Five wild lionesses grow a mane and start acting like males

New Scientist ^ | September 23, 2016 | Karl Gruber

[ETL]

This lion king (pictured below) is a queen. And she’s not the only one. Five lionesses in Botswana have grown a mane and are showing male-like behaviours. One is even roaring and mounting other females.

Male lions are distinguished by their mane, which they use to attract females, and they roar to protect their territory or call upon members of their pride.

Females lack a mane and are not as vocal. But sometimes lionesses grow a mane and even behave a bit like males. ..."

“I don’t think this is anything to be concerned about,” says Hunter. “Although the females are apparently infertile, they otherwise appear to live long, healthy lives. And from a conservation perspective, there is nothing to suggest the pattern is increasing or will ever be anything more than a rare, local phenomenon.”

No one seems to be studying the exact genetic and hormonal causes of this phenomenon at the moment.

“I guess there are just one or a few genes altered,” says Vincent Savolainen at Imperial College London, who had a student briefly work on the possible causes.

“I believe some masculinised genes have been documented in domesticated cats – it would be good to look into this, especially given that the cat genome is available as reference.”

[silverleaf]

I am woman, hear me roar ....

[Babba Gi]

I wonder which tree the are going to pee under?

[Iron Munro]

No.

But as soon as the learn to speak they will have their own TV shows alongside of Ellen DeGenearate

[moovova]

Ha...I see a new Walt Disney movie on the horizon.

[mware]

The lions from the film Ghosts and the Darkness, were males with no manes. From DNA testing it was found they had an overabundance of testosterone. They were also described as larger then "normal" lions.

Interestingly test were done (I think on their fur}and it has been determined that both had eaten over 125 people. Maybe the lions from that region have mated with this pride.

[raybbr]

If not, this is less of a normalization of lesbianism by way of nature and the animal kingdom and more of a commentary on relations between the sexes in modern western culture.

Every time I read a homo saying "homosexuality occurs in animals" I say, "Thanks for admitting your behavior is no better than that of an animal!"

[New Jersey Realist]

I know Hillery Clinton is involved in this somehow.

[Popman]

I wonder what the ratio in this area of male to female lions.

Dollars to donuts that is a part of this...

[IronJack]

And they’re insisting on their right to use male lion bathrooms.

[Alas Babylon!]

Transgenroarers.

[ETL]

That is because they "identify" with being male.

[I want the USA back]

They are not acting like males. They have exhibited SOME characteristics normally exhibited by males.

The headline says “start acting like males”. The article says “even behave a bit like males”. As always, the headline deliberately states something that the article doesn’t.
The headline is designed to make you read the article. The author hopes you forget what the headline said and that you don’t criticize it for its lying hype, as I’m doing.

[ThePatriotsFlag]

Probably at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, lot of that going around down there.

[headstamp 2]

A hirsute female.

[uncitizen]

Oh.Come.On,

[ETL]

Gives new meaning to the term “Gay pride”

We have a winner! (so far)

[B4Ranch]

This sounds as if there’s been a few years of interbreeding going on. Many ‘parks’ raise lions for foreign hunters because it brings a lot of money to the area and the meat is always donated to the villagers.