{"id":367,"date":"2017-03-18T02:32:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-18T02:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ANIMALPAGES.COM\/animals\/?p=367"},"modified":"2024-03-08T16:08:47","modified_gmt":"2024-03-09T00:08:47","slug":"the-lion-who-loves-to-play-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/the-lion-who-loves-to-play-football\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lion Who Loves to Play Football"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Football-mad Triton, an 11-year-old male lion who was born at the Johannesburg Zoo, is like a kitten with a favorite toy when his soccer ball comes into sight. His face lights up whenever Agnes Maluleke, the Johannesburg zookeeper in charge of the carnivore section, tosses the ball into his enclosure, and he\u2019ll pass it and kick it between his paws and follow it wherever it rolls off to \u2013 even the water!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"This Lion is Playing Football Like A Pro!\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/p6Fie4uY9fI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/lion-den.tripod.com\/lioness-and-cub-facts.html#6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lion Den<\/a>, games are very important for a lion\u2019s development, just as they are for other predators: \u201cMost of their play imitates behaviors they will use as adults including stalking and fighting. Play is an important way for cubs to learn these adult skills as well as to form strong social bonds with their companions.\u201d However, adult male lions rarely play \u2013\u00a0while female lions (lionesses) continue to play into adulthood. Apparently no one told Triton, since he refuses to share his ball with any of the seven female lions that he shares his enclosure with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With his impressive dribbling skills, Agnes thinks \u201call soccer players can come and learn a thing or two from Triton, because he\u2019s the best soccer player.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It just goes to show that regardless of a feline\u2019s size \u2013 whether it\u2019s the king of the jungle or a house panther \u2013 every kitty loves playing with toys!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-2571651847880215\"\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\n<!-- banner ad -->\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2571651847880215\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"7178535257\"\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Football-mad Triton, an 11-year-old male lion who was born at the Johannesburg Zoo, is like a kitten with a favorite toy when his soccer ball comes into sight. His face&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":368,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,34,32],"tags":[44,46,36,78,135,53,96,18,91],"class_list":["post-367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animal-laughs","category-animal-tales","category-animal-videos","tag-african-animals","tag-big-cats","tag-cats","tag-cute-animals","tag-funny-animal-videos","tag-funny-animals","tag-lions","tag-videos","tag-zoo-animals"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/video-football-lion-500x311-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":369,"href":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367\/revisions\/369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}