An 18-year-old female lion at Topeka Zoo and Conservation Center in Kansas, USA, has sprouted a mane like a male.
Lions are normally famous for their sexual dimorphism with the males typically sporting the big brown manes. Female lions generally do not have these majestic beards and rather sport a pale sandy yellow all over. Zuri, a female lion in the Kansas Zoo, is an exception.
Until October 23, 2020, Zuri lived with the only male of Topeka’s three-lion pride called Avus, who passed away on that day. After Avus’ death, keepers began to notice that Zuri had started growing a mane similar to that of an adult male. According to them, Zuri is the dominant female in the pride and while her mane is unusual, it isn’t on par with with a typical adult male. However, it’s certainly there, even if shorter and less full.
“It’s extremely rare,” Shanna Simpson, animal curator at Topeka Zoo, told NPR. “We had never even heard about this happening until we saw Zuri.”
There could be many explanations for Zuri’s unexpected hair growth. Of course, most of us would link it with the loss of Avus, but that doesn’t hold water with Kris Everatt, a conservation scientist at wild cat conservation organization Panthera: “I don’t think there’s really any kind of evolutionary [reason for this], either lack of males or too much competition with other females or anything like that…. I think it’s just a random event,” he told Live Science.
This is not the first time a female lion has grown a healthy mane of fur though. In Botswana, for instance, five females were reported to grow manes, with one even exhibiting male-like behavior such as roaring and mounting other females. Scientists guessed it was unusually high levels of testosterone within the pride that was responsible for the whole thing, even though no official hormone tests were carried out on the wild females. Anyway, it’s quite a surprising phenomenon, given that neutered male lions do not grow a mane at all.
A few years ago, another 18-year-old lioness, named Bridget, began to grow a mane at Oklahoma City Zoo. After investigations into her health, a tumor was found on her adrenal gland, causing increased levels of hormones such as cortisol and androstenedione that were shown in blood tests carried out on Bridget. This tumor was suspected to be the reason behind her mane growth.
But, after all, it could all be down to age. Wild typically live for 15 or 16 years and 18 is certainly pushing the upper limit even for a captive animal. So, unexpected mane growth in (on) Zuri and Bridget might simply be a result of their hormone levels changing as they are aging.
Fortunately, the team reports that Zuri is in good overall health, with no signs of illness.