Three Pleistocene fossil tracksites on South Africa’s Cape south coast preserve probable lion footprints. A joint investigation by Western-trained ichnologists and Ju/’hoansi San Master Trackers from Namibia not only strengthened the identifications, but also inferred behavior such as a lion crouching before a pounce. The collaboration shows why fossil tracks can become more informative when geological analysis is paired with expert knowledge of living animals.
What the researchers found
The peer-reviewed study reports three Pleistocene tracksites preserved on aeolianite surfaces along the Cape south coast. Aeolianite is cemented coastal dune sediment that can retain impressions made on an ancient land surface. These are the only fossilized probable-lion tracksites reported from southern Africa.
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The sites were documented by the southern Cape research team, which has identified more than 400 vertebrate tracksites since 2008. The lion-track study combined fossil-track analysis and the regional body-fossil record with field interpretation by Ju/’hoansi San Master Trackers from Namibia’s Nyae Nyae Conservancy.
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| Location | What is established | Dating |
|---|---|---|
| Goukamma Nature Reserve | Probable lion tracks; trackers identified passages by both a male and a female. | Not reported in the feature. |
| De Hoop Nature Reserve | A previously tentative identification was judged definitely lion; adjacent prints indicated a crouched animal ready to pounce. | Not reported in the feature. |
| Near Witsand | Another lion tracksite, with evidence that both a male and a female passed through. | Not reported in the feature. |
How old are the footprints?
All three sites belong to the Pleistocene, the epoch from 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago. Only one of the Cape sites has a reported numerical age in the feature: approximately 70,000 years. The other two have not yet been assigned dates there, so it would be inaccurate to describe every footprint as exactly 70,000 years old.
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The setting also changed dramatically during the Pleistocene. During parts of the period from roughly 400,000 to 70,000 years ago, lower sea levels exposed the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain and placed the coastline as much as 100 kilometres south of its present position. At other times, sea level was as much as 13 metres higher than today’s mean level. A track surface that is now near the shore could therefore have formed in a very different landscape.
How scientists identify an animal from a fossil track
Ichnologists begin with the print itself and the geological surface that contains it. They compare the preserved track form with known animal anatomy and with the regional record of body fossils. The aim is to determine which kinds of animals could have produced the impression, while accounting for distortion, erosion and missing portions of the track.
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In this case, preservation was imperfect. The journal article therefore uses the careful term “probable lion” for the sites rather than claiming that every print provides an equally complete diagnostic record. A track can also preserve information that a skeleton usually cannot: direction of travel, the relationship between successive prints and clues to an animal’s posture or movement at one moment.
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| Approach | Primary evidence | Main contribution | Key uncertainty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Western-trained ichnology | Fossil-track morphology, geological context and the regional body-fossil record | Formal identification of likely trackmakers and interpretation of the ancient surface | Poor preservation and incomplete dating can limit how specific the identification can be |
| Ju/’hoansi San Master Tracking | Expert reading of animal movement and behavior developed through tracking living wildlife | Additional diagnostic judgment and behavioral interpretation | Tracker interpretation cannot supply a numerical age or resolve taxonomic distinctions that the print cannot preserve |
The study’s significance is not that one system replaces the other. It is that the two kinds of evidence can test and sharpen one another. The journal article describes the result as “a deeper understanding of the trackmakers and their behaviours.”
What the Indigenous trackers added at each site
Goukamma Nature Reserve: two sexes represented
At Goukamma, the trackers confirmed the lion identification and read the set of tracks as including both a male and a female lion. That interpretation adds social and demographic information that a single isolated print would not provide on its own.
De Hoop Nature Reserve: a crouch before a pounce
At De Hoop, the identification had previously been tentative. The trackers judged the prints to be definitely lion. Two adjacent prints pointing in the same direction were interpreted as evidence of a lion crouched and ready to pounce. Their verdict, quoted in the 2026 account, was: “These were definitely lion tracks, suggestive of a lion in a crouched position, ready to pounce.”
Near Witsand: male and female passage
Near Witsand, the trackers identified another lion site and evidence that a male and a female had both passed through. As at Goukamma, the interpretation goes beyond naming a trackmaker to considering which animals used the surface.
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Could these be extinct Cape lion tracks?
They might have been left by the extinct Cape lion, Panthera leo melanochaita. However, the status of the Cape lion as a distinct subspecies remains debated. More importantly, fossil tracks do not preserve enough information to distinguish a Cape lion from other lion subspecies. The defensible conclusion is therefore “probable lion,” with Cape-lion identity possible but unproven.
Who carried out the tracking work?
The feature identifies #oma Daqm and /uce Nǂamce as the Ju/’hoansi San experts involved in the interpretations. The journal article also places the late Steve Kunta in the earlier collaboration context. CyberTracker designates these experts as Indigenous Master Trackers.
The work matters methodologically as well as archaeologically. Fossil-track science often has to work with partial, weathered impressions, while experienced trackers are trained to extract movement and behavioral clues from subtle patterns in terrain. Bringing those skills into a documented scientific workflow can improve an interpretation without erasing the limits of either evidence base.
What remains unresolved
- Only one of the three sites has a reported age, approximately 70,000 years.
- The other two sites need independent dating before their relative ages can be stated.
- The tracks identify lions at the level supported by preservation, but cannot establish a Cape-lion subspecies assignment.
- Behavioral readings, such as the crouching posture at De Hoop, are interpretations of track arrangement rather than direct observations of the ancient animals.
Why the discovery matters
These sites add three African large-felid tracksites to the Pleistocene record and provide rare evidence of how lions moved across a coastal landscape that no longer exists in its former shape. More broadly, the project demonstrates that Indigenous tracking expertise can contribute diagnostic and behavioral information to fossil-track research. The strongest reconstruction comes from combining geological context, comparative anatomy and disciplined observation of movement—not from treating any single way of seeing as complete.
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