Malelane is a long way from Pafuri. Approximately 350km in fact. And I imagine that many readers of this post may not have heard of either place. Pafuri is right at the northern tip of the Kruger National Park, and Malelane is at the opposite end, way down south. Yet it struck me recently that what a lion does in the one location might well influence what another does in the second. Especially when it comes to roaring.
The air a lion forces out of his lungs when roaring apparently comes out at 80km/h!
Male lions are fairly vocal creatures. Their roars serve a pivotal communication function when contacting their coalition or prides, or when advertising territory. It is a well recounted fact that on a still night you can hear a male lion from 8 kilometres away. I have personally been sitting with a male when we knew his coalition were 10 kilometres away (other rangers were with them at the time), and we could still hear the rumbles of their distant roars on the chill morning air. Impressive, to say the least.
When one male lion roars, it is not uncommon to hear a male in a neighbouring territory answer back. It’s not always a deliberately antagonistic act, it’s merely their way of saying, “You stay on your side and I’ll stay on mine.”
What I’m getting at here is that when one lion starts roaring, for whatever reason – and I think there might be a lot more subtle information conveyed in the roars than we are aware of – he may well start the next lion in the territorial chain roaring, and so on and so on, down the length of the Kruger Park or whatever conservation area they happen to be in, and the whole lion population might be in song during the night.
On some evenings the lions are quiet, yet on others they are roaring from all points of the compass, and I’m speculating here that a lot of the roaring may simply be reactionary, rather than initiated. I.e. it’s an instinctive response to hearing another lion calling.
One of the Matshapiri males calls for his brother. Different males can be distinguished from afar by subtle differences in their vocalisations.
Let’s crunch the numbers on this one…
Lions have far better hearing than we do, so let’s take 10km as the standard distance at which one lion can hear another (actually, ten is a nice easy number to work with and my maths isn’t very good).
Sound travels at 343m/s, so it travels 10km in about 30 seconds.
Assuming a neighbouring male hears the call, he might take five or ten seconds (let’s go with 10 again) to listen, work out who is calling and then start to respond. Male lions generally have a few warm-up roars before they are at full volume, so let’s say from initial time of roaring to maximum is another 10 seconds. That means from one lion roaring to the next one responding, and that roar reaching the next lion, is about 80 seconds (30 for first roar to travel, 20 for hearing and subsequent response, and 30 for that roar to reach the next lion). We’re basically looking at about 50 seconds of time between each lion.
One of the Majingilane, pondering whether the broken telephone effect also applies to his species…
If a male right up at the northern tip of Kruger starts to bellow, and assuming the lions in the Kruger Park are evenly spaced at 10km intervals (of course this is hypothetical), he could have the dominant male right the way down in Malelane roaring in 1750 seconds, which is just under half an hour!
At Londolozi we’re a little way north of Malelane, about 270km from Pafuri, so we (and the Birmingham males) would be hit by this roaring ripple (sounds like an oxymoron, I know) in 22 minutes and 30 seconds. Wow!
Yes, these are the random things I think of when out in the bush.
Imagine what it was like 500 years ago, when lions covered the continent! A lion roaring in Cairo could get his counterpart in Cape Town calling in just under 10 hours! 10 hours! The length of the African continent!!!
Boggles the mind…
Interesting James. Lions are now highly endangered and this has happened just in a few years. Imagine as you say, Africa of a century ago. Of course there were not big cities and towns and so much noise. It would have been a fantastic time to be alive and experience Afruca as it was. The most wonderful sound, a lions roar.
But these days, they are in isolated pockets, the Kruger must be one of the very last strongholds. Simply because of the lack of human encroachment (say on the Serengetti/Mara) or encroachment / hunting preserves – Ruaha/Selous etc
Fascinating information and concept. Imagine if our hearing was as good as lions or other animals, what new things we would learn! I love hearing a lion roar, but I’m just hearing a part of it.
On my first visit to Londolozi the sound of the lion roaring at dusk had our vehicle vibrating, along with all of us. Something I will not forget
A much better system than a cell phone! Seriously I remember one evening during dinner a lion started roaring and as we were right above the dry wash I asked our ranger if he was coming to dinner!! Our ranger said he was probably a long way away and we were safe! It makes an impression!! Victoria
James, when we were there in 2017, we were parked (Sandros & Exon) between two pair of mating lions – then they began roaring – it was quite a magical place to be!
It is indeed an unforgettable experience being that close to them when they’re roaring!
James, love the indisputable logic! Reminds me of the Butterfly Effect in chaos theory. Never considered that roaring lions could have deeper symbolism but we very much enjoyed your logic!
Haha it’s just food for thought…
WOW!~ Another wonderful blog!
So engaging and descript, as if we were sitting at the dinner table or around the campfire, as you detail your story and findings about the lions while out in the Bush.
Not only another learning moment, but a captivating photoblog that leads to the soul and appreciation for all that is shared at Londolzi .
Thanks for the kind words Jen!
Love hearing lions roar – but I think they start off sounding rather constipated …. Has anyone-else noticed this? It sort of reduces the “majestic” side for me somewhat. Wendy M
An interesting blog James. Just an aside – in my neighbourhood when the postman is delivering the mail, one dog barks and you can hear them all along the block – bush telephone – maybe it is the same with lions and they, as you say, are communicating with one another. Thanks for sharing with us
Fabulous James- I felt as if I was there listening to the various males sending their messages, the guttural roars shaking the earth and in part the vehicles transporting us. The magical moment at Londolozi was the roars of the Birmingham males….. chilling!!
Really interesting information (food for thought) and beautiful images. Thanks again Londolozi.
Interesting information. I love all cats but the lion is my favorite.
It’s kind of like the lion equivalent to a phone call. I still have yet to hear lions roaring.