'Golden' lion of the South Luangwa National Park

'Golden' lion in South Luangwa. Photo credit Egil Dröge.

One of our readers, Egil Dröge, spends a lot of time in the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. He has previously sent us images of an impala, a white baboon and a white Long-tailed starling that all displayed leucistic colouring. His latest photos are of a very unusual young lion that is clearly much lighter than his siblings. The pads on his feet clearly display a lack of black pigmentation, see the images below.

I am not sure if this young lion is leucistic or hypo-melanistic (the opposite to Hyper-melanism displayed by black panthers), and I have not heard of lions with this colouration before.

Click here to see our gallery of animals with unusual colouration. 

Lion pads showing a lack of black pigmnet. Photo credit Egil Droge.

Golden lion in South Luangwa. Photo credit Egil Droge.

Let us know if you have any information about this colouration.

If you have any more information about this colouring, or other lions showing similar traits, please let us know on our blog here.

Leucism (or Leukism)
Leucism is a very unusual condition whereby the pigmentation cells in an animal or bird fail to develop properly. This can result in unusual white patches appearing on the animal, or, more rarely, completely white creatures.
Click here to see our full gallery of colour variations. Our thanks to Egil Droge for these images.