Genderfluid Female Lion Has A Mane, Acts And Roars Like A Male

Meet Mmamoriri, the lion doing her bit to smash gender stereotypes in the animal kingdom.

The female lion has adopted male characteristics in order to increase her chances of survival, such as growing a mane and a deeper roar to scare off potential invading prides.

Darker fur usually indicates high levels of testosterone, researcher Robynne Kotzee writes in Africa Geographic, which is why Mmamoriri's black mane is even more striking.

Dr Simon Dures studied Mmamoriri's pride as part of his work with the Zoological Society of London and Imperial College London. Testing on blood samples revealed that she doesn't possess an extra Y chromosome, which was one theory for her ambiguous characteristics.

(Fig. 1)

Mmamoriri, first discovered in 2012, is thought to be infertile - but scientists think that any gender-bending members of the pride will be able to pass their unique characteristics down to their offspring.
Source

(Fig. 2)

Meet Mmamoriri the maned lioness. Nope, not a typo...she's a bearded lady! #SneakiestAnimals pic.twitter.com/zMbQ5zpQ0i
— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) December 25, 2015

(Fig. 3)

Leer en la fuente original

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Votos: 0