Snapshot Serengeti Talk

Do lions ever sleep in trees?

  • computerji by computerji

    Because that's what I'm seeing in this capture. Unless it is a couple leopard, which I believe are more likely to head upstairs. But I can't make out any spots, and what I think is a tail hanging down looks too slender to be a fuzzy leopard tail.

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  • dms246 by dms246 moderator

    I agree - it does look like a lion! I don't believe they sleep in trees, but if I remember correctly they're able to haul up into a tree to escape a threat - maybe it ran into a group of hyenas or something? Whatever the reason, great find!

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  • wilderzone by wilderzone moderator

    Oh yes, lions will sleep anywhere! I think this photo was taken at Lake Manyara (not too far from the Serengeti), where I remember folks saying it was common behavior.

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  • kiliclimber by kiliclimber

    Last year, we saw many lions in a sausage tree in Serengeti, near Seronera. I wouldn't be surprised if they slept there, but weren't while we were watching because an elephant herd came by and the matriarch was trying to run them off! She managed to scare off a few of the younger ones, but others held their "ground." Here's a shot I took one year ago today (third image!) https://picasaweb.google.com/bh021552/MerryChristmas2012#5817750342415937282

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  • dms246 by dms246 moderator

    Thank you both! Those are great photos. And I stand well and truly corrected re lions and trees. 😄

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  • vindkatte by vindkatte

    I think this is the picture with her checking the neighbourhood.
    Image ASG000bbkw
    It's earlier, from February, 24th. There was a fire near this tree at the beginning of the month. I had a picture from Feb. 4th with fire clouds drifting all around it. Probably that was the reason, why she was looking for somewhere else to sleep - the ground burned or the high grass gone or something like that.
    I am totally sure that I remember having seen another picture quite early in this season 4 with her pawing at the tree. Because I was thinking that it looked like a domestic cat scratching the claws. But right now I can't find it - not in my recents and not in the sequence. But I'll try find it. That was probably not scratching but climbing up the tree. 😃

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  • computerji by computerji

    Thanks for the earlier image vindkatte!

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  • dms246 by dms246 moderator

    And here's an interesting little addition to the "story" - mid-March, and a leopard is showing interest in the same tree. 😃

    Leopard approaching tree

    ASG000bb3w

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  • horkusone by horkusone

    This thread is a perfect example of why I love working on this project. It is all so fascinating and gratifying. Great shots!

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  • wilderzone by wilderzone moderator

    Who ever it is, it was already up the tree a half hour earlier, and it's not any clearer if it's a lion or leopard. ASG000bbrf Hopefully one of us will snag the climbing shot so we can know for sure.

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  • kiliclimber by kiliclimber in response to vindkatte's comment.

    If you look closely on shot one of http://talk.snapshotserengeti.org/#/subjects/ASG000bbkw you see a small patch of tan in the lower right. Not clear enough to say, but it looks like a cub to me. I know we once drove between some lionesses and their cubs last year - and were very surprised when a cub walked around the land rover!

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  • kiliclimber by kiliclimber in response to wilderzone's comment.

    I grabbed the first image and enhanced it offline. It's a lion; no spots.

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  • computerji by computerji

    Here's a link to all the images I've been able to find so far of the lion in the tree. She had left the tree by around 3:40 pm . . . but someone else was up there in the same spot within half an hour!

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  • vindkatte by vindkatte

    http://talk.snapshotserengeti.org/#/subjects/ASG000bb63
    There you can see her at 12:20 in the tree, standing and looking around. (That's not the one I mentioned earlier but its nice 😃).

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  • computerji by computerji in response to vindkatte's comment.

    Thanks vindkatte! Note that it is at 2:20 not 12:20 😃

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  • vindkatte by vindkatte

    When I look at that it says: "Captured: April 27th 2012, 12:20:40 pm" ... Eh?! It says differently for you?! Then all the timelines are unreliable ...

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  • computerji by computerji in response to vindkatte's comment.

    Weird. Are we in different time zones? I can't imagine it would be changing for that though . . . surely it would just be displaying whatever the local Serengeti time was.

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  • DanishDyna by DanishDyna

    Interesting. On my screen it says "Captured: April 27th 2012, 8:20:40 pm". I'm in time zone GMT + 1.

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  • vindkatte by vindkatte

    Oh my ... Mountain Time here, that's GMT -7. So that would fit. But it's kind of weird ...

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