#lions

[aleiasanova]

Best floof award~ owo

[illustratus]

The Kingdom of Candia — The Lion of St Mark, symbol of the Republic of Venice standing guard over a map of Crete.

by Marco Boschini

[thveryexhaustedtigershifter]

going to an animal waiting room where literal lions and tigers cuddle up to me like small cats and dogs is literally the best thing ever.

[pngblog]

https://www.tumblr.com/pngblog/767533371325923329/can-i-get-some-evil-animals-pngs-animals-in

can I have some UNEVIL animal pngs😡. To off set the off set that evil anon sent😤👉👈📈🥘🔏📦🪙💎🪪🧰🪛🏁🏴‍☠️☸️✏️🧮📚🎮🎺🎟️🎟️

-UNevil anon

[paulgadzikowski]

paul and ringo called they want their haircut back

[artist-issues]

Will you be watching the Mufasa movie when it comes out? I personally don’t think I can handle it. They already demolished Lion King in their Live Action version so I don’t trust them to do right with this one.

I think I might just for one reason: they added more facial expression to the animation.

If I had to expand on that and say “I’ll go for two reasons,” it would be “this is a new story, not a remake.” There are different dangers to adding-on-to an established story, and I prefer those kinds of dangers to the ones that come when you’re trying to re-tell something that’s already been perfectly told.

I’ve said in other posts before, they changed The Lion King’s Main Point from: “Remember who you are: a King takes responsibility for the care of others.” to:

“I have self-worth.”

Which, you may notice, is pretty contradictory. It’s another one of those “let’s capitalize on a franchise everybody already buys into by re-telling it—and while we’re there, retelling it, let’s completely take back the message that the original had, and give it a completely new message based on whatever the current culture thinks is ‘correct.’”

So, selflessness out. Self-obsession in. Responsibility out. Self-validation in. Self, self, self.

Anyway.

That’s the danger of remakes. They use a “retelling” opportunity to “remake” everything that made the original good. And by remake, I mean, erase and make-worse. I digress.

This new movie won’t have those same sets of dangers. They can’t exactly ruin the original origins of Mufasa, the character, in the same way the ruined Simba—because there’s never been a really canon story about Mufasa and his brother.

(What I mean by that is, the original The Lion King film did not spell out Mufasa and Scar’s relationship or backstory in great detail within that film. The printed media and fan theories and even The Lion Guard versions of events, which came later, I don’t count, when it comes to evaluating this new movie.)

But, I will say this. It looks like, from the trailers, Mufasa and Taka aren’t blood-related. That raises my eyebrows. Why are they doing that? The fact that Scar is Mufasa’s brother in the original makes his betrayal and motivation for killing him and trying to kill Simba much more impactful. Why take that away? Also, it makes it look like Taka was supposed to inherit some sort of leadership role, and maybe choosing to adopt Mufasa winds up putting events in motion that rob him of what was otherwise his rightful rule. So that sort of further justifies Scar’s bitterness later on.

All of that is dumb. You should not make a prequel that weakens every story that comes after it. See Star Wars.

I’ve also said: Mufasa, as a character is the ideal Strong, Selfless Father/King. And he specifically states that he got his ideals from his Father, and clings to them because of a heritage, something Outside of Himself. He’s not special. He’s not the Chosen One. He’s one in a long line of good, strong men (Lion, whatever) who pass down valuing others as more important than themselves. He submits and obeys those ideals. He is the opposite of “getting my way all the time.”

Do you see why it’s important that Mufasa did not come up with those values himself? He has to get them from an authority figure who came before him. He has to be submitting to someone—even though he’s a King.

They have a high chance of ruining that.

Because it’s not very popular right now for the Western Culture to say “give your life up for others! Sacrifice your interests for the big picture! Submit yourself to someone else’s authority and wise advice, whether you feel like it or not!” But the powerful truth is, that is what Mufasa is, as a character.

I already outlined how in this post.

So this new movie has new dangers. I might go to see how it handles them. Because if they could listen to people enough to make the lions’ faces move more animatedly, maybe they have stopped and thought about how to make a good story that fits in with the original Lion King’s values. Maybe it’ll be a fix-it for the 2019 movie.

Not likely. But I’m going in with an open mind, even if I watch the trailers with skepticism. So we’ll see!

[babyanimalgifs]

Lion kneading/making biscuits

(Source)

[dduane]

A meeting of dragons.

[animentality]

[justcatposts]

The lion while swimming: “Man, this is embarrassing”

(Source)

[illustratus]

The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon by Edward John Poynter

[stimciety]

🦁

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

Folk were really into the post I made about Tandie, the zoo lion with a (then) undergrown mane due a period of time on testosterone blockers. He's having quite the glow up this summer.

But!

Did you know that manes are hormone dependent in both sexes of lion?

Let's talk about maned lionesses!

To recap the previous post quickly: the existence of a mane, and it's color, appear to be pretty heavily androgen-dependent. Neutered males or males put on testosterone blockers, like Tandie was, will drop their manes - but like Tandie, if taken off the meds, it will generally grow it back. Darker manes are indicative of higher testosterone levels, and long/lush manes are generally a good signal of a male's fitness and mate quality. Females seem to show a preference for males with longer, darker manes and other males will preferentially avoid scuffles with them. (Yes, as many comments have pointed out, that means Scar was actually a hunk. Do with that as you will.)

The fascinating thing about androgens being linked to manes in lions is that it goes both ways - females with higher levels will also grow manes!

Mane growth in females lions is most commonly seen with elderly animals who have stopped cycling and are basically in lion menopause. And they have to get pretty old for it to happen - captive lions generally only live into their late teens and early second decade, and most of the maned ladies I know about started growing manes around like, seventeen.

Not all old female lions grow manes, but some of the career cat people I've talked to said it happened to about a quarter of the females they've worked with over the years. Which... is an interesting contrast to the news articles about Zuri, who we'll meet in a bit, that breathlessly reported in 2022 that her mane growth "left scientists baffled."

Old lady lion manes are just... precious. They grow in first at the chest and then around the sides or on the back of the head, but they don’t normally get the length, density, and connectivity seen in the mane of an adult male. It leaves the lionesses manes kind of awkward, in the way I associate with very young males, and they're absolutely adorable. Prepare yourself for the photo spam.

I have to start with Daisy, because she's the only maned lioness I've had the privilege to meet in person.

I don't know exactly when she started growing her mane, but she was over 20 years old when she passed in 2019 with these luscious locks.

Here's another female at the same facility, named Adeena. On the left is a photo of her from 2021, on the right is from this spring (I think she's mid-sneeze in the photo). She turns 20 in October.

If you've heard about maned lionesses before, it’s probably because of Zuri, at Topeka. She’s the most recent one to get media coverage and she went a little viral.

(Just a side note here, but I have some strong feelings about knowledge loss in the exotic animal management world due to political/philosophical schisms. This is one of those topics where it's clear: Topeka told a reporter that the zoo had “never" heard of this happening before, but it's common enough to be well known as a thing in other sectors of the exotic cat world. There's so much expertise and knowledge being lost due to infighting between accrediting groups, and it drives me up a wall).

Anyway. Zuri had one of the best manes I've seen on an elderly lioness. It grew long and lush and she totally could have done shampoo commercials. I mean, look at this.

Zuri lived with her sister, who didn't grow a mane in her old age. Here's the two of them together, Zuri on the left, Asante on the right.

We don't completely know what's going on with these golden girls to cause them to grow manes. It's theorized to be related to the end of estrus and higher levels of androgenic hormones, although it's not clear if that's just due to lower levels of other hormones during "meownopause" or if there's something else also going on.

There was some speculation with Zuri's mane growth that it was caused by the death of the male she lived with, in some biological need to "take over the role." The zoo dismissed that idea pretty quickly, and it makes sense, although there is one other instance where I've heard of that happening before.

The cat people I've talked to say that older lionesses who grow manes don't tend to act differently - they're not taking over new social roles in their prides or anything. Sometimes they can be less active, or be a little more nervous around males, and want to be left alone more, but it was emphasized to me that those behaviors could also just be associated with the fact that manes tends to develop in elderly lionesses.

The mane growth can happen pretty quickly, as we saw in the photos I've posted of Tandie over the last year. Here's Bridget, from the Oklahoma Zoo. The left photo was taken in March of 2017 and the right in November - look how much hair she gained over six months!

The zoo did some research into what might have cause Bridget's mane growth, and found that she had elevated levels of androstenedione, which is a hormone that can be converted by the body into either testosterone or estrogen, depending. In AFAB people, it's known to have a masculinizing effect. The zoo theorized that this was the cause of her mane growth, and that the elevated levels might have been caused by a benign tumor. Fascinatingly, though, blood draws revealed that her testosterone levels were the same as her mane-less sister, Tia.

Tia is on the left in the photo below, Bridget and the beginnings of her mane are on the right. Bridget was 17 when her mane started growing in.

I don't think there's any formal hypothesis that there might be a genetic component to lionesses growing manes in old age, but it's interesting to note that one of Tia's daughters, Zari, also grew a mane. (And she grew it young! It started around age 13, interestingly, also right after their male died). She's on the left in the photo below.

And to circle back around to where we began: Tandie is related to a number of maned ladies! His father, Xerxes, was Bridget's son; Zari was Xerxes' half-sister.

Here's a few more beautiful maned ladies to leave you with. In order, Ngala, Pepper, Skye, and Dandy Lion.

Next up, and last in this lion mane series, is the story of five younger lionesses in Botswana who not only have manes but also express a range of masculine behaviors.

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A huge thanks to all the folk who shared photos of and stories about their golden girls for this post: M. Townsen, S.W. Simpson, E. Day, S. Cook, M. Stinner, M. Paul, K. Vanaman, D. O'Halloran, R. Simpson, D. Souffrant.

[moonbeams-in-a-jar]

Animals + family