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Researchers have identified three Pleistocene probable-lion fossil tracksites on South Africa’s Cape south coast. Western-trained ichnologists and Ju/’hoansi San Master Trackers from Namibia worked together to identify the trackmakers and infer behavior that fossil prints alone had left uncertain.
Where the Ice Age lion tracks were found
All three sites lie on aeolianite surfaces along the Cape south coast. They are the only reported fossilized probable-lion tracksites in southern Africa described in the peer-reviewed study.
| Site | What the collaboration established |
|---|---|
| Goukamma Nature Reserve | Trackers confirmed the lion identification and recognized prints from both a male and a female. |
| De Hoop Nature Reserve | A previously tentative identification was judged definitely lion; adjacent prints indicated a crouched animal apparently ready to pounce. |
| Near Witsand | Trackers identified another lion site and evidence that both a male and a female had passed. |
Only one of the three Cape tracks has a reported age: about 70,000 years. The feature does not identify which site has that date, and the other two should not be described as exactly 70,000 years old.
The landscape was not the modern coastline
The Pleistocene lasted from 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago. During parts of the interval roughly 400,000 to 70,000 years ago, sea level changes exposed the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain, placing the shoreline as much as 100 kilometres south of its present position. At other times, sea level reached as much as 13 metres above today’s mean level. The tracks therefore record animals moving through a coastal landscape whose size and geography changed repeatedly.
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How scientists work out what animal made a fossil track
Track identification is an inference, not a photograph of the animal. The team combined several evidence streams:
- Fossil-track analysis: Ichnologists examined the preserved print morphology and the geological surface that recorded it.
- Regional body-fossil evidence: The known Pleistocene animal record in the region provided a comparison for which large carnivores could have made the tracks.
- Preservation assessment: Many fossil tracks are incomplete or poorly preserved, so the shape may support a probable identification rather than a species-level certainty.
- Expert spoor interpretation: Ju/’hoansi San trackers evaluated the prints using practical knowledge of how living animals leave tracks and move.
That process explains why the journal article uses the careful term “probable lion” for the sites even though the trackers could make stronger judgments about particular prints and behaviors.
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What Ju/’hoansi San Master Trackers added
Because many prints were difficult to read, the researchers invited expert wildlife trackers from the Ju/’hoansi San community in Namibia’s Nyae Nyae Conservancy. The feature identifies #oma Daqm and /uce Nǂamce; the journal article also places the late Steve Kunta in the earlier collaboration context. CyberTracker designates these specialists as Indigenous Master Trackers.
Their contribution was not a replacement for geology or ichnology. It supplied a different type of evidence: lived expertise in reading spoor, movement and animal behavior. The study’s authors wrote that integrating Western science with Indigenous knowledge “has thus been demonstrated, and has led to a deeper understanding of the trackmakers and their behaviours.”
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| Evidence system | Primary contribution | Remaining uncertainty |
|---|---|---|
| Western-trained ichnology | Analysis of fossil morphology, aeolianite context and the regional body-fossil record. | Prints can be poorly preserved, and two sites lack a reported date. |
| Ju/’hoansi tracking expertise | More diagnostic readings of the trackmaker and behavioral clues, including sex and posture. | Interpretation still depends on the surviving prints and cannot resolve every taxonomic question. |
What the tracks suggest about lion behavior
Goukamma Nature Reserve
The trackers recognized lion prints and read the trail as involving both a male and a female. That sex distinction is a behavioral and social inference that conventional fossil-track description had not securely supplied.
De Hoop Nature Reserve
The adjacent prints pointed in the same direction. The trackers judged them definitely lion and interpreted the posture as a lion crouched and ready to pounce. Their verdict was reported as: “These were definitely lion tracks, suggestive of a lion in a crouched position, ready to pounce.”
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Near Witsand
The third site was also identified as lion, with evidence that a male and a female had both passed through the area.
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They might have been left by the extinct Cape lion, Panthera leo melanochaita. However, whether the Cape lion represents a distinct subspecies remains debatable, and tracks cannot distinguish a Cape lion from other lion subspecies. The scientifically defensible description is therefore Pleistocene probable-lion tracks, not confirmed Cape-lion footprints.
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Why the discovery matters
Since 2008, the southern Cape research team has identified more than 400 vertebrate tracksites. The three lion sites show why that growing record is valuable: a footprint can preserve not only an animal’s presence but clues about sex, movement and intent. They also demonstrate a practical methodological point. When fossil evidence is fragmentary, combining geological analysis with Indigenous tracking expertise can narrow identifications and reveal behavior that either approach alone might miss.
The result is a more complete reconstruction without erasing uncertainty: three Pleistocene large-felid tracksites, one currently dated to about 70,000 years ago, and behavioral interpretations strengthened through collaboration.
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