A lioness lifespan is usually between 15-16 years in the wild.
Infinite-Teach8044 on
❤️
Dyslexic_Devil on
Plot twist…she was just wearing contacts!
F4nCiC4t on
Legit have tears in my eyes from reading that because holy heck that’s just the sweetest like her daughters cared for their mother even when it’s the survival of the fittest in the wild and they didn’t abandon their mother, that’s absolutely beautiful!
donkeyb0ng on
Josie was a legendary 17-year-old lioness in South Africa’s Addo Elephant National Park who survived for five years while totally blind, thanks to the devotion of her two daughters, Dawn and Duffy. They hunted for her, guided her, and shared kills, allowing her to thrive despite her disability until her passing in October 2025.
Jackie__Weaver on
I was lucky enough to see mama Josie in the flesh in November 2024. What an experience! Got photos and videos of her and her girls. Beautiful family
doubled_pawns on
She’s been a good mum. Even when Dad left, she provided food, warmth, and protection.
l86rj on
I’m curious about how uncommon that really is. I suppose a lioness would normally leave the mother as soon as reaching sexual maturity and never meet her again? Or are long family ties actually common among lions?
Feisty-Influence5464 on
My grandfather kept bees in the Pyrenees for 40 years, and near the end when arthritis made it impossible for him to tend them properly, my grandmother would wake at 4am to help him check the hives. She wasn’t a beekeeper – she hated bees, actually – but she learned everything just to keep him doing the thing that made him feel alive. He died at 78, which is older than wild bees typically live, and she scattered his ashes near the apiaries. For years after, she kept two hives going alone, just so she could sit where he used to sit and watch them work.
I think what gets me about Josie’s story isn’t the blindness or the survival statistics, it’s that her daughters had a choice. In the wild, you don’t stick around for the elderly. You can’t afford to. But they did. Every hunt, every kill, every moment of vulnerability – they chose to stay with her. And Josie chose to keep living when she could have just… stopped. That’s not instinct. That’s love doing the math and deciding the answer is still worth it.
The keeper who documented Josie said she moved differently when her daughters were near – less cautious, almost confident. Like she knew exactly where safety was. I wonder if blindness was actually the smallest handicap she faced. The bigger one would have been abandonment, and they refused to give her that.
13 Comments
A lioness lifespan is usually between 15-16 years in the wild.
❤️
Plot twist…she was just wearing contacts!
Legit have tears in my eyes from reading that because holy heck that’s just the sweetest like her daughters cared for their mother even when it’s the survival of the fittest in the wild and they didn’t abandon their mother, that’s absolutely beautiful!
Josie was a legendary 17-year-old lioness in South Africa’s Addo Elephant National Park who survived for five years while totally blind, thanks to the devotion of her two daughters, Dawn and Duffy. They hunted for her, guided her, and shared kills, allowing her to thrive despite her disability until her passing in October 2025.
I was lucky enough to see mama Josie in the flesh in November 2024. What an experience! Got photos and videos of her and her girls. Beautiful family
She’s been a good mum. Even when Dad left, she provided food, warmth, and protection.
I’m curious about how uncommon that really is. I suppose a lioness would normally leave the mother as soon as reaching sexual maturity and never meet her again? Or are long family ties actually common among lions?
My grandfather kept bees in the Pyrenees for 40 years, and near the end when arthritis made it impossible for him to tend them properly, my grandmother would wake at 4am to help him check the hives. She wasn’t a beekeeper – she hated bees, actually – but she learned everything just to keep him doing the thing that made him feel alive. He died at 78, which is older than wild bees typically live, and she scattered his ashes near the apiaries. For years after, she kept two hives going alone, just so she could sit where he used to sit and watch them work.
I think what gets me about Josie’s story isn’t the blindness or the survival statistics, it’s that her daughters had a choice. In the wild, you don’t stick around for the elderly. You can’t afford to. But they did. Every hunt, every kill, every moment of vulnerability – they chose to stay with her. And Josie chose to keep living when she could have just… stopped. That’s not instinct. That’s love doing the math and deciding the answer is still worth it.
The keeper who documented Josie said she moved differently when her daughters were near – less cautious, almost confident. Like she knew exactly where safety was. I wonder if blindness was actually the smallest handicap she faced. The bigger one would have been abandonment, and they refused to give her that.
Be good to your kids
An article about Josie in 2023
[article](https://realsafari.substack.com/p/a-small-aging-pride-of-lions)
This is touching. I always assumed that most animals would abandon their disabled or sick members.
What exact condition was Josie afflicted with?