development of male traits. Though this is not the first time that maned lionesses have been spotted, the previous cases were mostly sporadic and did not include a whole group displaying such behavior.