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    "headline": "Lionesses bring their cubs to a floodlit Namibian waterhole, caught on a live safari camera near Etosha",
    "description": "The infrared clip from Safarihoek's hide is the camera's second posted cub clip this month. Up to 80% of lion cubs die before turning two, so each sighting counts.",
    "datePublished": "2026-10-26T05:59:10+00:00",
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    "articleSection": "Pets & Animals",
    "keywords": "Etosha, lion cubs, lions, Namibia, wildlife cameras",
    "articleBody": "A two-minute clip uploaded on Thursday, October 23, by Africam, a live wildlife-camera network, shows lion cubs trailing adult lionesses down to a waterhole after dark at Safarihoek, a lodge on the Etosha Heights Private Reserve in northern Namibia. Filmed in infrared from the lodge’s photographic hide, it had drawn about 87,600 views on the company’s YouTube channel by Monday. It is not a one-off. The same camera’s highlight list shows a lioness bringing cubs down for a drink on October 7, a lion pair on October 8 and a lioness eyeing a springbok on October 22. For anyone wondering whether this is a lucky shot, the answer is that this waterhole is a regular stop for a group of lions with young. Where the camera is Etosha Heights is a private reserve of about 600 square kilometers (roughly 230 square miles) that shares a 65-kilometer fence with Etosha National Park, Namibia’s best-known wildlife park. Safarihoek sits on a hill about 70 kilometers west of the park’s Andersson Gate. Its hide is built on two levels over a pumped, floodlit waterhole, which is why night footage like this exists at all; Africam says its stream there shows elephants, giraffes and antelope by day and lions and hyenas after dark. Timing helps too. October is usually the hottest, driest month around Etosha, and with little surface water elsewhere, animals cluster at the few reliable drinking spots. A pumped waterhole in late dry season is close to the best place on the reserve to see a lion family arrive. Why cubs come out at all Lion cubs spend their earliest weeks hidden. A lioness gives birth to one to four cubs after a pregnancy of around 110 days, in a thicket, reed bed or other den away from the pride. The cubs are born blind, weigh about 1.2 to 2.1 kilograms (2.6 to 4.6 pounds), open their eyes at around a week and walk at around three weeks. Their mother shifts them to a new den several times a month so scent does not build up and draw predators. Mothers usually bring cubs back into the pride at six to eight weeks old, sometimes earlier when other females have given birth around the same time. That timing explains a detail in this clip: several adult females are drinking alongside the cubs. Lionesses in a pride often synchronize births and nurse each other’s young, so the cubs at the water may not all belong to the lioness they are walking beside. The odds against them are steep. The Smithsonian’s National Zoo puts the toll at up to 80% of lion cubs dying before age two, from starvation when food runs short and from males who take over a pride and kill cubs that cannot run. Applied to a full litter of four, an 80% loss rate means 4 x 0.2 = 0.8: on average, fewer than one of the four would see a second birthday. The IUCN has rated lions Vulnerable since 1996; across African countries, numbers have dropped by roughly 43% from the early 1990s. A cub’s first two years at a glance Birth to 3 weeks: eyes open, then first wobbly steps, all inside a hidden den. 6 to 8 weeks: usual introduction to the rest of the pride. About 3 months: first stalking behavior and first meat. 6 to 7 months: weaning. About 1 year: joining hunts; effective hunters only near age two. What the clip shows, and what it does not As footage, it is honest wildlife video. It is unedited in feel, the lions are undisturbed, and the on-screen caption names the hide, the reserve and the country, which plenty of viral animal clips never do. The infrared picture is grainy, but it reflects what a hide camera actually sees at night rather than a staged shot. The written description is thinner. It speaks warmly of the cubs keeping up with their mother but gives no ages, no count and no location in the text, so viewers who skip the overlay will not know they are watching Namibia. At least one adult appears to wear a tracking collar, and the lodge says it takes part in a lion-monitoring project with neighboring reserves; the clip does not explain the collar, and Badiyaa could not confirm who fitted it. The description also implies one mother with her litter, when the pride biology above suggests the scene is more communal than that. Viewers who want more than the highlight can watch the Safarihoek waterhole live on Africam’s stream, where lions have been showing up after dark throughout October. The next rainy season, when many animals around Etosha give birth, typically starts in November. Further reading Wikipedia: Lion Wikipedia: Etosha National Park Image: Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. How we work.",
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