AHMEDABAD:

among humans have to navigate through a forest of societal norms and penal codes, but no being can dare to cage the kings of the

in the closet of prejudice.

Homosexuality in

lions and lionesses has been noted by forest officials,

conservators, and researchers in 1973, 1999, 2016, and most recently in 2017. So far, seven separate cases have been studied.

The 2017 case was recorded in the Devaliya interpretation zone near Sasan where zoo-bred lions are housed. "To avert conflict between two prides we released two males and two females with cubs separately," a keeper at the zone said. "Two days after the first set of male lions were released, they began a mating ritual and copulated."

Homosexuality in male lions was also recorded in the previous year in "Ecology of Lions In Greater Gir Area", a study carried out by Amreli naturalists Dr Jalpan Rupapara and Purvesh Kacha.

2 gay lions ruled over 70 sq km

"We used to track lion movements in the greater Gir outside the protected area," naturalist Dr Jalpan Rupapara said. "Often among male sub-adults - aged between 2.5 and 3.5 years - we observed pseudo-homosexuality, in which penetration did not occur. However, all the other characteristics of a sexual encounter were seen."

H S Singh, an Asiatic lion expert - and a member of the National Board of Wildlife - said: "This tendency is generally observed in nomadic lions without female mates."

The 1999 observation was recorded by B P Pati, the additional principal chief conservator of forests at the time. "During my posting at the Gir National Park and Sanctuary, homosexual behaviour in male lions was observed and reported multiple times, mainly from 1998 to 2000," Pati said. "The first photographic evidence of copulating male lions was recorded in 1999 in Khokhra range of the national park."

In 1999, Pati and two other forest officials - Chaitanya Joshi and Kautilya Bhatt - had observed two prime male lions engaging in an elaborate mating ritual for almost a week. The case was published in a paper in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society in 2000.

Pati's paper, titled "Homosexuality in Asiatic Lion: A Case Study from Gir National Park and Sanctuary", said: "The Asiatic lion is a social animal and its natural sexual behaviour is in general restricted to heterosexualism, but there are a few exceptions." The paper went on to say: "The heterosexual behaviour of Asiatic lions of the Gir Protected Areas is recorded and described in detail by Paul Joslin in 1973 and S P Sinha in 1987."

The paper said that in 1982, Sanat Chauhan - a forest official - reported lesbianism in lionesses of Gir. "But homosexuality in male Asiatic lions, which are prime territorial males, has never been recorded before in detail with photographic evidence," the paper said. It said a pair of prime territorial males of about 6 to 7 years from Khokhra showed this behaviour when they were not with females.

According to Pati, for one and a half years this dominant pair held territory of about 70 sq km in Sasan. The two lions had their separate families including female partners and cubs. This area had four prime females with cubs. The Khokhra males had an established record of mating with three females, of which two had four cubs.

"Homosexual activity among these two males was first observed by a group of trackers in November 1999, for five days continuously, and later in December 1999, for three days," the paper said. "The method of mounting, the time taken during mounting, and repulsive action after mounting seen in the Khokhra males is similar to heterosexual mating."

The paper said that during the homosexual liaison, the animals avoided food but changed their area - which is unusual during heterosexual mating.