A “BLACKLEG” AMONG LIONS

Perhaps we shouldn’t call him Blackleg. He is certainly no con artist or trickster. But he is a marked lion nonetheless. From the day he was born the fur over the entire length of his inner right foreleg from under the chest to paw, has been uniformly pitch black. She is one of the four cubs raised on the eastern fringes of Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve. At first it was thought to be a plastering of mud on her leg or an unimaginable injury sustained as a result of fighting. Blackleg though has never shown any sign being inconvenienced by this puzzling anomaly. Indeed he was-from the outset- the dominant cub always boisterous and spoiling for a fight with his siblings. The latter comprising of two females and one other male has no such distinguishing black marks. After all Blackleg’s peculiarity must simply be a birthmark.