Watch This Huge Male Lion Come Right Up Next to Tourists and Proudly Mark His Territory

This male lion is acting super cool as he struts past a safari jeep. He is making it very clear that he knows that the humans are watching him and he is tolerating their company. The lion gets up from his resting place and walks calmly towards the jeep before pausing to take a pee while looking directly into the lens of the camera! Scroll down to see the extraordinary footage of the Lion King showing the humans that he is the boss.

Do Male Lions Live in Pride?

Lions are very gregarious animals and have dynamic social interactions. The basic unit of lion group behavior is called the pride. This is made up of mainly genetically related females and their offspring. A pride may also include a single male or there may be up to seven males associated with the group. The males join together in what is called a coalition to help them defend a particular territory and the pride. Acting as a group, they have a better chance of fending off other male contenders.

Are Lions Territorial?

Lions tend to live in one location although they do sometimes follow migratory prey with the seasons. Their territory may be exclusive or they can overlap, either way, there is usually a central area that they want to keep for themselves. The exact size of a lion’s territory can be very variable and depends on several factors including the abundance of prey and the geography of the particular area. When there is less prey available, their home ranges tend to be larger.

How Do Lions Normally Mark Territory?

Both the male and female lions are involved in defending the territory. In general, the males can be found patrolling the outer edges and the females defend the central core. They use several methods to communicate with other lions and animals that this is the patch.

The first is the roar which can be heard as far as three miles away! It advertises that the territory is occupied. Sometimes, you can hear the whole pride roaring as a group.

Lions typically patrol the territory – which means that they walk around the edge of it looking for any intruders. Finally, they use scent marking and this is what we can see in this clip. They use both urine (pee) and scat (poop) which they may also scrape into the ground to mark their territory. Males mark with urine more often than females do!

Watch the Extraordinary Clip Below

The photo featured at the top of this post is © SteffenTravel/Shutterstock.com