Lion 'Jacob' survives solo
- An 11-year-old, one-eyed lion named Jacob has adapted to hunt alone in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park. - Jacob lives with three legs and reportedly swims about 1.6 km between territories. - The detailed post about his adaptations received roughly 1K likes when shared on Apr 22 (x.com).
Jacob, an 11-year-old lion in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park, is still alive after losing an eye and a leg — and researchers say he now hunts alone. (abc.net.au) Jacob was fitted with a satellite collar in 2018, and Wildlife Conservation Society and Uganda Wildlife Authority teams used that tracking to find him after a steel trap severed his left hind leg in 2020. He had crossed into Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo when the injury happened. (uganda.wcs.org) National Geographic reported in 2021 that Jacob had already survived a snare wound, an attempted poisoning and a buffalo goring before the trap injury. Researchers later said he was still moving with his pride and mating after treatment. (nationalgeographic.com) In February 2024, Jacob and his brother Tibu swam across the Kazinga Channel at night, a crossing researchers measured at about 1.5 kilometers and Guinness World Records now lists as the longest continuous swim recorded for a lion. The swim was filmed with a thermal drone under Uganda Wildlife Authority supervision. (guinnessworldrecords.com) Researchers said the brothers made repeated attempts and completed the crossing in about 45 minutes after losing a territorial fight with rival males. The channel links Lake George and Lake Edward and is known for dense populations of hippos and Nile crocodiles. (wildnet.org) The pressure behind that swim was not just rivalry between males. Alexander Braczkowski said female lions in Queen Elizabeth National Park have been hit harder by retaliatory killings tied to cattle losses, leaving males to outnumber females by roughly two to one. (africanews.com) That imbalance sits inside a broader decline. Braczkowski and co-authors wrote in March 2025 that Queen Elizabeth National Park had just 39 lions across 2,400 square kilometers, down more than 40% from their 2018 survey. (theconversation.com) ABC reported on February 19, 2025 that Jacob had by then lost an eye and was living more independently, with field teams still monitoring him in the park’s thick bush. Braczkowski said Jacob’s survival had turned him into a focal animal for the Kyambura Lion Project’s work with nearby communities. (abc.net.au) Jacob’s story keeps resurfacing online because each chapter is unusually concrete: a lion collared in 2018, trapped in 2020, filmed swimming on February 1, 2024, and still being tracked in 2025. In Queen Elizabeth National Park, those dates also trace the shrinking margin for lions that survive alongside people, cattle and poachers. (uganda.wcs.org)
