@niveausauvageove: It looks really scary at night 😮 Flehmen's grimace • One of the male Gijima at Lion Sands tests the scent of a lioness The response you see is called Flehmen's grimace or Flehmen's response. On smelling the odor, he curls up his upper lip which then opens the ducts at the back of the palate which lead Here, the scent is analyzed and gives this male crucial information about this female, especially if she is in ostrus. Afterwards, the Gijima males mated with the Sand River lioness and the waiting game begins to see that the copulation was successful or just a ploy on her part to make them think it was.