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Legend(?) has it that lions have a special liking for car tyres. Is this true? Does anyone have any experience with lions eating the tyres of their cars?

Believe the larger cubs in KTP try to have a chew !

If that was true, many more cars would have been left standing!

It is not unknown for animals such as lion and hyena to grab a tyre, or even a bumper. But it is not that common either.

It most often happen in unnatural settings, such as lion parks, where the animals are confined to small areas, bored, and the vehicles are a regular part of their habitat. They can begin to see it as a game.

In January on the S28 near to Croc Bridge there was a pride of lions on the road. Several cars were stopped. One of the lions walked to the rear of the car in front of me which had a spare tyre mounted on the back and began to chew at the tyre. The driver realised what was happening and started the car and moved forward a bit which made the lion stop. So it does happen in Kruger too!

When we were in KTP in May, we saw a lion cub (6-9 months old) bite a car tyre. But his claw ripped the sidewall with a resultant flat. They also chew on towbars wtc. So it does happen in the KTP.

As far as i know young cats, dogs, hyaenas generally are curious about almost everything, from twigs to tyres. Which is normal, for any young wild animals. This behaviour is common at this age, even for the youngsters in captivity. But as Imberbe said rare among adults.

This aggression is likely to only happen with fellow lions or hyenas. But you never know so those are signs to look out for just in case. Also it could be just frustration during breeding periods, they'd just tap your side mirror. So its not true, why would they want to eat a tyre, how tasty that must be.

I have run into a pride of Lion shortly after riding through buffalo dung. The one Lion could not get enough of sniffing this magnificent, exciting scent on my tyres. I could imagine that such an experience could be misinterpreted by some.

That was very interesting! Thank you all very much for your answers.
My conclusion: lions do indeed destroy tyres sometimes, but they do not really eat them.
It does not happen very often, otherwise SANParks would probably have issued a warning.
My next question would naturally be: which brand of tyre do they prefer - but I am afraid the moderator would consider that question outside the scope of this forum.
Enjoy your day!

Those that come from Tiger Wheel and Tyre of course! (I hope a mod didn't notice! I'm afraid of them. )

Rofl, good one, Imberbe
I was thinking Continentals

This a pic showing the puncture marks left by a huge male that "investigated" the towbar of a Ford Fiesta near Pretoriuskop two years ago, actually slightly lifting the car, though not off the ground.



The lion left with the rubber hook cap!

Wow RP

Remember many years ago when SanP used to park their graders, etc by the side of the road for the night, that they always had thorn branches placed round the wheels -- we thought it was to discourage hyaena from "tasting" the tires, but obviously lions also found them interesting

They do still do that, or are they perhaps temporarily out of service? Saw one near Pretoriuskop in April this year, no branches though.

Senyetse. We probably saw the same one.

I was also in the park at the end of April and we saw it on the Voortrekker Road between Pretorius Kop and Afsaal.

The lions had not attacked the tyres yet.