Mufasa

Most readers will recognize the name Mufasa as a lion character from Disney's 'The Lion King'. In that story line, Mufasa is the father of the story's main character Simba. Mufasa, who is murdered by his not so virtuous brother Scar, represents all that is good and noble about the African lion. Male lions, whether African or Asiatic, with their prominent manes, exemplify royalty, And as apex predators, their 'sentence' on other animals is rather final. It is no mistake that many refer to lions as 'The King of Beasts'. In this article, we are going to explore the character of Mufasa, his represntation of the character of actual lions. And how Mufasa can-- and cannot-- be considered another Aslan. I am an actual lionkeeper and have been studying lions for over forty years.

Most readers are going to find this article because it is hosted on a fansite for the Chronicles of Narnia, the stories where the great lion Aslan is the principal character. Of all lions in fictional literature, I suspect that, even if not as popularly known as the principal male lion characters in The Lion King (henceforth abbreviated as TLK), namely Mufasa, Simba and Scar, that Aslan is far and away the most famous. Although more properly belonging in the monograph on this site concerning Aslan, we will consider what it is that makes Aslan the most famous lion in all of fictional literature.

So what is it about Mufasa that makes him so special as a lion. First, let us consider where the name Mufasa came from. Believe it or not, it pretty much a made-up name that is supposed to sound 'African'. This name does not appear as a word in any African language, and especially not in Zulu or Swahili, the principal languages used in TLK, and in much of the actual range country of the African lion. The closest match to a word in an African language connotes the concept of 'father'. And in the case of this story, this is a perfect connotation.

In TLK, Mufasa is considered a great king of his territory, which are simple called 'The Pridelands'. His reign has been long-standing and has been a good reign. The Pridelands are rich in game, water, natural beauty and everything that makes for good storytelling in the African tradition. As agreat king, everything that we consider good and noble is represented in Mufasa-- Kinglieness, Goodness, Justice, Candor, Compassion, Concern for the environment, both leoine and natural and of course, fatherhood. He is depicted as a big lion, of good proportions, not overweight and in fine physical condition.

Lets briefly look at the role male lions play in the life of wild lions. This will help the reader understand what responsibilities a lion like Mufasa would have had in a real lion pride. In actual lion prides, the females are actually the core of the pride, and the part that continues on by succession. Females born in the pride are likely to remain in the pride, but males are eventually driven out to seek prides on their own. Most male lions go through one or more periods in their lives where they are 'nomads', not associated with any lion pride. They have territories that may overlap several prides bot are not really accepted by any of those prides. You have probably read that it is said the the female lions do most of the hunting, and this is largely true. However, because of the periods of nomadic existence in their lives, male lions are, and need to be good hunters in their own right. They can use their greater size and strength to bring down larger prey. In pride life, the males are often key in hunts that are led by the females, but the males do a lot of the actual work subduing and killing the prey (and as such, they also usually get to eat first, or at least have first choice on what part of the kill they want to eat). As nomads, male lions can also use their strength and size to appropriate kills from other predators, especially hyenas.

At some point, usually at the peak of their physical strength and ability, a male lion will attempt to take over a pride of female (and young) lions from another male lion or lions. This often results in a rather violent fight, often to the death, with the victor either sucessfully defending their pride or being driven off or killed. If driven off, these males become nomads again and very likely will not have another chance to 'rule' a pride. As effective huinters and scavengers, they can live a number of additional years. Like in their younger years, their territories may overlap several prides, but are never truly welcome in any of them. Even so, if a nomadic male lion encounters a female in estrus, they will mate. The pride male cannot determine if any cubs born since his takeover are in fact, from his siring, so this helps contribute to the genetic diversity of wild lions.

A important part of population dynamics that is common among real lion prides but not explored in TLK, is male coalitions. Young nomadic male lions, often brothers, will unite outside of a pride and function as their own social unit. These coalitions frequently are lifelong relationships, and these lions will live, hunt, take over prides and sire cubs together. A coalition of male lions can bring down the biggest game in Africa, such as Cape buffalo, Giraffe or even once in a while, an elephant. A coalition can often hold a pride longer than a single male lion, as the males defend the pride ans a unit, and any intruding male lion will face two or more opponents if they choose to try and take over. If you are interested int his, there was a very famous coalition of five male lions, called the 'Mapogo males' who ruled over a considerable area in South Africa and even over several prides of females at the same time. Although long dead now, they are still famous to this day, have their own Facebook page, etc.

Once a male lion or lions have secured control of the pride, they will do something we would consider brutal, and that is kill all of the cubs in the pride. This could include lions, especially males, that are a year or more old. This counterintuitive action has the effect of bring all the females in the pride into estrus at about the same time, and gives the new male a chance to quickly impart his own genetics into a pride. This also creates a gap of about eighteen months, where the pride will not produce any adult offspring. This is also a reason why hunting out by humans of a pride male has devastating effects of lions population dynamics. In countries where lion hunting is still legal, steps are now taken to ensure that any male lions taken are in fact, nomads.

In pride life, the male lion is often not with the rest of the pride. As a defender of the pride, his primary responsibility is to establish and mark the territory of the prode. They mark their territory by 'spraying' things such as tree trunks, etc. with their scented urine. They will also 'scrape mark' by scratching the ground with their rear feet, and then urinate in this spot. Roaring is also used to advertise a pride's territory, and this is why lions are the noisiest animals of all feline species. They are also often not close to where the core of the pride spends most of their time, an area called the 'home range'. During this time, just like nomads, they must hunt, appropriate or scavenge their own food. The second responsibility of a male lion is procreation. They will spend several days at a time mating with a lioness who is in estrus. This helps ensure that many cubs are born of the male's fathering. Cub survival on average is quite poor-- only about 1 in 8 cubs makes it to adulthood, so lions must reproduce rapidly to survive. This high mortality rate and rapid turnover of population is actually important to the survival of lions, as this high turnover allows they to quickly adapt their population to the size of the prey base as it changes over time. The third role that male lions perform in a pride is to assist with hunting. With the help of a male lion or lions, larger prey can be taken. Even though the male lions still tend to eat first, there is more food available for everyone. Another part of hunting, and something that is both popular knowledge and presented in TLK, is protecting the kill from other predators, such as hyenas.

You can now see what responsibilities Mufasa would have had as the Lion King of his pride. He would have to do all these things, but still have some time to be a father in the sense that we think of fathers. If the cubs are of his siring,the male lion will often tolerate their antics, or even play with them. Although cubs have the lowest feeding priority at a kill, a male lion will often let the cubs eat with him, letting them get a chance for a more substantial meal.

As a result of the fatherhood characteristics of a male lion, we can understand why Mufasa is depicted as a good father, as that is actually part of the role of a male lion who leads a pride.

A lot of the lore surrounding lions is their reputation for ferocity. Although there are times to be fighting (defending the pride from other lions or predators) or defending or driving off other predators from a kill, the actual truth is lions are like Mufasa 'only brave when they need to be'. Because the business of lions is herbivore population control, they are not really vicious animals. They kill and eat other animals because their physiology demands it of them. Lions, and in fact all feline species are 'obligate carnivores' because their bodies cannot manufacture several of the amino acids needed to build protein, that most other animals (and man) can manufacture. They have to get these substances preformed from the bodies of other animals, which they eat. Lions do not hate, or have malice towards the animals they kill for food. They do it for survival. And sometimes, the process of killing and eating other animals can seem especially inhumane. Most predators, lions included, 'kill' their prey just enough to ensure that it won't get away. Felines, being the most efficient hunters in the animal kingdom, do often completely kill their prey before eating, especially if they are hunting alone. On the other hand, a big lion pride might eat their prey alive, making little or no effort to kill it. If hungry, a big pride can reduce a zebra-size animal to bones in about 20 minutes.

Now, some insights from captive lions that might help us understand more fully what Mufasa was all about. It might come as a surprise to most readers that lions and other big cats are badly misrepresented by popular culture/literature and the media. Because they don't understand that lions are not 'vicious' per se and that as cats, if they can avoid hunting they will. Although they are built from the ground up to hunt, kill and consume other animals as food, they don't really miss the 'hard work' aspects of this lifestyle. Although they prefer an animal carcass for food over pieces of meat like we as humans might prepare it, at the end of the day as long as they have full bellies, they are content to not hunt. There is also a misconception that lions (and other cats) need big places to live in captivity. Although there are some animals that need or benefits from large spaces in captivity (canine species and elephants, for instance), cats do not. Cats do not exercise in the manner that we think of exercise, and do not run much. They would normally only run (briefly) to hunt, or to get away from danger. Therefore, lions and other cats do not see a relatively small living space as captivity, but as a safe space. That said, the area inside that'safe space' is their territory and humans entering it must be very careful.

But what lions need more than anything beyond the basic survival needs (air, water, food, shelter, and the ability to reproduce) is relationship. All animals need relationship. Humans, too. In a captive setting, the most important thing that keepers of these animals can provide (beyond the aforementioned essentials) is a relationship. The best thing a lionkeeper can do is spend time with their lions. The more time, the better the relationship, and the happier everyone is. This is why you will see well known lionkeepers work intensively with their cats in full contact settings. People like Kevin Richardson, Dean Schneider, Dan Fastuca George Adamson, Charlie Sanmut, Keith Evans and many others devote their lives to their lions, and spend many hours a day with them, interacting, touching, and even sleeping together. What is really interesting is that this class of keepers has the highest number of 'full contact' hours with their lions, but also the best safety record by a considerable margin. In contrast, the keepers who don't take the time to build relationships with their cats, something deliberately done at a lot of large zoos, etc. (To keep the cats 'wild') have the worst safety record when you would think they should have the best safety record.

So what would these keepers tell you about their lions, and I will include myself here because I am somewhere in the middle between these two classes of lionkeepers? They will tell you that they can be the best animal friends that you can possibly imagine. Although the purpose of this monograph is to talk about the character of Mufasa and how it might relate to the world of Narnia, it might surprise you that lions can be the very best of animal friends to humans. And although the media and popular culture has taught us that male lions should be 'fierce', perhaps even 'violent', they are actually incredibly loving. (There are exceptions, of course. There always are with animals.) Over the years, it is always the male lions that come to me first to be greeted. The lionesses are a little slower. Tigers and other big cats (with the possible exception of ligers, which is another subject entirely!) may or may not take the trouble to come and say 'hello'. The male lions want contact more than any other big cat, and it might be no surprise that they want to be touched the most in their mane. One lion I knew for many years would let me scratch him in his mane for up to 20 minutes. If he was on his back and I got near a paw while scratching him, he would gently use his paw to press my hand into his mane fur! Well cared for male lions are living examples of what we see in Mufasa. It is unusual to see among well cared for captive lions, a 'Scar'. The character of Scar in TLK is the anthesis of what a lion is really like. And even though captive, captive male lions can still openly display all that is regal, noble, mighty and leadership-inspiring in lions while still wanting to be your best friend! And can lions care for their human friends like Mufasa cared for his family? Absolutely.. I know of six instances where lions went out of their way to save a human life. The most amazing of these stories actually involved completely wild lions!

So at the end of the day, we find that Mufasa is not only a great lion, but Mufasa embodies all the good aspects of real lions. This brings us around to the second goal of this monograph, and that is to compare Mufasa with Aslan and see what we can learn from that comparison. (I will stop here for now because I have run out of time to write for this evening!)