I know that finding cubs in explore has been rejected. But adolescents aren't the same as cubs. Remember May male groupies?
This option would be especially useful for hardmode players who want a heritageless king that is not a rolled king. So they can keep their bloodline clean without having to reroll their kings.

The encounter could look like this:

"You stumble across a young male lion. He was probably chased from his pride and now he has to rely only on himself in this big and cruel world. Or..?"
There will be 3 possible options:
Fight him - induces a fight and you lose some karma.
Mentor him - "You spend some time with the young male, sharing some of your royal wisdom with him. Then he departs, visibly inspired. Well, good luck to you, fella. Maybe someday you will be a king of your own pride..." (Well, something like this) - karma gain.
Invite him to your pride - gives a random chance to claim him.
Claiming a teen male isn' the same as claiming a female. It's a pure surprise: you won't know his looks and stats until he joins your pride. There's no special claiming screen and actions: you just click an "invite" button and he goes straight into your den (or doesn't, if you're not lucky).

Similar to NCLs, those males could be generated by the game, but also there could be a small chance to get a male that was actually chased from his pride (of course he would lose his heritage and original stats).

What do you think?