![\"Estimated](\"https:\/\/www.esquire.com\/_assets\/design-tokens\/fre\/static\/icons\/clock-regular.4ddebeb.svg\")
15 min read<\/p>\n15 min read<\/p>\n
The mama lion shouldn\u2019t be here. The sun is too high, the air is too hot, and she has cubs hiding somewhere in the brush. But there she is anyway, standing casually by the side of the dirt road with Kenya\u2019s Lake Nakuru shimmering in the distance. Although her emergence at this time of day is odd, she looks unbothered. At ease. As if she has no worries whatsoever.<\/p>\n
Seems like there should be some kind of playful local term<\/a> for such a state of mind.<\/p>\n The lioness holds her gaze on our Land Cruiser like a pedestrian waiting for traffic to stop before crossing to the other side. We grind to a halt, raising a small cloud of dust. Faith Musembi<\/a>, who spent four years working as a producer and director on the new NatGeo documentary series Lion, is the first to spot her prowling through the tall grass. Musembi grew up near Mount Kenya, the peak that gives her country its name, and she has been tracking wildlife in documentaries for her whole professional life. Still, the thrill of seeing a lion prowling in its own natural realm never diminishes. \u201cI know we\u2019re supposed to have a distance, but it\u2019s impossible, because if you love animals, you\u2019re drawn to them,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n NatGeo brought me here to the wildlands of this African nation to join Musembi and Lion director of photography Sophie Darlington<\/a> as they ventured back to explore the animals and places featured in their four-episode series debuting August 19. Over the course of more than fourteen hundred shooting days, the show evolved into a shockingly close real-life version of Disney\u2019s cherished 1994 animated feature The Lion King.<\/p>\n Lion is executive-produced by Iron Man and The Mandalorian filmmaker Jon Favreau<\/a>, who also directed the photo-real digital retelling of The Lion King in 2019. This doc series is not only true live action; it is an undoctored and emotional look at how even the strongest of creatures struggle to grow up. The animals don\u2019t sing in Lion, obviously, but the show does follow the similar journey of a tiny cub who is cast out of his pride but valiantly manages to survive and thrive. The filmmakers had no idea that\u2019s what they were going to capture when they started.<\/p>\n \u201cWe thought we were following four female lions,\u201d Favreau told me just days before my Kenya trip. \u201cIt was a big pride. And what the story ended up being was one little baby that was born off cycle, this little runt that looks so adorable. The story actually turned into that little cub getting older and maturing and surviving, with the others that we thought we were following dying off. So he became the central character.\u201d<\/p>\n Nature is a lot more merciless than a Disney story, however. Whenever Musembi, Darlington, and the rest of the Lion crew lost sight of the cub, there was a genuine question of whether they\u2019d ever find him again. \u201cIt was a nail-biter, because every rainy season we\u2019d have to pull the crew out,\u201d Favreau said. \u201cIt was like: We\u2019re hoping that this little guy makes it.\u201d<\/p>\n That \u201clittle guy,\u201d the Lion documentary\u2019s version of Simba, is a baby named Kio, short for kiongozi, which is Swahili for \u201cleader.\u201d He starts out as a cute little ball of fluff and\u2014fear not\u2014grows into a figure of inspiring strength and resilience.<\/p>\n When Kio was still too small to help himself, he was protected by his dauntless mother, nicknamed Summer, who was part of the Topi pride that rules over part of the Maasai Mara. That wildlife reserve is in the southwestern corner of Kenya, about 150 miles, or half a day\u2019s drive, from Lake Nakuru, where we make our first stop after starting out from the skyscraper-filled capital city of Nairobi. The female lion we see walking the lakeside road is from a different pride, but she shares a similar purpose: protect and defend her children. That\u2019s why her presence in this place out in the open at this time of day is so perplexing.<\/p>\n A mama lioness takes a break from her cubs for a walk around the block in Kenya\u2019s Lake Nakuru National Park.<\/p>\n The Wandering Mother<\/p>\n As we watch the mama lion step into our path, I help Musembi lift the lid on the Land Cruiser. The roof pops up like a folding table, allowing us to peer down at the predator from a few feet above, safely contained within the metal vehicle but open to the air. I wonder what stops the lions from leaping up and turning us into a snack. The answer is \u2026 nothing. But the cats here in this national preserve are used to tourists, and hunting is banned. (\u201cAs long as they don\u2019t feel surprised, they\u2019re fine,\u201d Musembi reassures me.)<\/p>\n NatGeo Expeditions<\/a>, which curates in-person safari experiences like this, and G Adventures<\/a>, which oversees the logistics of the tours, joined forces to bring us to three different regions of Kenya, including some of the same locales the filmmakers visited to capture footage of Kio and his pride. (You can book your own version of this exact trip at National Geographic Journeys<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Musembi began to remind me of something else we encountered on this journey. Among the mesmerizing animals around Lake Nakuru is the iridescent blue-and-orange superb starling<\/a>, which studies its surroundings with intensely alert eyes. They are friendly and curious, and they get just close enough to the action without being in danger. Musembi seems like that to me\u2014sharp, focused, and quick to move\u2014whenever an animal in the vicinity captures her attention.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a huge Lion King fan,\u201d Faith Musembi says. This watchful superb starling might be her animal counterpart in that animated world.<\/p>\n We are hushed as we watch the mother lion on the road, but the veteran field producer\u2019s expertise with these animals allows her to deduce there are cubs nearby, even if they remain out of sight. \u201cShe seemed like she was suckling because her teats were really sticking out,\u201d Musembi tells me later. \u201cShe looked quite full of milk.\u201d<\/p>\n But that only added to the mystery. \u201cI did wonder: Is she hungry? Is she looking for something to eat? They really should be resting, because it\u2019s hot,\u201d Musembi says. \u201cThere\u2019s no reason for her to be on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n So why did the lioness cross the road\u2026? It sounds like the opening to a children\u2019s joke, but in this case a solution is offered by Darlington, who like Musembi has spent her life studying these animals through the lens of a camera. If Musembi calls to mind the sharp-eyed starling, the tall and willowy British-born cinematographer\u2019s match in this landscape would be a mellow but vigilant giraffe, keeping a calm eye on things from her own high vantage point.<\/p>\n \u201cThey often take breaks from the cubs,\u201d Darlington says, theorizing that this was why the mama was awake and wandering when she would ordinarily be tucked in and asleep with her brood. \u201cThey\u2019re like, Oh, God, can I get away? I need some childcare.\u201d<\/p>\n Cinematographer Sophie Darlington at work on Lion, whose Lion King alter ego might be the graceful, studious giraffe.<\/p>\n As the mama lion wanders, there is also a warthog romping on the opposite side of the road in the shadow of an umbrellalike acacia tree. (The driver points it out, calling the tusked creature not a warthog but a \u201cPumbaa,\u201d one of the many ways The Lion King has shaped the language of both tourists and their guides.)<\/p>\n The warthog is not being actively stalked, but the lioness is much more interested in it than she is in us as she walks casually down the center of the craggy dirt roadway, stopping to sip from a puddle. \u201cLions are opportunists,\u201d Darlington says. \u201cSo if they hear something that they might be able to eat, they will never turn it down.\u201d<\/p>\n But this lioness lets the \u201cPumbaa\u201d go off on its merry way. No worries, warthog. Not this time.<\/p>\n The Playful Little Ones<\/p>\n Later that evening, as the sun is setting and the lions begin their version of morning, we see exactly why that mother needed the apex-predator version of a coffee break.<\/p>\n After checking in to the Sarova Hill Lion Game Lodge<\/a>, a collection of bungalows nestled in the heart of Lake Nakuru National Park, our NatGeo group gathers back into the G Adventures Land Cruisers and ventures back out into a network of backroads. There is no hunting permitted in Kenya\u2014the country banned it nearly fifty years ago\u2014so visitors shoot only with cameras, not guns.<\/p>\n Not far from where we spotted the wandering mama earlier that afternoon, we encounter a group of hedonistic baboons blocking the roadway. As the vehicles draw closer, they abandon their shenanigans and clamber off into the woods like a party of teenagers being raided by the cops.<\/p>\n A little farther down the road, we spot two lionesses in the grass, only their ears and the tops of their heads visible. Creating a ruckus under the trees, however, are a handful of cubs. They dash together through the leaves, tackle and roll over each other, and bound around into their patient mothers. One of the tiny lions is especially curious, sitting in a clearing and waging a tireless battle against a curved stick that keeps springing back after every hit.<\/p>\n Even as cameras click and oohs and aahs emanate from the popped tops of our safari vehicles, the lions and their cubs remain at ease. This is what the Lion creators experienced out in the field with the Topi pride. \u201cOne of the lovely things about experiencing lions in countries where they\u2019re not hunted is you get to have that kind of interaction where they\u2019re completely relaxed,\u201d Musembi says. \u201cI hate seeing an animal stressed out because of me. This tells me those animals are looked after.\u201d<\/p>\n The vibrant personality of that rampaging little one and his brawling stick becomes undeniable after only a few minutes. Now amplify that by the thousands of hours the Lion team spent tracking their subjects. \u201cIt\u2019s a luxury recording an animal for that amount of time, for being allowed into their world,\u201d Darlington says. \u201cAnd there were days we didn\u2019t find them, but most days we did.\u201d<\/p>\n The amount of time that NatGeo was willing to devote to the project was unusual among nature docs. \u201cAs Faith said at the beginning: You don\u2019t get to do this,\u201d Darlington adds. \u201cYou get absolutely ingrained into every aspect of their lives and you become consumed. It\u2019s such a brilliant job, because you get up in the morning and it doesn\u2019t matter what on earth is going on in the world. All you\u2019re concerned about is finding Kiongozi or Summer or the pride. That\u2019s your focus. We get up every morning, an hour before dawn. We get out there so we can listen to them calling.\u201d<\/p>\n This is why the survival of Kio became such a concern for the Lion documentarians. It\u2019s unethical to interfere in any way, but they still felt deeply for their little star and his mother as nature threw its harshest challenges at them.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had [times] where I\u2019ve just sat there crying and you don\u2019t want to,\u201d Musembi says. \u201cThe emotion comes because I got into this field to make a difference for the animals. When you\u2019re there, you can see assistance is needed\u2026\u201d She trails off, winces, and shrugs. \u201cHow I\u2019m helping them isn\u2019t immediately getting them out of the situation. That\u2019s difficult. But the bigger picture is I know when people watch this, their curiosity might lead them to look into lions a little more\u2014and that\u2019s useful.\u201d<\/p>\n Her hope is that shows like Lion will warm viewers\u2019 hearts, alert more people to the danger of human-caused threats, and lead to greater conservation efforts. \u201cIt requires human resources to look after the animals,\u201d she says. \u201cWe can create something that will trigger funding that goes into these projects.\u201d<\/p>\n What Makes a Lion King?<\/p>\n After the cuteness overload of the cubs, the ferocious side of the lions reveals itself just about a mile away. In a vast flatland at the edge of the park, the distended, bloody ribs of a partially devoured zebra rise above the grass top like the vaults of a collapsed cathedral. Standing guard over the carcass is an immense male lion, who pads back and forth warding off a trio of hyenas who are trying to claim their share.<\/p>\n Female lions do virtually all of the hunting, giving male lions a reputation among some for laziness and lying low. That behavior makes them especially challenging for documentarians. \u201cThey are much less proactive than the females. They sleep even more than the females because the females are the ones who do a lot of work,\u201d Darlington says. We watch as this male, which the cinematographer estimates is about four or five years old, engages in his primary job: protecting and defending.<\/p>\n An adult male lion guards the remains of a kill in Lake Nakuru National Park as hyenas circle and wary impalas watch from a distance.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes they\u2019ll be patrolling,\u201d Darlington says. \u201cThey spend quite a lot of the time when they get to be adults on their own. It\u2019s only when they\u2019re moving to a kill or chasing some hyenas that they [come together.] They\u2019re really hard to see unless they\u2019re mating.\u201d<\/p>\n This one is currently all by himself. Further away, a small herd of impalas looks up from nibbling the grass as one particularly frustrated scavenger retreats after being chased off by the big cat. \u201cThey\u2019re much more concerned by the hyena. They\u2019re all staring where the hyena is,\u201d Darlington notes.<\/p>\n She estimates that the zebra was last night\u2019s kill, based on how cleanly it has already been picked over. She and Musembi think that might be why the mama lion from earlier in the day was so comfortable and placid about the frolicking warthog in her midst. The pride had been well fed.<\/p>\n Hyenas have a job to do as well. They are the cleanup crew that gnaws away the bones, completing the self-perpetuating cycle that the Disney film and Elton John immortalized as the Circle of Life<\/a>. As we watch, the lion sniffs around the remains and comes to the conclusion that there is nothing left to defend. He trots away, leaving it behind.<\/p>\n A group of zebras is called a \u201cdazzle,\u201d and the morning after this, the bones are gone but the same field is dazzling in full force, with a countless array of the black-and-white-striped equids on display. Our daytime game hunt takes us in the direction the male lion ventured off in the night before, and we find him lying asleep at a crossroads in the center of a bed of grass. Swallows slice through the air just above his mane, snatching bugs in mid-flight.<\/p>\n He stirs awake as we draw near, but again\u2014Hakuna Matata. He doesn\u2019t mind us looking, so long as we keep it down.<\/p>\n The animated classic is constantly referenced by guides, tourists, and documentarians alike. Musembi is still astounded that their Lion series ended up being such a close companion to the Disney film. \u201cThe parallels to The Lion King are actually uncanny,\u201d she says. \u201cAgain, we didn\u2019t set up to tell the cub-to-king story, because it\u2019s really difficult to follow male lions.\u201d<\/p>\n When it became clear that Kio was their star, the filmmakers started to lean into the similarities. Darlington is especially proud of some shots that echoed moments from the Pride Rock sequence. Nothing was ever altered\u2014certainly no visual effects were deployed\u2014so every image seen in the series is authentic.<\/p>\n That led Musembi and the other field producers to also reckon with the title of that animated classic. \u201cAs a team, we were like, Well, visually we have to show them being kings,\u201d she says. \u201cSo what does it take? What\u2019s a king? We landed on: They have to have their own pride. They\u2019ve conquered territory and they\u2019ve got their own pride. Then, you\u2019re ruling.\u201d<\/p>\n Exploring Kio\u2019s Kingdom<\/p>\n As that part of NatGeo\u2019s Lion expedition ends, we backtrack southeast to another body of water\u2014Lake Naivasha, situated in Kenya\u2019s Great Rift Valley. We stay for one night at the Kongoni Lodge<\/a>, once a colonial-era coffee plantation, now an eco-friendly retreat with secluded cottages and acres of lush gardens. The next morning, we head due west for a daylong drive through backroads and small towns to the claw-shaped Maasai Mara National Reserve, 580 square miles of open wilderness that connects to the Serengeti National Park in the neighboring nation of Tanzania.<\/p>\n Somewhere out there, Kio still rules. Today, he is a kind of national hero, adored by Kenyans as a cherished part of a nation that has made protecting the natural world such a key part of its identity. Unfortunately, the now-grown star of Lion was at that point roaming outside the range of our home base at the luxurious Fig Tree Camp<\/a>, situated near the crux of the national reserve\u2019s claw.<\/p>\n The NatGeo Expedition team does manage to get us close to many of his fellow lions, along with an array of other species of African wildlife. The Maasai Mara contains the greatest hits of the Wildlife Treasury<\/a> cards that kids of the eighties used to collect in their green plastic carrying cases. Among the sights seen on our morning and evening game drives: The martial eagle, standing sentinel at sunset. Baby elephants toddling along behind their mothers in the brush. Giraffes feasting on the treetops, while rhinos wander across the road like bank vaults on legs.<\/p>\n A favorite moment is when two cheetahs, a mother and her son, are spotted crouching behind a rock, waiting for a herd of grazing impalas to draw close enough for their version of DoorDash. \u201cThat\u2019s extremely rare,\u201d Darlington says. \u201cTheir numbers are just so low here. The cheetah is really in crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/d7676fe8-b6bf-4e93-ba18-57aa288270d6.jpg\" "\\"A")
Anthony Breznican<\/p>\n![\"Person](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/cb90b7aa-33ed-474e-8ee0-2e99b362e8a1.jpg\" "\\"Person")
Anthony Breznican<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/157d3f45-33b9-4ec4-a12a-6d0fccaed95e.jpg\" "\\"A")
Jason Reitman\/Anthony Breznican<\/p>\n![\"Male](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/f197ff54-449f-4f6e-8ba4-02f67baf494d.jpg\" "\\"Male")
Anthony Breznican<\/p>\n
![\"Various](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/5844447d-f740-4558-85d8-166e46c63286.jpg\" "\\"Various")
Anthony Breznican<\/p>\n![\"lions\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15f0486b-1c86-4b8f-90f0-bdbd9bc69d55.jpg\" "\\"lions\\"")
Anthony Breznican\/Janean Ruttner<\/p>\n