Nature: The White Lions [Import]

This episode of Nature is about two lions, Matimba and Khanya, who are sisters located in South Africa's Kruger National Park. Khanya has two male cubs, and Matimba has two female cubs. Khanya's male cubs are two months older than their cousins, and have a tawny color. Matimba's cubs are both rare white lions. Matimba and Khanya raise their cubs on their own, without a male lion to help protect the small pride. What happened to the cubs' father is unknown. The two lionesses work together to protect their small family from many hazards, such as starvation, and other predators such as hyenas and leopards. As well as protecting the cubs from nomadic male lions that will kill the cubs if they get a chance.

The saying, "like a grizzly bear protecting her cubs" should now be, "like Matimba and Khanya protecting their cubs." The two lionesses take on anything that threatens their cubs, often risking their own lives.

Dangers, triumphs, and tragedy the small pride experiences are documented in this amazing show. The potential drawbacks of white lion cubs in the wild, possible issues with their coats standing out in coloring, is referenced. However, the intense story of this lion family group would be no less engrossing, and engaging, if Matimba's cubs were not white. The photography, and sound, are fantastic, and provide the feel of being there with the small pride. The narrative is informative, and non-intrusive, pulling you deeper into the lion's story. Death is acknowledged as a part of the lion's life, and occasionally shown, but the focus is on the pride's determination to succeed against great odds.

I highly recommend this show.

White Lions was by far without sounding like a paid salesperson on commission, one of the best Lions study films out there today. It was not a documentary full of bloody scenes, but actually about the true survival of two Lioness sisters, and the two cubs that each sister had apiece, meaning four cubs in all. Two of the cubs were male, and naturally light brown by one sister. The other two cubs were snow-white, and both of these were female by the other sister. The two lioness sisters and their four cubs were forced to leave the area of their territory, after their lone male protector was never seen again. He was probably chased out of his territorial area, or perhaps killed by the three new large nomadic male lions, seen trespassing, and claiming these new territories as their own now.

The two lioness sisters, decided to take the four cubs to a safer location because the three male lions were after them, and would have surely killed the cubs in order to bring the two adult lioness sisters into season. I was very impressed with the loyalty and devotion that these two close-nit sisters engaged in, in order to protect their vulnerable cubs. And when one of the marauding male lions finally caught up with this fugitive group, the two sisters risked their own lives to fight off this marauding male, in order to give the cubs a fair chance to escape into the dense brush. This documentary follows the cubs until they are grown, and old enough to fend for themselves against hyena, or other lion threats.

At times during the film, the white coats of the two lioness cubs became a hunting hindrance, when all of them needed to be camouflaged into their surrounding, in order to hunt without being seen by sharp eyed antelope. Once their white coats were easily spotted against any background, the antelope would quickly flee to safety, causing the family to go hungry for another day. White lions born in Africa are very rare, but not unheard of, and most do not live until adulthood. So it was nice to follow a one hour documentary, that followed these rare cubs into adulthood. One of the two brown male cubs was killed by one of the marauding male lion during a sneak attack one night, and that cub had lived to be 22 months before that attack occurred. A pleasant addition to anyone's nature collection, that will surely entertain, and will not disappoint the average viewer. One of the mature adult sister lioness, and the white young adult cubs, had the most intense, and beautiful eye colors, I have ever seen associated with lions.