Fate not confirmed
Also known as Queen of the Pride · Mother of Kio · Nat Geo’s LION
Filmed c. 2021 – 2025
Born in an unrecorded place
Summer is the name National Geographic gives to the lioness at the centre of LION, a four-part series filmed over four years in Kenya’s Masai Mara and released in August 2026. With her sisters Winter and Autumn she leads one of the largest prides in the Mara, which the series calls Summer’s Pride. When filming began she was already an older lioness who had raised many cubs, and she was about to give birth to what the producers believed would be her last litter. Her cub Kio became the series’ hero, and Summer its heroine.
The film shows her as a skilled hunter who feeds her pride and as a tender mother who rubs noses with and grooms her sisters, her cub and the young males of the pride. When Kio, the youngest and smallest of a band of brothers, struggles to keep up, she watches over him; when he goes missing, she searches until she finds him. When the older males were driven from the pride and the dry season set in, she made what the series calls an extraordinary decision: to leave the pride and go with the young males, teaching them alone the skills they would need to survive.
In the third episode, The Greatest Sacrifice, Summer is gravely injured during a buffalo hunt by the young males, and Kio witnesses her suffering. The consequences forced him into independence far sooner than expected. National Geographic has not published her Mara name, her age or any dates for her life, so this record follows the series and the producers’ interviews.
Given by the LION production team. Her sisters are named Winter and Autumn after other seasons.
How the series and its publicity describe her.
An experienced lioness who had raised many cubs in the pride’s nursing grounds.
Gave birth to what was expected to be her last litter. Her cub Kio was first filmed at about eight weeks old.
Watched over Kio while hunting for the pride; a buffalo hunt ended in tragedy, and Kio later survived a buffalo attack of his own.
Searched for Kio when he went missing and found him sheltering under a croton bush.
With the older young males banished from the pride and food scarce, she left the pride with Kio to join them, hunting for them and teaching them alone.
Gravely injured by a buffalo during a hunt by the young males, as Kio watched.
Her story was broadcast in LION on National Geographic, then on Disney+ and Hulu.
Summer, Winter and Autumn are names given by the filmmakers. Mara guides use their own names for lions, and the guide names of these three lionesses have not been published.
Executive producer Mike Gunton said Summer was old and that Kio’s litter were probably the last cubs she would ever have. About halfway through the first year, the crew realised that her bond with Kio was the real story.
The series shows her gravely injured and calls the episode The Greatest Sacrifice, but National Geographic has not stated publicly whether, or when, she died. Her status here will be updated if it is confirmed.
National Geographic — executive producers Jon Favreau and Mike Gunton; narrated by O.J. Lynch; music by Hans Zimmer and Bleeding Fingers Music
Four chapters following Kio from eight weeks old to king, with his mother Summer at the heart of the first three.
National Geographic
The first episode, introducing Summer and her newborn cub Kio.
Where sources disagree, the most widely reported figure is shown, with other reports noted beneath it.
