Expert says 2 African lions photographed cuddling are in a bromance, not ‘Brokeback Mountain’ moment

The photo by Belgian photographer and lawyer Nicole Cambre of two lions cuddling has sparked a debate in media if the two animals were engaged in homosexual behaviour. National Geographic insisted that one of the lions is likely a lioness, but the photographer says the two are males.

However, an expert on African lions explains it like a Facebook relationship status. Craig Packer, a University of Minnesota professor, says it’s “complicated.” He says what was happening is that the two kings of the jungle were engaged in a bromance and not a “Brokeback Mountain” moment, referring to the 2005 movie about two cowboys who had a gay sex encounter while camping at the mountain.

Packer, also director of the university’s Lion Research Center and affiliated with its Ecology, Evolution and Behavior Department, points out that people should not look at animals to justify what humans do. “Our biology is far more complicated,” quotes The Washington Post. He explains that lion bromance happens when two to four male lions form a coalition and work together to take over female lions. The coalition members help male lions fend off other coalitions to be able to reproduce with lionesses.

He backed Cambre’s email to Huffington Post that the two animals are male lions based on the equal size of their large heads, although Packer concedes that seeing the two lions very affectionate with each other is “incredibly sweet to see.” The sweet moments happen when lions are nervous about an encroaching coalition or when they are in the mood and there are no available female lions.

The professor says that a nearby lioness appears to be pregnant, which means she is not available anymore. However, he stressed the two lions did not mate because if they did, the animals would make a distinctive yowling noise which was not heard in Cambre’s video.

Cambre’s statement to The Huffington Post points out that “Only one lioness was seen in the centre of the concession where the male lions were and the lions showed no interest in the lioness leading to the assumption that she may have been pregnant.”

In saying that one of the lions was female, National Geographic cites Kathleen Alexander, also an African lion expert and a professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute at Blacksburg. Alexander says she has never seen male-to-male interaction similar to what Cambre photographed, based on her 20 years work in Botswana. She adds that as part of a survival strategy, other African species have evolved masculanised females.

Paul Vasey, psychology professor at the University of Lethbridge in Canada, says some animals really form same-sex partnerships and display homosexual behaviour from time to time. But he points out that those behaviours are sporadic in most species which means due to lack of solid studies, it cannot be concluded that those animals are gay.