Serengeti National Park encompasses 5,700 square miles of grassy plains and woodlands near the northern border of Tanzania, and is home to more than 3,500 lions grouped into a couple dozen prides. Photographer Michael “Nick” Nichols and videographer Nathan Williamson were determined to break new visual ground when they made several extended trips to the Serengeti between July 2011 and January 2013. A remote-control toy car and a rugged robot tank gave them an unobtrusive way to make images up close and at low angles. Two cameras were mounted on each device; Nichols controlled one and Williamson the other, a pairing that let the collaborators create a synchronized dance of photo and video. They took their time, letting the pride get used to these little machines. The robot, says Williamson, was made to be sturdy enough to stand up to a lion giving it a swat. “It didn’t need to be—the lions were dignified and just arrogantly ignored it most of the time,” he says. Night-vision cameras and goggles were used to capture images of the lions stalking prey. But most of the images and videos here were made using old-fashioned, camera-in-hand technology. Nichols shot 242,000 images and Williamson recorded 200 hours of video, often while lying on the floor of a specially outfitted Land Rover.

2. The Short Happy Life of a Serengeti Lion
Death is always near, and teamwork is essential on the Serengeti—even for a
magnificent, dark-maned male known as C-Boy.

4. Photographer Nick Nichols made several extended trips to the Serengeti between July 2011 and January 2013, determined to
break new visual ground in the coverage of the Serengeti Lion. Here, C-Boy, a dark-maned male lion defending his interests,
confronts the peril of lion-on-lion violence on a daily (and nightly) basis. Four years ago, C-Boy barely survived a fight for
dominance with three other males.

5. The Vumbis rest on a kopje, or rocky outcrop, near a favorite water hole. Lions use kopjes as havens and outlooks on the
plains. When the rains bring green grass, wildebeests arrive in vast herds.

6. C-Boy and a Vumbi female relax between matings. During estrus a female may be monopolized for days by a single male consort.
Dark manes correlate with robustness, and dark-maned studs like C-Boy are preferred.

7. Large cubs of the Vumbi pride and a grown female (fifth from left) feast on a wildebeest. The darkest, moonless hours are
prime hunting time because the cats can see better than their prey. These black-and-white photographs were made with
infrared light to minimize disruption to the lions.

8. C-Boy mates with a Kibumbu pride female. After fathering cubs, a resident male can be displaced by other males. His young
offspring will then be killed by the new males or left to die.

9. Cubs of the Simba East pride: too young to kill but old enough to crave meat. Adult females, and sometimes males, do
the hunting. Zebras and wildebeests rank high as chosen prey in the rainy season.

10. C-Boy (front) and Hildur lie side by side during an afternoon rain shower in Serengeti National Park. Adult male lions form
coalitions with other males, often their brothers. C-Boy and Hildur—who are unrelated—have been a duo for years.

11. Hildur shakes the rain from his mane. He and C-Boy work together to retain control over two prides: the Vumbi, consisting of
five adult lionesses, and Simba East, a pride now also with five.

12. A playful 20-month-old female takes a flying leap across Hildur’s back on the rain-soaked plains. The young lioness is either
Hildur’s or C-Boy’s offspring. While the males spend some of their time with the pride—and put up with youngsters’ antics—they
mainly devote themselves to defending the territory against other males.

13. In 2009 a gang of lions called the Killers attacked C-Boy. Ingela Jansson, then a research assistant with the Serengeti Lion
Project, photographed the fight. C-Boy survived, but the Killers drove him away from the Jua Kali pride—where he and
Hildur had been the resident males.

14. Infrared light illuminates Hildur and a lioness from the Vumbi pride as they rest after mating. The females in a pride sometimes
reproduce on the same cycle. This allows the pride to protect and feed their young together.

15. Lionesses from the Vumbi pride take an afternoon nap near a favorite watering hole. This lion-level shot was made using a
robot that photographer Nick Nichols and his team designed for close-up photographs of the felines.

16. Dusk is a busy time for the Vumbi pride. As the moon rises, the lionesses rouse themselves from their afternoon naps, tussle in
the grass, and set out on the evening hunt. Nichols made this photo using natural light; soon after, he switched to infrared.

17. The Killers, a male coalition of four, earned their name with lethal attacks on females. They almost killed their rival C-Boy
too. Because good territory is a precious resource, fighting and displacing competitors are part of the natural struggle.

18. A female wrangles her infant cubs. During the first few weeks, when they’re too young for the competitive jumble among older
cubs in the pride and so vulnerable to predators, she keeps them hidden away in a den. But these will soon join the group.

19. Older cubs like these Vumbi youngsters are raised together as a creche, or nursery group. Pride females, united in the cause of
rearing a generation, nurse and groom their own and others' offspring.

20. The Vumbi females -- their pride name is Swahili for "dust" -- kill a warthog they've dragged from its burrow. Such small meals
help bridge the lean, hungry, dry season, when cubs may otherwise starve.

21. Dry season is hard on everyone. Vumbi females, stressed and fiercely protective of their young, get cross with C-Boy,
though he's one of the resident fathers.

22. A male often asserts his prerogatives. C-Boy feasts on a zebra while the Vumbi females and cubs wait nearby, warned off by his low
growls. Their turn will come.

23. Hildur, C-Boy's partner, frequently makes a long run to visit the Simba East pride. A coalition that controls two prides must
maintain vigilance over both.

24. The Serengeti Lion: Life on the Plains with the Vumbi Pride. A marriage of
Nick’s photographs, Nathan Williamson’s video, voiceover from ecologist Craig
Packer, images and voiceover from Brent Stirton, and text by David Quammen.
An immersive look into the life of lions.

25. The Robot

26. The Robot

27. The Robot

28. Awakening

29. Blood And Bones

30. Consort

31. Hunt

32. Hunt

33. Hunt

34. Hunt

35. Consort

36. Cubs

37. Twilight

38. Cubs

39. Cubs

40. Cubs

41. Cubs

42. Cubs

43. Twilight

44. Twilight

45. Black Mane

46. Playtime

47. Pride

48. Pride

49. The Killers

50. Coalition

51. Playtime

52. Pride

53. Playtime

54. Thunderstorm

55. Hildur slumbers undisturbed as a storm crosses the Serengeti Plain

56. end
cast National Geographic Photographers: Michael Nichols The Short Happy Life of a Serengeti Lion
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