Leo : The Lion King

[Name: Dr. Marcus E. Veldt

Role: Comparative Anatomist, Big Cat Specialist

Institution: University of Pretoria – Department of Wildlife Physiology

Nationality: South African

Age: 47]

"Intelligence. I speak the truth and only the truth when I say that this is the most greatest observation we make on Leo. Everything that makes him unique or special can trace back its source to his intelligence and eerie awareness." Marcus said while standing in front of the camera.

"And this intelligence directly translates to fight IQ for Leo when he is in a fight. It is perhaps one of the greatest advantages that a fighter can have over his opponent," Marcus said and the scene changed once more to show the footage of Leo vs Roku.

The footage was moved away to occupy half of the screen and the video played in slow motion. Meanwhile, a CGI version of the fight was also played in the remaining half of the screen to show more details than the blurry footage.

"Leo understood techniques and leverage," Marcus said, while the CGI zoomed at the precise moment Leo clashed with Roku and the younger lion grabbed the body of the king and bodyslammed him on the ground.

"The ability to manipulate your opponent using body weight, positioning, and sometimes even their own momentum, that is what leverage means in the context of fighting and Leo understood that," Marcus said.

"This is not the only instance that we saw him use leverage, either," Marcus said while pointing at the screen where the fight continued playing. If you looked closely, you could see how Leo was using the momentum of his opponent to throw them or sometimes even lift them off the ground,

"And techniques," he said.

Leo was shown swinging his paw at the opponent. But unlike normal lions that aimed to tear at their opponent or aim to gouge out their eyes, Leo was slapping them and hitting them as if he were a tiger.

"There is no tradition or way you should fight for him. He will find the most effective way to hurt his opponent and that is how he will fight," he said.

At last, the video showed Leo biting at the tail of Roku and punishing him for having the limb. The king tried in vain to fight back but he did not have anything to bite as Leo had no tail.

That was also one way of showing how he was literally built for fighting. The tail was one of the greatest weaknesses an animal could have in a fight. Fighting dogs often had their tails cut because of this exact reason.

A tail was useful for balancing when running or moving, but in a fight, it was only a hindrance.

"There is much to discuss, but that will be all for my analysis," Marcus said and the CGI screens and videos stopped.

The camera panned back and focused solely on him in the lab. He joined his hands behind his back and walked a few steps towards the camera.

"And as you see, ultimately the fight between the king and the prince ended in a draw. In nature, there can never be a fair fight and all factors are at play. Just that evening, Leo had eaten a full meal," Marcus said.

"You might be wondering how that affects Leo in a fight, so I will explain it briefly. After having a meal, the body directs blood and energy towards the stomach and intestines to focus on digestion. This means that the muscle had less blood than usual, which caused Leo to tire faster. The constant compression of the abdominal muscles also results in nausea and vomiting. Although no severe injuries were inflicted upon him, the battle took a toll on Leo, and the fight ended in a draw."

"But this fight, like we mentioned before, was only the start of a greater war."

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[Name: Dr. T. Soma Tonson

Role: Lead researcher and ethologist.

Nationality: Indian (from Nagaland, Northeast India)

Age: 62]

"After the fight with one of the kings of the Serengeti pride, Leo returned to his home to rest for the night. The very next day, the two brothers of the king came to Leo's home. But fortunately for our lion, that took place while he was out wandering around the watering hole," Dr. Tonson said, his hand moving to create gestures as he told about the aftermath to the viewers.

"The two kings marked the kopje with their scent and left before sundown. This would mark the end of the conflict between the coalition and Leo for the next six months, which is half a year," he said.

"The day after the battle took place, we had the chance to check Leo for his injuries," Dr. Tonson said and the video of Leo climbing up to the research vehicle to check on the humans was shown.

The doctor had a fond smile on his face while he looked at the scene.

"Yeah, that was our second close encounter with Leo. Perhaps we had piqued his curiosity since we were closer to him than usual. He came to us and observed us closely, one after the other," he said.

"We were quite relieved to find out that Leo suffered no fatal injuries other than minor scratches and bite wounds. If we compared his injuries to that of his opponent, the winner of the fight was clear. But what we also find were countless old scars upon his body," he said and the video showed Hana spreading Leo's fur to show the scars on his body briefly.

"Scars were not rare on a lion but Leo had them everywhere on his body, even in places where he had a mane. We knew that it was unnatural and there was no doubt a story behind every lining scar on his body, but we had come too late to find out exactly how he got those," he said and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Since Leo was only around 2-3 years old at that time, the scars must've come from when he was only a cub. This led me to theorise that perhaps Leo's pride was taken over by a new male, and the king tried to kill him at one point, as he was only a cub. But Leo somehow survived that. It would also explain why he lost his tail, but that is just a theory of mine. Every researcher who followed Leo had a theory of their own on what his cubhood was like," he said with a chuckle.

"I really like my theory and think it's the most plausible one. Imagine a lion that was forced to fight a king when he was a cub. A lion made to slay kings," he said in a voice more dramatic than before.

"Anyway, after the big fight happened, we continued our research on Leo. This time, we reported to our company and even managed to get funding, which is separate from the ones meant for the Serengeti Pride and its three kings." he said, "The higher-ups were really interested in what we have found about Leo so far and his story had intertwined with one of the three kings, so it was not that hard to secure the order,"

"And so the next six months passed by rather quickly. Every day we spent studying Leo brought about new discoveries, big and small. Luckily for us and Leo, no major event happened during that half a year. Therefore, Leo could finally settle into his normal habit and we could watch him peacefully," Dr. Tonson said.

The screen changed to show a time-lapse of six months. It showed Leo's life in the Serengeti and the researchers that followed him around like loyal guard dogs. It showed some spectacular shots of Leo hunting and fighting with other predators that were in the region.

It was a seemingly normal time-lapse of Leo's life but something was greatly obvious in the video. No one needed to point it out but Leo was getting bigger and more muscular as the video went on.

Not only that but his mane grew darker in colour, his face settled into a meaner and more dangerous expression and you could notice vividly the maturity that was shown in his body language.

The lion shown at the beginning of the video and the end were completely different. If not for the lack of tail and the unique build, people could definitely pass it off as two completely different lions.

When you looked at the current Leo, you could immediately notice how juvenile he looked half a year back. It was like watching a teenager go through puberty, which was not completely wrong in a sense.

"Perhaps one of the biggest discoveries we made during this time was the stark difference between Leo's lifestyle compared to that of ordinary lions. First of all, let us talk about diets." Dr. Tonson said.

"You can see it yourself the insane amount of growth that Leo experienced throughout the short span of six months. To be more specific, we estimate Leo to have grown about 50 kilograms in sheer mass during half a year. It would be a bit more realistic if it was fats and other things but what made this even more significant is that almost all the size Leo gained is clean muscle. That, is unheard of in a lion, even at a growing age, bordering on impossible," he said.

The screen showed the CGI images of Leo's body. One of them was his size when they first found him, around 200 kilograms. The next image is significantly bigger at around 250 kilograms.

250 kilograms was already a giant for an African lion, but Leo was still growing.

"And for Leo to gain this much mass in such a short time, he had to eat a lot of food and engage in many activities. During our observation, we found out that Leo was hunting down fresh prey every three days. That is equal to the amount of times female lions hunt for their pride when they have multiple members and cubs," Dr. Tonson explained.

The scene changed to show Leo hunting many times over the expanse of half a month. An Impala, a Wildebeest, a Zebra, a baby buffalo, an antelope etc. The videos were short but vivid, the shots of later hunts were much better than the earlier ones to show the improvement of the cameraman and how the researchers were starting to know his hunting patterns.

"In total, Leo hunted down 57 prey in the span of half a year. Compare this to the Serengeti Pride which has a total number of around 30 members with half of them being adult, they hunted down 122 prey in total during the same span of half a year," he said.

The screen showed the statistics of hunts between Leo and the Serengeti Pride. If you did not know better, you would think that the graph was showing and comparing two unique lion prides in different regions.

There was also one thing in particular that caught the viewers' attention. It was the success rate of both observations. Leo had a hunting success rate of 70% as a lone lion. While the pride that hunted in groups had a success rate of 51%.

"In terms of kilograms of meat consumed, Leo was eating the food worth around six to seven Serengeti lions by himself. Do take a moment to comprehend just how insane that was," he said, taking a moment of pause as he too looked at the statistic showed on screen.

"But of course, the amount of prey he killed is just one part of the whole picture. What was really intriguing was his diet. Among the prey that he killed, Leo only really ate the organs and the best parts of the meat. The rest, he will leave it to other scavengers to consume. That is also one of the reasons why his kill count is insanely high, he doesn't eat his prey in their entirety, only the best parts," Dr. Tonson said.

"He never filled himself up with fats or skins, it's like he knew even his appetite was limited so he fed himself the best parts. He ate the organs like liver, lungs, heart, kidneys, etc. After that, he would feed on the muscle in the hindlegs, the loins and finally the shoulders. He usually found himself full when he ate the loin and shoulder," he said. The screen showed the parts of the muscle on the prey that Leo liked to feast on.

"His diet could not have been better for both growth and strength. It's like how bodybuilders stick to a specific diet to maximise growth," he said.

"But the question still remained how Leo could eat so much? How could he eat the amount of food for seven lions when he was not even seven times their size? The answer lies in activity. Lions loved sleeping, cuddling or lazing around when they had free time. This allowed them to conserve their energy. But Leo was the opposite. Other than sleeping at night, he was always engaged in activities. There was rarely a day when he simply lazed around to do nothing," he said.

"There is no better way to say it. Although unbelievable, Leo was an animal that trained,"

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Author : This is the extra chapter. Next one will come out any moment.

We reached the 600 late. By the time we reached it I was already in college. Sorry for the delay.