[3rd POV]
[Name: Dr. Elias Thorne
Field: Behavioral Ecology - Specializes in Interspecies Cooperation and Scavenger Dynamics
Nationality: British (from Cumbria, England)
Age: 44]
"Now this, this is what I live for," Dr. Thorne said while laughing to himself. There was genuine wonder in his tone.
"Upon taking a closer look at the older footage and observing Leo and the vultures with a new perspective, we believe that we have a concrete idea of how this interspecies relationship came to be," he said.
"It had everything to do with the fact that Leo was a successful lone lion...." he began.
The scene changed, showing different videos and reference points to back up his claim and what he was saying to the audience.
"Vultures are scavengers. They have a habit of following other predators for food. So it was not uncommon for them, or in this case, Grim, to follow a lion. But you see, most lions hunt in prides. When they succeed, they tear through the carcass with the ferocity of a team. Only bones are all that's left within minutes," he said.
The scene showed a pride of lions taking down prey before tearing it apart and devouring it in seconds. It was brutal and efficient. It was nature. It was..Bruh I'm sleepy as fuck, I dunno.
"But Leo, like I said, was a lone male. He was powerful and just as successful in his hunts compared to the average pride and yet he was still alone. That means no matter how big he was, he can't possibly finish his kills all by himself. One stomach is simply not enough, and it's not like they have a refrigerator in the savannah. Meat rots quickly in the heat and the remains would certainly go to waste."
The scene changed again and showed Leo eating the organs and some part of the meat before leaving the rest on the ground.
"And that's where Grim comes in. Grim, our pioneering vulture, is clever. Vultures, especially Lappet-faced ones like him, are surprisingly intelligent for scavengers. He must've realised very early on that following Leo meant consistent meals. Not just the occasional scraps you get from following a pride, but full-on feasts."
"And Grim was most certainly correct in his assumption," he said with a smile.
"Too correct in fact," Thorne said, lowering his voice slightly, "As we know from the earlier episodes, Leo hunts a lot. He hunts around five times more than any other rogue lion. This was one of the main reasons why he managed to grow as big as he did. And that constant rhythm of kills created a surplus of insane proportions, unlike anything the savannah had ever seen before. Very soon, it was not just Grim but a whole flock of them that were gathering around Leo."
"But here is where things get really interesting," he said. "It took us some time to see that the vultures were not the only ones benefiting from this relationship. And even more time to finally conclude that the vultures did not get the remains due to their intelligence, but Leo was rewarding them for their service to him."
"And how did the vultures serve him you ask?" Dr. Thorne said, "Well....."
A video was shown on screen. Of a tailless lion that walked across the savannah with purpose in his steps. He was not stopping to take in his environment or putting up his nose to observe the scents like a lion who is tracking prey would usually do.
No. He walked like he knew exactly where he was going.
The reason?
The camera panned out to show the vultures flying right above him. The video continued playing, and as it played, it showed clearly that the lion was following behind the vulture.
The vulture never flew too high or flew too fast. It was unnaturally slow and it would sometimes do circles in the air while waiting for the lion to catch up. It was clearly guiding Leo.
"They served Leo by guiding him towards prey," the doctor revealed. "A lone lion did not have the advantage of numbers. They could not have trackers, hunters, fighters etc. They had to do everything by themselves, and because of that, when it comes to tracking down available prey, they are at a considerable disadvantage. This is often the main reason why rogue males starve and cannot find prey."
"But Leo used the vultures to make up for that advantage. Tracking prey, which should be his main disadvantage as a lone male, suddenly became his best attribute with the help of the vultures. This is because obviously vultures could track prey better than even hundreds of lionesses."
"And the vultures were not only leading him to possible prey," he said.
The documentary showed sad footage of a juvenile buffalo mooing and bellowing as loudly as it could. It lay on the ground and no matter how many times it tried, it could not get up due to the injury on its legs.
An injury caused by bachelors fighting and crashing into the young buffalo.
Not long after, the mooing and cry for mother attracted the wrong kind of attention. A vulture landed beside the baby buffalo, who looked at it curiously, wondering if it would help.
But the vulture simply observed. It hopped and circled around the buffalo a few times. It inspected the injury on the leg deeply before it released a crooked cry and then it took off to the sky.
The scene changed to an aerial footage as a drone followed the same vulture. It flew for a minute before diving down and flying right above one specific lion.
Leo.
The vulture released a cry which immediately attracted Leo's attention. He got up and the vulture began guiding him to the injured buffalo.
It was an unnerving sight to see two completely different animals coordinating and working together like that.
When they reached the buffalo, it was already killed by the hyenas and they were starting to cut open the tough skin to eat the carcass. Leo exploded out in fury upon seeing them. He was able to kill one of the hyenas before chasing away the other two.
And then Leo and the vultures eat the carcass. Leo ate first and when he had his fill, Grim took his turn. After that, Leo walked away, and the other vultures had their feast.
The predators, even the hyenas, which were around could only watch the vultures eat as Leo was always not far behind the vultures, even though he walked away.
"The vultures also lead him towards injured prey or dying animals. Basically, they were guiding Leo to every possible prey, making sure that the lion they served could seize every opportunity the Serengeti presented," he said.
"Now take a look at Leo as he stuck around while the other vultures eat," he said.
The documentary showed Leo walking around the carcass when he was already done eating. It also showed him chasing away some jackals that came too close while the vultures finished the remains.
"Leo protects the vultures as they finish his remains. This was what gave away that they were in an intentional partnership. If not, Leo would've just walked away after he was done eating like other lions usually would. Instead, he stayed and protected them and that indicated that he was rewarding the vultures or paying them back for helping him," he said.
The footage regarding what the doctor mentioned continued playing as he gave time for the viewers to absorb the information.
"What you are witnessing now is one of the rarest, if not the rarest, form of symbiosis we've seen between interspecies animals," he said.
"Now, why do I say this? Well, because we observe similar symbiosis between other animals as well. One of the most relevant being the partnership between ravens and wolves," he said.
The scene changed abruptly from the hot savannah to the cold lands of the Arctic and North America. It showed the mentioned two animals, wolves and dark ravens.
"Their partnership is similar to that of Leo and the vultures. The ravens are incredibly smart birds and they lead the pack of wolves to possible prey and sometimes to injured animals. The ravens also protected the pups of the wolves while the adults went hunting. In return, the ravens were allowed to eat a portion of the meal," he said.
The documentary showed videos of these. Videos of raven protecting young pups by making sure none wandered away and then guiding the wolf pack towards prey, similar to how the vultures guide Leo.
And finally, the two animals share meals together.
"But the difference between the wolves and the ravens compared to the vultures and Leo was clear when taking a deeper look. The partnership in the cold region took place over hundreds of years to develop and evolve, while Leo and the vultures developed it in a few days or weeks," he said.
"Not only that, the structural relationship with Leo and the vultures was far more complex. For example. Leo was the king and the vultures' servant. One vulture, which we named Grim, seemed to be the main leader of the vultures. And among the flock, there seemed to be a further hierarchy that we are not absolutely sure of," he said.
"Which is absolutely insane, by the way. The evolution of such a complex partnership and hierarchy in such a short amount of time was deemed impossible, going against the theory of Evolution itself. It was so insane, in fact, that it invented a whole theory and a branch of study called Leoquor (taken from Leo and Loquor, which means 'I speak' in Latin) or otherwise known as 'The King's Tongue Hypothesis' a few years back," he said.
"For those of you who don't know, you can look it up right now and I will show the brief definition I got from Google," Dr. Thorne said and then the screen changed to text where the definition was written.
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Leoquor, also known as The King's Tongue Hypothesis, is a theoretical framework proposing the existence of a latent, non-verbal language system shared across certain animal species, enabling real-time interspecies communication through unknown cognitive, emotional, or sensory channels.
First proposed following the observed behaviour of a lion known as Leo, whose interactions with vultures displayed unprecedented complexity and synchronicity, the theory challenges existing models of instinct-driven behaviour and suggests that animals may possess a capacity for intentional, cooperative communication beyond species boundaries.
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The definition was displayed only for a few seconds. The episode length was limited so the producers did not want to waste too much time explaining it. That would require a whole episode to do.
"Basically, we believe that animals have a magical language which they can use to speak with each other," Dr. Thorne simplified it to the extreme.
"Most researchers try to use a complex definition because the theory sounded stupid when said directly but that's basically what the theory is about. What's even crazier is that many institutions and even governments are funding the research of this theory, and so far..." he paused briefly, "...we have positive feedback and the theory might be true."
The viewers felt an odd shiver run down their spine as they got goosebumps. How groundbreaking would it be if that were true? That would flip their understanding of the world as a whole.
"This is just another example of why Leo is so significant to the world. He is not just a badass lion that beats up other lions and hunts down big prey. No. He is an iconic figure that brings about revolutions and discovery in animal science with his existence alone," Dr. Thorne said, voice so filled with awe and passion that you would not believe he was talking about an animal.
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[IMAGE]
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Author : That will be all for the week.
See you all!!
Thanks for reading.