Large Cats OFTEN swim.
Why do the lions swim? Why is all this so new and surprising?
The lions in the Okavango Delta have to swim at certain times of the year, or at least cross the water. It's a very unique environment where you have a very flat area that seasonally floods. The average water depth is about 2 to 2 1/2 feet, but there are deeper areas as well. These lions know the area very well and can select the best route between point A and point B. They can avoid very deep water or take the shortest route if they want to. They are very adept at swimming if they need to.
We sometimes see that they don't like to go through the water — it gets very cold, for example. They just have to cope with this, which other lions don't have to do on a regular basis.
There's a lot of similarity between the Okavango Delta and the Florida Everglades. Florida panthers have to cross water the same way that our lions have to cope with water in the delta.
So lions are not usually known as swimmers?
Lions are not known as swimmers in the sense that they don't do it daily.
They're not like tigers, which love to go into the water to cool down.
But when they're faced with a river, they will cross it if they need to. It's something that does not happen very regularly, except when you have them in an environment like the Okavango Delta, where they have a habitat with a large part of water that they need to cross to move around.
http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/wildkingdom/lions/field/field.html
