Half of all male lions die before they turn one. Most who survive never make it to old age. The starving lion in this photo did the rarest thing a male lion can do. He got old.
Being born a male lion is brutal from day one. In his first year, hyenas, snakes, sickness, and plain hunger kill about half of all cubs. The biggest danger is other lions. When a new group of males takes over a pride, they kill all the cubs the previous males fathered, which gets the mothers ready to have new cubs sooner. That one thing causes about a quarter of all cub deaths.
Get past that, and at around age three you get kicked out of your family to wander alone. You drift along the edges of land run by bigger, older males who want you dead. Most of these young drifters never see ten.
If you live, you fight to take over a pride of your own. Win, and you keep it for just two or three years before a younger gang shows up and takes it from you. Lose that fight, and you're thrown out again, older now, your teeth worn down, hunting on your own.
So the normal way a male lion dies is young and bloody. Killed in a fight. Gored by a buffalo. Most often, killed by people: poisoned by farmers for killing cattle, shot, or caught in a wire snare. In Kruger, where this lion lived, the number of lions in the north has dropped fast from poaching and fewer animals left to hunt.
He got none of those endings. He grew old instead. Stronger males pushed him off his land, the way almost every old king gets pushed out, and his teeth were too worn to catch food anymore. A photographer named Larry Pannell found him lying under a tree, his chest barely moving, and sat a few feet away so he wouldn't die alone. Pannell has photographed people who lived through earthquakes and fires, and he said he had never seen anything sadder than this. One last twitch of an ear, and the lion was gone.
The photo looks like pure loss. A king brought down, starving, alone. But growing old is the hardest thing a male lion will ever do. It means he outlasted the cub years, the years alone, the pride fights, the buffalo, the snares, and every younger lion that ever came to kill him.
He didn't dodge the fights. He just won enough of them to die of nothing but time.
Did You Know?
Bruce Mayrock, a 20-year-old Columbia University student, took his own life by setting himself on fire in front of the United Nations Building on 29th May 1969, to protest the genocide of Biafrans, people he had never met.
Retweet to educate someone
@dabz_global@covetthatjam I had 6 experience. I went to buy Samsung S23 Ultra, and I asked if its a refurbished phone, and the girl laughed mockingly. Went to the opp. shop called CI pinnacle and bought with dignity
🚨 New Partnership 🚨
Football’s stories deserve to live forever.
We've teamed up with @WalrusProtocol so the @OneFootball app can take its first big step onchain, securing our library of football content on a decentralized, tamper-proof network.
What’s next to go onchain? 👀
We are OVERSUBSCRIBED 🥳
Thanks to you and every single member of the OFC community who participated in our sale. You made this happen!
Let's celebrate in the comments 👇
🔴 24 HOURS LEFT 🔴
Be part of the most community-first sale ever.
▫️ Universal onchain fan pass for 3.5B+ fans
▫️ Reaching 200M+ fans/month already today
▫️ $50M FDV - same as all early stakeholders
Join now: 👉 https://t.co/hW1ueHCMAm 👈
Due Diligence: 🧵
We are LIVE on @CoinList 🥳
👉 Join now: https://t.co/hW1ueHCMAm
▫️ Universal onchain fan pass for 3.5B+ fans
▫️ Reaching 200M+ fans/month already today
▫️ $50M FDV - same as all stakeholders
A true community sale 🤝
Today, I'm excited to announce @ofc_the_club's own IP: OneFootball Heads 🥳
👉 Read: https://t.co/3JYJQrK8Kt
How OneFootball is building IP for 3.5B+ football fans 👇
OneFootball Club x @CoinList 🤝
We are excited to announce one of the most community-favourable token sales ever: $OFC.
✨ Sale Details: https://t.co/hW1ueHCeKO
✨ Sale FDV: $50M (same as stakeholders)
Mark your calendar: 👉 July 24th 👈