Lions' record-breaking swim across channel captured by drone camera

A pair of lion brothers have made the longest swim ever recorded for their species – about 1.5 kilometres across hippo and crocodile-infested waters. The massive swim – equivalent to the aquatic leg of an Olympic triathlon – was the pair's fourth attempt to cross the Kazinga Channel in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda, and was recorded by a drone-mounted thermal camera at night. The lions had to abort earlier attempts after encountering large animals, most likely hippos or Nile crocodiles, which are also visible in the footage. Making the effort even more extraordinary, one of the lions, named Jacob, has only three legs. Jacob has had an extremely challenging life, says Alexander Braczkowski at Griffith University in Australia: he has been gored by a buffalo, his family was poisoned for the lion body-part trade, he was caught in a poacher's snare and he eventually lost his leg after it was stuck in a poacher's steel trap.